• 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

What’s Going To Happen To Legacy Broadcast Bands When The Lights Go Out?

kwthom

kwthom

hackaday.com

What’s Going To Happen To Legacy Broadcast Bands When The Lights Go Out?

Our smartphones have become our constant companions over the last decade, and it’s often said that they have been such a success because they’ve absorbed the features of so many of the …
hackaday.com hackaday.com

Hackaday.com is a "technology enthusiast" (a.k.a. nerdy...) web page, so the article is written from that specific perspective.

The comments section after the article contains some thoughtful insights on the topic.

Mods, move to a more appropriate location if warranted...
 
That's the government's problem. The FCC manages the broadcast bands as a natural resource, similar to water, minerals, and land.

Radio companies, broadcasters, private people are not really involved. The spectrum is licensed by the FCC and they determine its future.
 
The Medium Wave/Ancient Modulation broadcast band isn't going anywhere. The ITU won't allow it, and who else would have a use for it?
 
Kelly A said:
I don't understand the premise of the question. Nobody of any official capacity has suggested sun-setting broadcast bands.
Click to expand...
Not in the US, at least. The author of the piece in the OP appears to be British, where the powers that be have discussed ceasing analog FM -- and analog AM has been scarce for years.
 
gr8oldies said:
The elimination of free, over-the-air broadcasting isn't something we should want. Should it occur, beats me what, if anything would replace it.
Click to expand...
Streaming? Or something we don't know about yet? I listen to a lot of radio but never OTA. That's been the case for at least the last 5 years.
 
wadio said:
Streaming? Or something we don't know about yet? I listen to a lot of radio but never OTA. That's been the case for at least the last 5 years.
Click to expand...
I was answering the original point about what the current AM and/or FM band might be used for if terrestrial broadcasting went away,.
 
Don CT said:
Is there a use for the AM/FM bands? Could it be used for data?
Click to expand...
Nope, the entire AM band wouldn't even fit one digital PCS carrier. That, and it's too noisy.
The FM band would have less noise, but still too much noise, and is also too small for much interest by Cell/PCS carriers. Think about it this way: A single UHF DTV station channel is 6Mhz wide. The entire AM band is 1.15Mhz wide.
 
Over 4K AM stations in the US. The band won't go away soon. Eventually -- of course. But how soon? 15 years? Maybe it will be replaced by something else, like TIS's or maybe some military use. Or some combination of things. Or maybe it will be left as static. Look at some of the SW bands, which are still allocated internationally for broadcasting. Mostly lying fallow compared to 30 years ago. A lot of the HF spectrum really is underutilized as well. Tune across it, it's mostly static with few exceptions on some military or other civil-service frequencies.
 
boombox4 said:
Over 4K AM stations in the US. The band won't go away soon. Eventually -- of course. But how soon? 15 years? Maybe it will be replaced by something else, like TIS's or maybe some military use. Or some combination of things. Or maybe it will be left as static. Look at some of the SW bands, which are still allocated internationally for broadcasting. Mostly lying fallow compared to 30 years ago. A lot of the HF spectrum really is underutilized as well. Tune across it, it's mostly static with few exceptions on some military or other civil-service frequencies.
Click to expand...
I think we need to reset the theoretical and hyperbolic parts of this discussion again: There are no plans to sunset the U.S. broadcast bands, period. Any discussion of the demise of the U.S. AM band is based solely on how long it can remain a business-viable form of media given it's age, inferior quality, and lack of growth going forward.
Unlike other countries, to my knowledge the Commission has never even broached the subject of 'sun-setting' the AM (MW) band, mainly because there's no other future plans for it, plus it's so small from a usable spectrum-real estate perspective.
 
And for a glimpse of what an abandoned band might sound like, find a shortwave radio and tune what used to be the marine band (roughly 2000 to 2800 kHz. You might hear time stations WWV and WWVH on 2500, but the ship-to-shore and ship-to-ship traffic that used to keep this band busy and interesting for SWLs has all moved on.
 
Kelly A said:
Unlike other countries, to my knowledge the Commission has never even broached the subject of 'sun-setting' the AM (MW) band, mainly because there's no other future plans for it, plus it's so small from a usable spectrum-real estate perspective.
Click to expand...
Countries that have sunset AM generally have had migration plans in place for existing AM stations.

Canada had fewer AM's per market, and less populated FM bands when they started moving CBC stations and allowing private ones to migrate.

Mexico reduced second adjacent FM protections and moved 80% of existing AMs to FM. Throughout Latin America, attrition or planned moves to FM allowed the AM band to depopulate.

The US has no plan, other than the patchwork translator program for AMs.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom