• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

WSRO MA-3 heard in my area (Manchester, NH)

W

WalkNtune

Hello,
New member here. I am in Manchester NH and am able to pick up the new WSRO digital signal for most of the day. I think my area would be considered fringe, as I have to use a tuned AN-200 loop near my Sangean HDR-16. Without the loop it won't lock for more than a second, then it's just silence.
My understanding is WSRO's power during the day is 1.5 KW. Are they using a ~ 30KB/s data rate? Perhaps others could verify.
The audio sounds good although I can hear a bit of compression on certain notes ( horns/piano etc) but for something that's only (a 30 kb/s rate?) sounds surprisingly good overall. the sound quality is comparable to an FM-HD2 sub in MHO.
I never listened to SRO before since the analog signal was too degraded in this area and buried in noise. I prefer OTA over using my phone since I am on a limited data plan.
I used to use the Sangean to listen to WBZ or 1010WINS, but both apparently turned off their MA-1. Not sure why, I thought it was an improvement overall, even though MA-1 had lots of compression.
 
WalkNtune said:
Hello,
New member here. I am in Manchester NH and am able to pick up the new WSRO digital signal for most of the day. I think my area would be considered fringe, as I have to use a tuned AN-200 loop near my Sangean HDR-16. Without the loop it won't lock for more than a second, then it's just silence.
My understanding is WSRO's power during the day is 1.5 KW. Are they using a ~ 30KB/s data rate? Perhaps others could verify.
The audio sounds good although I can hear a bit of compression on certain notes ( horns/piano etc) but for something that's only (a 30 kb/s rate?) sounds surprisingly good overall. the sound quality is comparable to an FM-HD2 sub in MHO.
I never listened to SRO before since the analog signal was too degraded in this area and buried in noise. I prefer OTA over using my phone since I am on a limited data plan.
I used to use the Sangean to listen to WBZ or 1010WINS, but both apparently turned off their MA-1. Not sure why, I thought it was an improvement overall, even though MA-1 had lots of compression.
Click to expand...
What is this MA-3 and MA-1 of which you write?

I think WCBS AM 880 is still in HD, if you're able to pick them up where you are. I thought Audacy (Entercom) had maintained a lot of their HD signals on the AM band, unlike iHeart.
 
nowradioguy said:
What is this MA-3 and MA-1 of which you write?
Click to expand...
I think WalkNTune is referring to All Digital (MA-3) and hybrid digital (MA1).
WalkNtune said:
Hello,
New member here. I am in Manchester NH and am able to pick up the new WSRO digital signal for most of the day. I think my area would be considered fringe, as I have to use a tuned AN-200 loop near my Sangean HDR-16. Without the loop it won't lock for more than a second, then it's just silence.
My understanding is WSRO's power during the day is 1.5 KW. Are they using a ~ 30KB/s data rate? Perhaps others could verify.
The audio sounds good although I can hear a bit of compression on certain notes ( horns/piano etc) but for something that's only (a 30 kb/s rate?) sounds surprisingly good overall. the sound quality is comparable to an FM-HD2 sub in MHO.
I never listened to SRO before since the analog signal was too degraded in this area and buried in noise. I prefer OTA over using my phone since I am on a limited data plan.
I used to use the Sangean to listen to WBZ or 1010WINS, but both apparently turned off their MA-1. Not sure why, I thought it was an improvement overall, even though MA-1 had lots of compression.
Click to expand...
Welcome! Please keep us informed on how WSRO does since you do claim to be in it's fringe.
 
nowradioguy said:
What is this MA-3 and MA-1 of which you write?

I think WCBS AM 880 is still in HD, if you're able to pick them up where you are. I thought Audacy (Entercom) had maintained a lot of their HD signals on the AM band, unlike iHeart.
Click to expand...

Both WCBS and WINS haven’t run HD in several months.
 
ZantennaG1 said:
I think WalkNTune is referring to All Digital (MA-3) and hybrid digital (MA1).
Click to expand...
I kind of inferred that which you wrote, but those terms are totally new to me. "HD" is the term with which I've long been familiar. And for "all-digital", well, it was simply "all-digital". So, when did these new designations MA-1 and MA-3 originate, and why am I just learning of them now? I read these posts almost daily.
 
nowradioguy said:
So, when did these new designations MA-1 and MA-3 originate, and why am I just learning of them now? I read these posts almost daily.
Click to expand...
These terms were written into the HD Radio spec around 20 years ago. But the distinction was pretty much irrelevant until the FCC authorized "full digital" (aka MA-3) operation on the AM band in the last year or two.
 
WalkNtune said:
Hello,
New member here. I am in Manchester NH and am able to pick up the new WSRO digital signal for most of the day. I think my area would be considered fringe, as I have to use a tuned AN-200 loop near my Sangean HDR-16. Without the loop it won't lock for more than a second, then it's just silence.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the reception report! There is so little documented about MA3 reception since it's so new. I find your post valuable.
 
Wimmmex said:
What does "MA-2" involve?
Click to expand...
Check out pages 7 and 8: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-02-286A3.pdf
Modes MA2 and MA4 provide higher throughput than MA1 and MA3 by making available an additional logical channel (i.e. P2) at the expense of P1 robustness.
Click to expand...
I take that to mean that an MA2 mode or MA4 mode would allow the "HD2" subchannel on AM, but would require extra space (MA2) or would narrow the HD1 signal (if MA4 was used). Other than that, I don't really know for sure.
 
nowradioguy said:
I kind of inferred that which you wrote, but those terms are totally new to me. "HD" is the term with which I've long been familiar. And for "all-digital", well, it was simply "all-digital". So, when did these new designations MA-1 and MA-3 originate, and why am I just learning of them now? I read these posts almost daily.
Click to expand...
I found out about WWFDs ( I think that's the call for 820 AM digital out of fredrickburg MD) full digital experiments a couple years back and was intrigued. The (RW online article awhile back) mentioned MA-3 as full digital, as I recall. I found a white paper on the subject on the FCC website. ( article ' FCC-20-154A1' mentions MA-3 as full digital and MA-1 as the hybrid IBOC signal we all know).
 
Last edited:
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom