David Eduardo wrote:
wrote in message

And I've heard C-Quam STEREO signals from
hundreds of miles away via skywave at night. But, lo and behold, my
firends who have been ripped off by buying HD radios, can't seem to get
their digital carriers from across town...works welll... and the
buzzsaw on the main and adjacent channels, I just love it.

The stations love it. It enhances the coverage of analog AMs where it
matters, in the local market.

CQuam is dead. It was dead in 1985. Move on.



CQuam is dead for reasons other than industrial delays in
implementation. Although, in my never to be humble opinion, it's a
better solution, you hit the nail he

it is not about stereo. It is about being digital.

FCC will not approve any new modulation technology that isn't digital.

This despite earlier mandates that X-band allocations must be C-Quam
equipped. Now, that mandate is dead in favor of the Powell FCC's digital
mandate.

And while it may be here, and it may be inevitable, now, the
implementation has been poorly orchestrated, and with IBOC rash trashing
the bands before receivers have been widely available, short sighted in
the extreme.

What's been done, sadly, is far more deleterious to AM usage than
doing nothing. Because it's not only DXers who are affected, here. It's
users in local coverage areas, who are now dealing with noises that they
never had to before, in areas which, like where I live, are protected as
local coverage but protected local stations are hit with IBOC
interference. And if noise is one of the primary objections to AM usage,
any system that introduces noise to the bands, even if that noise is
gone in the digital mode, will only add to the objections of users who
have marginal interst in AM anyway. Especially when the hardware to
enjoy the new mode is both widely unavailable, and costly. Even if it's
coming. The negative impression made by IBOC rash today, will plant
seeds of undesirability that will persist. And you'll not get a fair
trial when the new hardware is widely available.

What I'm seeing, is interest in HD-AM by users who are interested in
AM content, and who regularly use AM anyway. But little or no interest
in users who do not regularly use AM. Regardless of the audio
quality....if there is no interest in the programming, there will be
little interest in how good it may or may not sound.

The only potential uptick I see is in those auto systems where HD is
included as a standard feature. Sampling of HD, at that point, would be
a natural extension of radio sampling in general...playing with a new
radio in a new car is fairly commonplace. See what it sounds like, on
both bands...even if only to set the presets...there's still sampling
going on. In that context, HD may get a fair hearing, and perhaps some
encouraging acceptance. So, as with most radio techological innovations,
it's going to have to be in the cars in order to expose that captive
audience to a fair hearing of HD-AM for an interest to be generated.
(This, despite the fact that a majority of listening is not in cars.)
But for those listeners who would have to actively pursue an HD
experience without current regular AM usage...I'm not seeing it.

So far, you've been talking about how the stations love HD-AM. You
and I know that the success of any radio station is found in listener
centric product and behaviour. The point that radio stations love HD-AM
is unimportant. It's the listener's embrace that matters. And outside
of controlled demostrations, there is nothing to suggest that there is
more interest in HD-AM than in C-Quam. And the jury will be out for
some time to come.