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AM HD TURNOFF PACE ACCELERATES

Convince me that HD from iBiquity was not intended to be yet another attempt try to kill the AM broadcast band.

My argument:

1.)Interference generated in the aural form of "hash" on either side of the station would be increasingly annoying as more and more stations added it.

2.)Letting the simulcasts of AM stations on the additional channels available on FM would be more pleasing than the popping in and out of AM-HD and the delay by poorly maintained stations and the subsequent "hash" developed by the AM stations using it.
As more listeners migrated to the sub-channel simulcast the existing AM station would no longer be needed.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
 
Nahhh. Sorry, and for a number of reasons, chief of which is that the tiny piece of bandwidth represented by the AM/MW band isn't of much use for anything else.

Downbeat...whump, whump, whump. "Another one bites the dust...."

And now....(tympani roll).....it's 229.

McLarnon reports that KHHO 850 Tacoma has Nixed The Hiss.

Keep it up, guys! Let's see if we can get to 200 by the end of the year! :D ;)
 
Savage said:
Nahhh. Sorry, and for a number of reasons, chief of which is that the tiny piece of bandwidth represented by the AM/MW band isn't of much use for anything else.

Downbeat...whump, whump, whump. "Another one bites the dust...."

And now....(tympani roll).....it's 229.

McLarnon reports that KHHO 850 Tacoma has Nixed The Hiss.

Keep it up, guys! Let's see if we can get to 200 by the end of the year! :D ;)
Click to expand...
Plus, since one of those is XEEZ in Mexico, that's 228 in the U.S.. Downwards is good!
 
Nice catch, N1WVQ. I hadn't spotted any Mexicans on the McLarnon list, and unless I missed it, XEEZ appears to be the only one.

I'll bet that 250 watts at night on 970 provides GREAT HD coverage.... ::) :D
 
Savage said:
Nahhh. Sorry, and for a number of reasons, chief of which is that the tiny piece of bandwidth represented by the AM/MW band isn't of much use for anything else.
Click to expand...
It is:

1.) as an annoyance to the FCC, for the paperwork.
2.) as an annoyance to the automanufacturers, including AM with the radio and putting up with the complaints of reception and quality.
3.) as an annoyance to the receiver manufacturers, for similar reasons as above.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
 
Actually I think the FCC's policy towards "audio services" can be fairly likened to being a "non-practicing agnostic," meaning, "if I gave a rip, I wouldn't believe."

I believe that if the FCC bothered to think about radio, and particularly AM radio, they'd say, ummm...who cares about it?

Be assured the only interest the Commission has in AM radio resides in the 4400-plus spectrum-use checks they cash every September. Other than that: we're on our own. Unless, of course, somebody's public file lacks some piece of paper never seen by a human being outside the station staff. In that case, we get whacked $10,000.
 
Yeah - and the most absurd thing is that some WBZ on-air personalities still tout that WBZ is heard in 38 States or some such nonsense. They've got huge gonads up there in Boston.

Meanwhile KDKA listeners in the surrounding Pittsburgh. PA area get interference all night long as well as part of the afternoon. Tell me how that serves the public and about how the FCC cares.
 
L. DeForest said:
Yeah - and the most absurd thing is that some WBZ on-air personalities still tout that WBZ is heard in 38 States or some such nonsense. They've got huge gonads up there in Boston.

Meanwhile KDKA listeners in the surrounding Pittsburgh. PA area get interference all night long as well as part of the afternoon. Tell me how that serves the public and about how the FCC cares.
Click to expand...

I wonder how many states can get WBZ's HD sub-channel "1040 The Buzz" ;D It comes in great here in New York at night. And yet the FCC won't allow wide band AM stereo, you are only allowed to pollute your sidebands with digital hash.
 
And now for WCBS 880, I just heard an ad advertising the HD Radio version of WCBS mentioning 101.1 HD-3. There was no mention of the fact that 880 also has its own HD Radio signal. Here is another example where they need to shut off the buzz on AM.
 
If it was the top of the hour legal, did they say something like "WCBS, WCBS-HD & WCBS-FMHD3 New York." I've noticed @ least 3 CBS stations IDing like that: WFAN, WCBS, WBZ.
 
spunker88 said:
L. DeForest said:
Yeah - and the most absurd thing is that some WBZ on-air personalities still tout that WBZ is heard in 38 States or some such nonsense. They've got huge gonads up there in Boston.

Meanwhile KDKA listeners in the surrounding Pittsburgh. PA area get interference all night long as well as part of the afternoon. Tell me how that serves the public and about how the FCC cares.
Click to expand...

I wonder how many states can get WBZ's HD sub-channel "1040 The Buzz" ;D It comes in great here in New York at night. And yet the FCC won't allow wide band AM stereo, you are only allowed to pollute your sidebands with digital hash.
Click to expand...

I was thinking... How wide of frequency response do you think we would have on AM Stereo if there were stations whose splatter sounded as loud & far off channel, on a radio with good selectivity like a SiLabs DSP-based Tecsun or a SDR like a Perseus, like a typical barely-"compliant" HD station does on a poorly-selective radio like a Coby or a Sony SRF-M37W within the 1 V/m blanketing contour? :)
 
Interesting analysis of the latest numbers for HD-AM stations still on the air. Of the 230 HD-AMs still operating (down from 290) only about a third are on at night, and half of those AMs are graveyarders with a maximum of 1kw on local channels (no nighttime interference protection.)

Yet even with only about 40 general-coverage AMs on at night with HD, meaning stations which can actually be heard more than 10 or 15 miles from the transmitter, there are still serious cases of adjacent-channel skywave interference.

Of the 230, 150 stations are licensed to either CBS Radio, Clear Channel, Greater Media, Crawford, Entercom or its corporate cousin Beasley. About half of the remainer are licensed to pubcasters who presumably got their HD plants paid for by US taxpayers. So when you take away the stations trying to recoup a direct investment in HD and those who essentially got it for free, you're left with about....40 stations (this portion includes ABC and Disney) who presumably bought HD "on its merits." Great track record..... ::)

IOW:
 
tfcwings said:
spunker88 said:
L. DeForest said:
Yeah - and the most absurd thing is that some WBZ on-air personalities still tout that WBZ is heard in 38 States or some such nonsense. They've got huge gonads up there in Boston.

Meanwhile KDKA listeners in the surrounding Pittsburgh. PA area get interference all night long as well as part of the afternoon. Tell me how that serves the public and about how the FCC cares.
Click to expand...

I wonder how many states can get WBZ's HD sub-channel "1040 The Buzz" ;D It comes in great here in New York at night. And yet the FCC won't allow wide band AM stereo, you are only allowed to pollute your sidebands with digital hash.
Click to expand...

I was thinking... How wide of frequency response do you think we would have on AM Stereo if there were stations whose splatter sounded as loud & far off channel, on a radio with good selectivity like a SiLabs DSP-based Tecsun or a SDR like a Perseus, like a typical barely-"compliant" HD station does on a poorly-selective radio like a Coby or a Sony SRF-M37W within the 1 V/m blanketing contour? :)
Click to expand...
En espan~ol, por favor? (crappy ingles keyboard) :'(

I’ll go out on a limb,
Probably sound close to the “FM quality” sound we hear with AM-HD.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
 
Of all the embarrassments ever suffered by radio, HD on a 1 kW (or less?) AM has to be the worst. I wonder if any AMs with 250 watts ever went HD? You'd have to physically touch the tower with the antenna to get a lock!*

*- don't try this at home
 
N1WVQ said:
If it was the top of the hour legal, did they say something like "WCBS, WCBS-HD & WCBS-FMHD3 New York." I've noticed @ least 3 CBS stations IDing like that: WFAN, WCBS, WBZ.
Click to expand...

Yes I know its included in the top of the hour ID, but this was an HD Radio promo that mentioned listening to 101.1 WCBS HD-3 and never mentioned anything about 880 being HD as well.

Zach said:
Of all the embarrassments ever suffered by radio, HD on a 1 kW (or less?) AM has to be the worst. I wonder if any AMs with 250 watts ever went HD? You'd have to physically touch the tower with the antenna to get a lock!*

*- don't try this at home
Click to expand...

From the IBOC list it appears 500 watts is the lowest daytime wattage for a station running HD. Some of these stations also have even lower nighttime powers, but I doubt HD is running.
 
Then, that proves AM-HD was authorized as to take smaller stations off the air.

Since it would be put them at another sales disadvantage.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
 
Before I retired and moved to Midland, Michigan, I lived in Tampa Bay. I just couldn't listen to 970WFLA. The constant HISSSSSS from their IBOC signal was too annoying.
Analog and digital do not co-exist well on the same RF carrier.
 
frankberry said:
Before I retired and moved to Midland, Michigan, I lived in Tampa Bay. I just couldn't listen to 970WFLA. The constant HISSSSSS from their IBOC signal was too annoying.
Analog and digital do not co-exist well on the same RF carrier.
Click to expand...
I can not hear the hiss from iBoc you mention. The hash on 960 and 980, yes, but no hiss.

Any "hiss" I hear is from the beating of co-channel but not from iBoc.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
 
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