> > Also, remember, they're trying to put the most signal over
>
> > where the most people in the Houston market live... and
> > that's not Centerville and points north of there.
>
> A new antenna would probably explain it - the coverage was
> stable well North of Huntsville to Centerville for years.
> Every trip, I could predict where to tune in by landmarks.
>
>
> I would think, though, that if a top of the line Pioneer
> Supertuner, with the narrow ceramic filter trick effectively
> increasing its sensitivity even more has trouble with KLDE
> in Huntsville, normal radios are losing it well to the South
> in the "Houston suburbs" like the Woodlands and Conroe. Now
> THAT would be serious issue for KLDE. If I were KLDE, I
> would seriously consider dropping IBOC that nobody can hear,
> and get back listeners that definitely can hear analog.
> They may not be going for Centerville, but directionality
> puts signal up that direction, and a good signal in
> Centerville means dependable coverage in Conroe on $5 clock
> radios. Or car radios with crappy antennas. You want your
> deep fringe signal level as far away as possible, and not
> over populated, affluant areas.
>
> I would even be upset over losing Huntsville, there are a
> lot of people there, a significant chunk of listeners.
>
I drive to Dallas at least six to eight times a year and KLDE has been a regular to Centerville for years. I did some digging in the web last night and came across many articles that stated the analog signal lost 11% of the power when IBOC is installed, even Ibiquity acknowledges this. Now 11% percent wouldn't make that drastic difference, but there was one article by an engineer that stated the power loss can actually be up to 60% of the analog signal, depending on the installation. Does anyone have any reports on KKRW, they are using IBOC aren't they? There are too many articles to list, go to the search engine
www.dogpile.com and enter in "Loss of Analog Coverage to FM stations with IBOC Digital radio" and you will get a ton of returns.
This may explain why I get much more fading of KIOL when I am driving around Houston than the other rim shot stations. Listening to KIOL is more like listening to one of the LA stations when you get down to the San Diego County line.
I have worked in Huntsville and Bay City and both cities listen to the Houston FM stations over any others. If Ibiquity's digital plan actually makes it or is shoved down our throat by the government, and the FCC has already shown how little they knew about HDTV and the fragility of the digital signal, yet presented HDTV to the citizens like they had all the answers. HD-R is not any better than HDTV, probably worse since it is being used in vehicles and the terrain, buildings and other factors that weren't suppose to cause problems to digital radio are as bad, maybe worse than analog stereo.
The digital signal is only good to the 1mV/m or 60dbu signal strength at best, the number that is being used more frequently now is 2mV/m. Once the digital signal drops below the threashold of say 1mV/m the signal just drops out. If there is no analog signal to fall back on, you will have hiss.
KLDE on my OEM Chevy Truck radio circa 1991 has a great signal(it did the last trip to Dallas) and the approximate strength in Huntsville is 36.82dbu or 0.069mV/m, and still very listenable, but generally weak is 23.77dbu or 0.015mV/m in Centerville. Depends on the ducting, as I usually drive up to Dallas leaving Houston around 10pm to 1am when the traffic is usually very light and you can make some time. Come back from Dallas on Friday evening, leaving Richardson around 5pm to 6pm. With the exception of the stations on Cedar Hill that share frequencies with Houston stations, I have had many Houston stations in Stereo right into downtown Dallas and the Mixmaster before they drop out.
If there is a "sunset date" for analog radio and digital is all we have and it is Ibiquity's system, Conroe will be the end of the line for most all of the Houston stations. KIOL which is usually very listenable at home has a signal of 57.4dbu where I live, I probably can not get a digital signal from KIOL or KACC if they were only digital as they strength drops down to 48.9dbu where I live, yet most of the time I have a good signal. If FM or AM is only good in digital to 60dbu (FM) which is 1mV/m or 1mV/m on AM, traveling is going to be a much bigger hastle changing stations frequently, unless you load up on CD's.
I read several articles last night that said stations should be driving around now if they have IBOC installed and identify the drop out areas and start making plans for booster stations in those areas. This does not sound like a great improvement over what we have now for anyone, except Ibiquity. One paragraph that made a lot of sense was in a moving vehicle with road and traffic noise, you would never be able to tell the difference from a CD and FM Stereo. While you may need a 10mV/m AM signal in the city, like Houston, on the open road out in the country, you can get a very good sound from a signal as weak as 0.25mV/m, well below the strength you could hear the station in digital. What I found disturbing, well one of many things, was that now the digital signal is being pushed up to the 2mV/m strength for "realiable coverage" from 1mV/m. This decreases the size of a stations coverage area even more than what was originally discussed. I would love to know what Ibiquity's definition of "realiable coverage" is, the signal only drops out every few minutes or rarely?
AM radio will remain a non music source, the chances of Ibiquity's IBOC working does not look very healthy. For one thing IBOC can not handle the sharp nulls that many directional patterns have on AM stations, especially at night. IBOC will take a null and round it out and change the directional pattern of a station, which means it no longer meets FCC specs and must reduce power or go off the air. The station reduces power, goes off the air or the FCC accepts the new IBOC pattern which will only add more interference to a band that is plaqued by interference at night. In all three cases many AM stations will become unlistenable at night, very effectively making AM a daytime band. KPRC 950 wouldn't make it outside of The Loop without interference which also kills the IBOC signal.
I am all for digital radio, but the system that the US and only the US is going to be using does not sound like it had the actual listener in mind at all. No wonder Ibiquity is pressing so hard to sell as many IBOC units as possible before their house of cards comes tumbling down. If KLDE's 25% loss of coverage of their analog signal is because of IBOC, the Senior Road tenents may hold off on the installation even longer. These "delays" may be more to study the effects of IBOC on KLDE and KKRW and KIOL than anything.
I have KRBE on, and at 10:35pm and they had a call from Huntsville, so the use of FM signals beyond the the 60dbu {1mV/m} or worse the 66dbu {2mV/m} signal is very commmon. If KRBE was all digital that call would have never happened because the woman that called would never had heard KRBE.
Huntsville may not be part of Houston officially, but believe me there is a lot of people that live in one of the two cities and work in the other. Anyone that drives the 45 north knows how the traffic thins out after Huntsville most of the time, except hunting season and weekends. The 59 towards El Campo is not much different. No need to mention the 10.
Mike O
