Noise around 720 kHz
 

On last Wednesday evening, I was tuning past WGN and I heard alot of
noise just above and below WGN's carrier and sidebands. I didn't notice
any interference with the station's audio, but I wasn't listening on a
wideband receiver. The noise wasn't like anything I'd heard on the AM
broadcast band before, but it did sound much like the digital noise from
DRM transmissions. I noticed the noise around 7:35 pm, Central time.
The noise was gone by 8:00pm. I haven't heard the noise since then.

WGN has recently installed some new equipment (and dropped AM stereo),
so my first guess was WGN might be testing the IBOC system. I e-mailed
WGN's engineer and he replied that the noise wasn't from WGN, and if it
was IBOC, it must have been from someone else.

So, my questions a

Does my description of the noise seem like it might be IBOC?

If so, who might have been testing on 720 kHz?

Frank Dresser

Frank Dresser wrote:

On last Wednesday evening, I was tuning past WGN and I heard alot of
noise just above and below WGN's carrier and sidebands. I didn't notice
any interference with the station's audio, but I wasn't listening on a
wideband receiver. The noise wasn't like anything I'd heard on the AM
broadcast band before, but it did sound much like the digital noise from
DRM transmissions. I noticed the noise around 7:35 pm, Central time.
The noise was gone by 8:00pm. I haven't heard the noise since then.

WGN has recently installed some new equipment (and dropped AM stereo),
so my first guess was WGN might be testing the IBOC system. I e-mailed
WGN's engineer and he replied that the noise wasn't from WGN, and if it
was IBOC, it must have been from someone else.

So, my questions a

Does my description of the noise seem like it might be IBOC?

If so, who might have been testing on 720 kHz?

Frank Dresser

WOR 710 has tested IBOC and has made a mess before all the way up to 750
(and below 710), per reports. So possibly them.

N8KDV wrote:

Frank Dresser wrote:

On last Wednesday evening, I was tuning past WGN and I heard alot of
noise just above and below WGN's carrier and sidebands. I didn't notice
any interference with the station's audio, but I wasn't listening on a
wideband receiver. The noise wasn't like anything I'd heard on the AM
broadcast band before, but it did sound much like the digital noise from
DRM transmissions. I noticed the noise around 7:35 pm, Central time.
The noise was gone by 8:00pm. I haven't heard the noise since then.

WGN has recently installed some new equipment (and dropped AM stereo),
so my first guess was WGN might be testing the IBOC system. I e-mailed
WGN's engineer and he replied that the noise wasn't from WGN, and if it
was IBOC, it must have been from someone else.

So, my questions a

Does my description of the noise seem like it might be IBOC?

If so, who might have been testing on 720 kHz?

Frank Dresser

WOR 710 has tested IBOC and has made a mess before all the way up to 750
(and below 710), per reports. So possibly them.

Here is a listing for stations 'licensed' for IBOC (not necessarily testing):

http://members.aol.com/baconti/iboclist.htm

Steve
Holland, MI
Drake R7, R8 and R8B

http://www.iserv.net/~n8kdv/dxpage.htm

"N8KDV" wrote in message
...



WOR 710 has tested IBOC and has made a mess before all the way up to
750
(and below 710), per reports. So possibly them.



Ironically, I caught the noise because I was trying to see if I could
catch WOR. If it was IBOC, I think the transmission was unauthorized at
that time of the day.

I did some googling around, and I found there's supposed to be a new
startup on 720 at Hanover, New Hampshire -- WQTH. I suppose a screw up
is more likely to happen with a new installation, but I don't know if
WQTH is testing yet, of if they will be using IBOC.

http://www.fybush.com/nerw.html

Frank Dresser

Frank Dresser wrote:

"N8KDV" wrote in message
...



WOR 710 has tested IBOC and has made a mess before all the way up to
750
(and below 710), per reports. So possibly them.



Ironically, I caught the noise because I was trying to see if I could
catch WOR. If it was IBOC, I think the transmission was unauthorized at
that time of the day.

I did some googling around, and I found there's supposed to be a new
startup on 720 at Hanover, New Hampshire -- WQTH. I suppose a screw up
is more likely to happen with a new installation, but I don't know if
WQTH is testing yet, of if they will be using IBOC.

http://www.fybush.com/nerw.html

Per the article it's highly unlikely they'd be testing yet! The transmitter
was still in the back of the trailer pictured within the past week or two.
It'll be a while!



Frank Dresser

"N8KDV" wrote in message
...

Per the article it's highly unlikely they'd be testing yet! The
transmitter
was still in the back of the trailer pictured within the past week or
two.
It'll be a while!


Yeah, that's the closest connection I can come up with, and it's not
very good. Anyway, I can't be sure the noise was IBOC. It's just a
guess on my part, given the symmetry around WGN's sidebands and the
digital sound.

Frank Dresser