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WSRO 650 all digital Dec 1

If they handed in the AM license, the translator would have to go away. So I guess they might as well run WSRO as a lab rat of sorts even though it wouldn't have any audience to speak of.
 
I assume digital stations don't produce anything audible on an analog receiver, so what station is likely to be heard in the daytime in Boston after Dec. 1?
 
I assume digital stations don't produce anything audible on an analog receiver, so what station is likely to be heard in the daytime in Boston after Dec. 1?
Probably will sound like white-noise.
 
Probably will sound like white-noise.
That's more a guess than an answer. Does anyone have anything solid on this? All I know of digital audio on analog receivers is that I no longer hear anything on my analog scanner on the frequencies that our police departments have taken digital. That's on VHF and UHF frequencies. Is the same true on medium wave?
 
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That's more a guess than an answer. Does anyone have anything solid on this? All I know of digital audio on analog receivers is that I no longer hear anything on my analog scanner on the frequencies that our are police departments have taken digital. That's on VHF and UHF frequencies. Is the same true on medium wave?
Yes, it's a guess, but I based it on the IBOC sidebands that put hash 10 kHz either side of the analog signal. They sounded like white-noise.
 
Yes, it's a guess, but I based it on the IBOC sidebands that put hash 10 kHz either side of the analog signal. They sounded like white-noise.
Right, but how much of that is a function of having to be attached to an AM carrier? If no carrier is present, what is there for an analog receiver to demodulate?
 
Sounds like brown noise on the frequency and first adjacents.
Just found a brown noise recording on YouTube, sounds like my air conditioner in "fan only" mode. So are you saying that nothing will be heard underneath that noise by local listeners on 640, 650 or 660 when WSRO abandons analog?
 
Just found a brown noise recording on YouTube, sounds like my air conditioner in "fan only" mode. So are you saying that nothing will be heard underneath that noise by local listeners on 640, 650 or 660 when WSRO abandons analog?
If you are close to WSRO, that's correct.

fybush can answer this
I'm 2 miles from WWFD, which has been MA-3 digital for the past three years. It's brown noise, much like the hash you hear from IBOC, but across 20 kHz.

I can null out WWFD's night power signal to hear WGY, but during the day, brown noise is it from 810 to 830.
 
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@fybush can answer this
Yup. On an analog radio, you'll just hear that rush of noise.

The MA3 all-digital signal is pretty tightly contained within the normal +/- 5 kHz of the center frequency. If you have a selective enough receiver and you're not sitting right next to the tower, you can still hear adjacent-channel analog stations.
 
I assumed that someone was going to aim and do it. Makes sense that having a translator on FM helps to make this decision. Without popular programming and a push in technology to make digital mandated (simular to the HD transition with television), then it isn't going to amount to much.
 
We should finally get to hear a quality music format on an MA-3 all-digital AM signal. That alone should make a lot of people on this forum happy.

Also, jazz music listeners tend to be audio equipment enthusiasts so HD Radio ownership, and an awareness of how it works, may be above average with that audience.
 
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Some are able to hear it with HD-digital receiver and say it sounds good. For the vast majority,
we can't hear it and get a horrible mess instead.

One post on the boston-radio-interest mailing list noted the high quality but added "this is all digital, not a digital hybrid"
 
Tuned in while driving around doing errands in the Andover MA/Salem NH area this morning. I had never listened to WSRO before, since up my way it's mostly static. But in HD it sounded great. A few drop outs here and there, but mostly it was fine.
 
Tuned in while driving around doing errands in the Andover MA/Salem NH area this morning. I had never listened to WSRO before, since up my way it's mostly static. But in HD it sounded great. A few drop outs here and there, but mostly it was fine.
So, the MA3 signal definitely gets out further than the hybrid HD, right? Andover should be in the 0.5-2.0 mV/m department, leaning toward 1.7, right? This helps me feel more confident about the coming of All-Digital AM for sure.
 
It’s interesting that this all digital WSRO has come along after all the hybrid mode stations in the area have given up on HD completely.

This is the list of stations I came up with that have ever run HD here in the Eastern MA/RI area, or stations from NY that could be picked up at times. Some were only on VERY briefly like WILD:

550 WSJW Pawtucket, RI
580 WTAG Worcester, MA (Can't confirm that they've turned it off due to their highly directional signal)
630 WPRO Providence, RI
660 WFAN New York, NY
710 WOR New York, NY
770 WABC New York, NY
800 WCCM Lawrence, MA
880 WCBS New York, NY
920 WHJJ Providence, RI
1010 WINS New York, NY
1030 WBZ Boston, MA
1090 WILD Boston, MA
1260 WBIX Boston, MA
1290 WPVD Providence, RI
1430 WKOX Everett, MA

Did I miss any? I think 1200 WXKS was built to run HD, but don’t think it was ever used.

880 and 1010 only went off recently, so they could possibly return. I think 1080 WTIC still has it on.
 
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