AM HD TURNOFF PACE ACCELERATES

[N1WVQ]

Of course it can but then people may get wise to A.M. radio not sounding like it comes out of tin can!

 

[Savage]

The pop-count of AM-HD stations sinks again: now it's down to 233.

http://topazdesigns.com/iboc/station-list.html

The high-water mark was around 290, two years ago.

Tick, tick, tick......hiss, hiss, tick.....

 

[Savage]

I've always said - if you want to see surprising new life in the AM band, s**t-can the stupid irrelevant NRSC pre-emphasis filter and allow stations to run to 15 kHz during daylight hours and 10 kHz nighttime. Mandate C-QUAM in all receiver and receiver devices.

It will sound better than HD, be more robust, and cause far fewer problems. Plus it wouldn't obsolete a single radio out there, while making a whole bunch of them sound a whole bunch better.

 

[tomservo]

I've always said - if you want to see surprising new life in the AM band, s**t-can the stupid irrelevant NRSC pre-emphasis filter and allow stations to run to 15 kHz during daylight hours and 10 kHz nighttime. Mandate C-QUAM in all receiver and receiver devices.

It will sound better than HD, be more robust, and cause far fewer problems. Plus it wouldn't obsolete a single radio out there, while making a whole bunch of them sound a whole bunch better.

15 kHz days and 10 kHz nights? That's brilliant. I could totally go for that. It can't possibly be more complicated than it already is to switch to a night power/pattern.

 

[Savage]

Most software-based processors have com ports which can be addressed by a remote control system like Sine Systems, so when the power gets reduced at evening pattern change, the bandpass can be changed at the same time.....vice-versa at sunup. No biggie.

For older setups a simple outboard relay and rolloff network could accomplish the same thing. It's a little more complex but again, not a big deal.

 

[audioguy]

Flash! WSCR 670 Chicago has apparently had their IBOC shut down the past few days. It is off at this writing. No idea how long this will continue, but enjoy the clean signal while it lasts!

 

[Casey]

The pop-count of AM-HD stations sinks again: now it's down to 233.

http://topazdesigns.com/iboc/station-list.html

The high-water mark was around 290, two years ago.

Tick, tick, tick......hiss, hiss, tick.....

The list is incomplete. A local station AM station here had HD and no longer does. But they are not listed at all.

 

[Savage]

The list IS incomplete, but from my experience it's the most accurate one out there - and a heluva lot better than iBiquity's.

Casey, if you have an update you can e-mail it to Barry McLarnon (address is on the site) or PM me and I'll send it along. In either case he'd be glad to have the info. He does try to keep the site as accurate and current as possible.

 

[badjef]

Anybody know how I can add HD to the existing radio with a 2010 Chrysler Town & Country wrapped around it?

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

 

[klutch00]

I've always said - if you want to see surprising new life in the AM band, s**t-can the stupid irrelevant NRSC pre-emphasis filter and allow stations to run to 15 kHz during daylight hours and 10 kHz nighttime. Mandate C-QUAM in all receiver and receiver devices.

It will sound better than HD, be more robust, and cause far fewer problems. Plus it wouldn't obsolete a single radio out there, while making a whole bunch of them sound a whole bunch better.

Does it have to be C-QUAM? Why can't it be Kahn, or the AMAX standard? Why not offer radios which can decode any and all analog AM transmission standards? I think I like your other proposals, though.

 

[Tom Wells]

Flash! WSCR 670 Chicago has apparently had their IBOC shut down the past few days. It is off at this writing. No idea how long this will continue, but enjoy the clean signal while it lasts!

It's actually been off for a week to 10 days now on 670, I've held off on mentioning it.
It has been very good for WSM.
I can now clearly hear the ambience of the studio Eddie Stubbs is in.

 

[radiotower40]

Flash! WSCR 670 Chicago has apparently had their IBOC shut down the past few days. It is off at this writing. No idea how long this will continue, but enjoy the clean signal while it lasts!

It's actually been off for a week to 10 days now on 670, I've held off on mentioning it.
It has been very good for WSM.
I can now clearly hear the ambience of the studio Eddie Stubbs is in.

I have been listening to WSM tonight and how great they do sound. 670 sounds so
much better too. I just CBS would listen to the difference, if they enjoyed radio like we do
it would never go back on.

 

[tomservo]

Does it have to be C-QUAM? Why can't it be Kahn, or the AMAX standard? Why not offer radios which can decode any and all analog AM transmission standards? I think I like your other proposals, though.

With a software defined radio, I suppose it can be anything we want. It would certainly help stations out that wanted to put in other systems, but since the FCC finally said C-QUAM was official I don't think the others could be put back on.

 

[N1WVQ]

I've always said - if you want to see surprising new life in the AM band, s**t-can the stupid irrelevant NRSC pre-emphasis filter and allow stations to run to 15 kHz during daylight hours and 10 kHz nighttime. Mandate C-QUAM in all receiver and receiver devices.

It will sound better than HD, be more robust, and cause far fewer problems. Plus it wouldn't obsolete a single radio out there, while making a whole bunch of them sound a whole bunch better.

Does it have to be C-QUAM? Why can't it be Kahn, or the AMAX standard? Why not offer radios which can decode any and all analog AM transmission standards? I think I like your other proposals, though.

Because C-QuAM (10+ kc.) sounds better than Kahn (6 kc.) & has adopted the AMAX standard. My SRF-42 C-QuAM receiver is also AMAX. Plus, C-QuAM is the only authorized analog stereo system. Now, Harris' & Magnavox's systems sounded goooooood! I am especially fond of the Magnavox system. That had the sweetest sound!

As for platform motion, Motorola solved that with the, I think, 3rd generation chipset.

 

[klutch00]

I've always said - if you want to see surprising new life in the AM band, s**t-can the stupid irrelevant NRSC pre-emphasis filter and allow stations to run to 15 kHz during daylight hours and 10 kHz nighttime. Mandate C-QUAM in all receiver and receiver devices.

It will sound better than HD, be more robust, and cause far fewer problems. Plus it wouldn't obsolete a single radio out there, while making a whole bunch of them sound a whole bunch better.

Does it have to be C-QUAM? Why can't it be Kahn, or the AMAX standard? Why not offer radios which can decode any and all analog AM transmission standards? I think I like your other proposals, though.

Because C-QuAM (10+ kc.) sounds better than Kahn (6 kc.) & has adopted the AMAX standard. My SRF-42 C-QuAM receiver is also AMAX. Plus, C-QuAM is the only authorized analog stereo system. Now, Harris' & Magnavox's systems sounded goooooood! I am especially fond of the Magnavox system. That had the sweetest sound!

As for platform motion, Motorola solved that with the, I think, 3rd generation chipset.

Thanks for the input! IIRC wasn't it possible for a radio that would receive C-QUAM to also be able to receive Harris and Magnavox as well? I owned a Sony SRF-A100 and it had a switch on the back. One setting was for Khan and the other for Motorola, Harris and Magnavox. With the single setting for the three transmission standards, I figured they'd all be similar so maybe radios wouldn't have to modified all that much to receive these standards. Forgive my ignorance, but what is a SRF-42?

 

[N1WVQ]

I've always said - if you want to see surprising new life in the AM band, s**t-can the stupid irrelevant NRSC pre-emphasis filter and allow stations to run to 15 kHz during daylight hours and 10 kHz nighttime. Mandate C-QUAM in all receiver and receiver devices.

It will sound better than HD, be more robust, and cause far fewer problems. Plus it wouldn't obsolete a single radio out there, while making a whole bunch of them sound a whole bunch better.

Does it have to be C-QUAM? Why can't it be Kahn, or the AMAX standard? Why not offer radios which can decode any and all analog AM transmission standards? I think I like your other proposals, though.

Because C-QuAM (10+ kc.) sounds better than Kahn (6 kc.) & has adopted the AMAX standard. My SRF-42 C-QuAM receiver is also AMAX. Plus, C-QuAM is the only authorized analog stereo system. Now, Harris' & Magnavox's systems sounded goooooood! I am especially fond of the Magnavox system. That had the sweetest sound!

As for platform motion, Motorola solved that with the, I think, 3rd generation chipset.

Thanks for the input! IIRC wasn't it possible for a radio that would receive C-QUAM to also be able to receive Harris and Magnavox as well? I owned a Sony SRF-A100 and it had a switch on the back. One setting was for Khan and the other for Motorola, Harris and Magnavox. With the single setting for the three transmission standards, I figured they'd all be similar so maybe radios wouldn't have to modified all that much to receive these standards. Forgive my ignorance, but what is a SRF-42?

No prob! An SRF-42 was a Sony walkman that received C-QuAM & was AMAX equipped. It was available at Radio Shack (may have been other places too but I don't know of any other stores that carried them) from about 1993-1998.

Some radios were capable of receiving all systems. Along with your SRF-A100 there was a Metrosound car radio tuner (A-Kahn/Hazeltine, B-the other systems if I recall correctly) & I think others. They were mainly made in the 1980s.

Do you still have your '100?

73 de N1WVQ!

 

[radiotower40]

I still love listening to my AM stereo Sony walkman, I love the sound, It's to bad I
can't find to many stereo stations left.

When I find a music station I have to stop and listen. There is a really good one in Florida.

I'd swear to my ear it sounds as good if not better than FM. As for the radio it's over 20
years old and still sounds better and works better than any Sony Walkman I've bought
since.

 

[Savage]

I've spent countless hours in live air studios doing music shows in real-time (how quaint) and listening, live, to an FM stereo air signal on headphones and speakers. I had about six months of the identical experience doing afternoon drive on WWKB in C-Quam AM Stereo.

I think I've got pretty good ears (when there was such a thing as TVs with horizontal sweep circuits I could hear the HV scan at 15,752 Hz) and I can still hear the audio oscillator at 14kHz at age 61. To my ears, and mind, there is no question: AM Stereo sounded better (this was pre-NRSC.) Station was running a 317-C2.

 

[tomservo]

"Better" is certainly subjective, but I seem to have similar hearing to Savage and AM (stereo or not) is less fatiguing to listen to for long times. I actually sat through my local station's swap shop and religious ballyhooing and it didn't give me fatigue like FM talk does.

In this case it has less to do with total frequency response and more with processing, I suppose. It's just a richer sound on AM, with a good radio. A bad radio is a nightmare, on the other hand.

 

[JohnnyElectron]

With DSP chips on AM, they could decode all AM stereo formats, provide noise-blanking, eliminate platform motion, and have variable bandwidth based on signal quality! I'm all for it. We just need a "Mr. Kirby" sitting at his Texas Instruments lab on a holiday working on encoding the chip!