Doug Smith W9WI wrote:
From FCC Public Notice DA-03-831:
(http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/audio/DA-03-831A1.pdf)

"Until further notice, AM stations must restrict IBOC operation to
daytime hours. An AM station with authority to operate between 6 a.m.
and local sunrise (pre-sunrise hours) and between local sunset and 6
p.m. (post-sunset hours) may operate its hybrid IBOC system during those
periods. "

And from FCC Private Notice DontTellNoOneYHear:

"To bring about further notice, deposit $10,000,000 in account number
604472849 at Banc Suissishe in Geneva. Alternately, to obtain an exclusive
one-year advance on competitors, deposit $100,000,000 plus an amount equal
to your eight-digit secret ID so that we can identify our benefactor."

--
If John McCain gets the 2008 Republican Presidential nomination,
my vote for President will be a write-in for Jiang Zemin.

In article .com,
wrote:

Snip

Here in Los Angeles, we've implemented HD Radio on AM 1110, Radio
Disney - a children's formatted music station. I would describe the
aural result as "startling" - 14 kHz stereo, very low noise, no
obviously noticable artifacts, no multi-path in an automotive
environment - in short, it's *very* hard to believe you're hearing an
AM station.

Compare this to a *typical* AM receiver (not necessarily a Drake R8B or
Eton E1/XM) with a mono 3.5 kHz response and loud buzzes evey time you
drive under a power line, and you can see the attractivness to the
Broadcasting community. "Here, finally is a way to compete with new
technologies" [programming issues aside!].

Snip

This is my main contention that this digital technology does not sound
better. It is still way to low a bit rate for me to call it "good
sounding." Yes, you don't get the static and power line noise but the
trade off is low quality sound filled with digital artifacts. Basically
you trade background noise and interference where it exists and trade
it for low quality sound all the time. Other trades are drop outs
instead of selective fading for example. This is just a mixed bag of
good and bad at the cost of obsoleting all receivers made since radio
began. I can't think of a worse trade off and it is just plain stupid to
try and cram it down the general publics throat.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California

Well, thanks for that summary. That was quite insightful. If you can
actually get better AM reception wtih HD or IBOC then it would be a
great addition to AM radio. Personally, it seems somehow scareligous
to listen to XM or Sirius. I just miss the commercial aspect of radio.
So, anything to keep AM/FM viable would be great. Do you mean by
fidelity sister stations that they can actually run separate
programming -- we have a station near me that broadcasts on like 94.7
and then also has a second transmitter located nearby that broadcast on
94.9 - but they are the same programming sounds.

Thanks for your insight.

wrote:

scareligous

I think you're on to something there. That's a good description of the
televangelist scum who twist the Word for War/Profit.












mike

wrote:
The trouble is that there are (probably) a half-billion analog
receivers in the USA alone capable of receiving analog AM / FM, and
these can't be abandoned overnight.

Funny, there are more television sets than people in the USA, yet they are
being abandoned virtually overnight. Or at least the chuckleheads in the
FCC think so. The cable and dish providers, and the public, know better.

--
If John McCain gets the 2008 Republican Presidential nomination,
my vote for President will be a write-in for Jiang Zemin.

The feds are going to provide ATSC to NTSC converters free (cough
cough) of cost to the poor.

Cable and dish are a big part of the market. It isn't clear to me if
the feds are going to mandate that HD be delivered over those services.
Even if they feds do mandate HD to subscribers, there is cash flow to
recover the cost of new set top boxes.

My preference would have been for a new broadcast band for terrestrial
digital audio services, rather than a retrofit that causes interference
to conventional users. I don't get too bent out of shape over FM IBOC,
since the capture ratio of the analog receiver will give the fringe
listener a fighting chance at decent reception. However, AM BCB is
another story. You can't reject the IBOC hash in AM.

clifto wrote:
wrote:
The trouble is that there are (probably) a half-billion analog
receivers in the USA alone capable of receiving analog AM / FM, and
these can't be abandoned overnight.

Funny, there are more television sets than people in the USA, yet they are
being abandoned virtually overnight. Or at least the chuckleheads in the
FCC think so. The cable and dish providers, and the public, know better.

--
If John McCain gets the 2008 Republican Presidential nomination,
my vote for President will be a write-in for Jiang Zemin.

wrote in message
oups.com...
The feds are going to provide ATSC to NTSC converters free (cough
cough) of cost to the poor.

Cable and dish are a big part of the market. It isn't clear to me if
the feds are going to mandate that HD be delivered over those services.
Even if they feds do mandate HD to subscribers, there is cash flow to
recover the cost of new set top boxes.

The feds are not even mandating HD on OTA stations. As far as I can see,
most programming on DTV stations is in low res format (720i?) And I'm not
impressed in the least, analog looks much better (we're stuck with digital
satellite feed for our US/English content, and it looks like total garbage).

I think 720p is a minimum and it's 4x the resolution of NTSC. Going
from 720p to 1080i isn't that much of a difference, though you notice
the difference in a side by side comparison.

Brenda Ann wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...
The feds are going to provide ATSC to NTSC converters free (cough
cough) of cost to the poor.

Cable and dish are a big part of the market. It isn't clear to me if
the feds are going to mandate that HD be delivered over those services.
Even if they feds do mandate HD to subscribers, there is cash flow to
recover the cost of new set top boxes.

The feds are not even mandating HD on OTA stations. As far as I can see,
most programming on DTV stations is in low res format (720i?) And I'm not
impressed in the least, analog looks much better (we're stuck with digital
satellite feed for our US/English content, and it looks like total garbage).