AM HD TURNOFF PACE ACCELERATES

[Tom Wells]

WRDZ 1300 Radio Disney in La Grange, IL has been clean of iboc yesterday and today.
There is an amazing difference in the sound.

 

[Savage]

Speaks volumes about the "merits of HD Radio." AM's supposed to be dramatically better in digital. In fact, the opposite is the truth. Turn OFF the "improvement" and listen to the massively better result!!

 

[ddsparxx]

While I am hearing some good news that some more AM stations turning off their HD, there's an FM station in my area that just turned on theirs. ???

 

[KB1OKL]

WQEW sounds a LOT better since they shut off the noise a few weeks ago. They went off the air the other night which usually means that the I-Block will be back but it's still gone.

 

[tomservo]

The only AM HD station in my area that could turn off would be WWL in New Orleans. I'm over 150 miles away and don't hear much in the way of hash on their sidebands, but the hiss is present over the analogue audio.

Besides spewing trash all over the adjacent channels, they really don't need the HD since WWL has an FM companion, which itself also transmits in HD.

Locally, two FM stations recently switched their HD back on, and one turned it off (I suspect there's a faulty encoder that's been moved around.)

 

[satech]

WRDZ 1300 Radio Disney in La Grange, IL has been clean of iboc yesterday and today.
There is an amazing difference in the sound.

Are all Radio Disney stations turning off the IBOC? WWJZ did about year ago, recently WQEW, and now WRDZ...

 

[KeithE4]

WRDZ 1300 Radio Disney in La Grange, IL has been clean of iboc yesterday and today.
There is an amazing difference in the sound.

Are all Radio Disney stations turning off the IBOC? WWJZ did about year ago, recently WQEW, and now WRDZ...

KMIK Phoenix still has theirs on.

 

[JohnnyElectron]

WRDZ used to run a great-sounding analog AM stereo audio chain (CQUAM stereo) - I picked it up on my ole AM Stereo portable while in the Windy City many moons ago. Likewise, when Anaheim's Radio Disney ran CQuam AM stereo it was quite good, even after they did the frequency swap with ESPN out there.

Detroit (Farmington Hills, MI) Radio Disney WFDF shut-down their 50KW HD generator some time back. Ironically, if I left my XM radio DC-DC adapter plugged in the cigarette lighter, I couldn't receive WFDF in HD in Detroit until I unplugged my XM adapter?!?

Too bad all these stations (particularly RD) that have stereo audio chains, don't just slide in an AM Stereo card or a CQuam exciter for all the 10 year old Chrysler minivans still running around out there with CQuam car radios? Many of the religious stations (that used to run music) also used to run CQuam - like Catalina Island and other Cris Alexander stations. The mfgrs were good too: Harris used to make it real easy with a card, Nautel used to include it on all their Canadian AM transmitters (pre-HD), and BE had CQuam for FREE on their transmitters for a while.

 

[Savage]

WYSL has both a Nautel AMPFET-25 for the daytime pattern and a BE AM 2.5 (DA-N). Both have C-QUAM aboard. And both have it turned off. Makes me sad. If there were stereo radios, and if I could make money doing it, I'd go back to full-service 1950s-1960s oldies with the C-QUAM on.

Both transmitters will make 14 kHz bandwidth. The array is broadband. It would sound so sweet and be so much fun to listen to.

"If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a heluva Christmas." :-[

 

[Chuck]

WYSL has both a Nautel AMPFET-25 for the daytime pattern and a BE AM 2.5 (DA-N). Both have C-QUAM aboard. And both have it turned off. Makes me sad. If there were stereo radios, and if I could make money doing it, I'd go back to full-service 1950s-1960s oldies with the C-QUAM on.

Both transmitters will make 14 kHz bandwidth. The array is broadband. It would sound so sweet and be so much fun to listen to.

I don't know how much of your programming is from stereo sources, but it might be interesting to turn the C-QUAM on, even if it was just to air the commercials in stereo. They would really stand out. There are a lot of AM stereo radios out there, but most people don't know they have one. I don't know if you could make any money out of it, but assuming you have a stereo signal path, it wouldn't cost anything. Your sponsors might like it.

 

[stormy01]

WYSL has both a Nautel AMPFET-25 for the daytime pattern and a BE AM 2.5 (DA-N).

It would be interesting to know why a 2.5kW tx is used for night service, when the night power authorized is 0.5 kW.
Wouldn't that be nice if nighttime power could be turned up a bit more than 500 watts at night? (-:

 

[badjef]

WYSL has both a Nautel AMPFET-25 for the daytime pattern and a BE AM 2.5 (DA-N). Both have C-QUAM aboard. And both have it turned off. Makes me sad. If there were stereo radios, and if I could make money doing it, I'd go back to full-service 1950s-1960s oldies with the C-QUAM on.

Both transmitters will make 14 kHz bandwidth. The array is broadband. It would sound so sweet and be so much fun to listen to.

I don't know how much of your programming is from stereo sources, but it might be interesting to turn the C-QUAM on, even if it was just to air the commercials in stereo. They would really stand out. There are a lot of AM stereo radios out there, but most people don't know they have one. I don't know if you could make any money out of it, but assuming you have a stereo signal path, it wouldn't cost anything. Your sponsors might like it.

Although not scientific, I have found the range from AM HD's is about the same distance as I remember the distance of C-quAM. And, AM HD sounds better when listening to it. I contend if we were to go back to AM Stereo, my choice would still be Khan. The reception for stereo was much tighter than either of the other two options.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

 

[KB1OKL]

WYSL has both a Nautel AMPFET-25 for the daytime pattern and a BE AM 2.5 (DA-N). Both have C-QUAM aboard. And both have it turned off. Makes me sad. If there were stereo radios, and if I could make money doing it, I'd go back to full-service 1950s-1960s oldies with the C-QUAM on.

Both transmitters will make 14 kHz bandwidth. The array is broadband. It would sound so sweet and be so much fun to listen to.

I don't know how much of your programming is from stereo sources, but it might be interesting to turn the C-QUAM on, even if it was just to air the commercials in stereo. They would really stand out. There are a lot of AM stereo radios out there, but most people don't know they have one. I don't know if you could make any money out of it, but assuming you have a stereo signal path, it wouldn't cost anything. Your sponsors might like it.

Although not scientific, I have found the range from AM HD's is about the same distance as I remember the distance of C-quAM. And, AM HD sounds better when listening to it. I contend if we were to go back to AM Stereo, my choice would still be Khan. The reception for stereo was much tighter than either of the other two options.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

Not in my experience, I used to get AM stereo in my old Plymouth for hundred of miles at night and couldn't get AM HD reception at less than 10 miles at my home.

 

[badjef]

WYSL has both a Nautel AMPFET-25 for the daytime pattern and a BE AM 2.5 (DA-N). Both have C-QUAM aboard. And both have it turned off. Makes me sad. If there were stereo radios, and if I could make money doing it, I'd go back to full-service 1950s-1960s oldies with the C-QUAM on.

Both transmitters will make 14 kHz bandwidth. The array is broadband. It would sound so sweet and be so much fun to listen to.

I don't know how much of your programming is from stereo sources, but it might be interesting to turn the C-QUAM on, even if it was just to air the commercials in stereo. They would really stand out. There are a lot of AM stereo radios out there, but most people don't know they have one. I don't know if you could make any money out of it, but assuming you have a stereo signal path, it wouldn't cost anything. Your sponsors might like it.

Although not scientific, I have found the range from AM HD's is about the same distance as I remember the distance of C-quAM. And, AM HD sounds better when listening to it. I contend if we were to go back to AM Stereo, my choice would still be Khan. The reception for stereo was much tighter than either of the other two options.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

Not in my experience, I used to get AM stereo in my old Plymouth for hundred of miles at night and couldn't get AM HD reception at less than 10 miles at my home.

My bad. I was referring to daytime reception with HD and C-quAM. With Kahn, there was no contest, day or night, stereo was just as tight.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

 

[tomservo]

WYSL has both a Nautel AMPFET-25 for the daytime pattern and a BE AM 2.5 (DA-N). Both have C-QUAM aboard. And both have it turned off. Makes me sad. If there were stereo radios, and if I could make money doing it, I'd go back to full-service 1950s-1960s oldies with the C-QUAM on.

Both transmitters will make 14 kHz bandwidth. The array is broadband. It would sound so sweet and be so much fun to listen to.

"If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a heluva Christmas." :-[

How much extra does it cost to run it?

 

[Savage]

stormy, the reason for the 2.5kw for DA-N is historical. Until 2005 we were 2.5kw DA-D, .5kw DA-N. The BE was then our main TX with an RCA BTA-1R aux. When we increased to 20kw DA-D, of course the Nautel was purchased for that purpose. The AMPFET-25's minimum power reduction is to 5kw, so the BE was repurposed for a night transmitter. At each pattern change we switch both operating values and transmitters.

I think this also answer's Zach's question. But I'm not sure.

 

[iyiyi]

I understand that some FM talk stations run in mono to increase range. Does W221CL-FM broadcast in stereo? If so, why isn't the CQUAM running on 1040?

 

[Savage]

We run the translator in mono to get every teaspoon out of our 99w ERP, but in truth, the coverage benefit of mono over stereo is overrated with modern receivers. Really, the talk programming we carry doesn't benefit from stereo, so we don't bother.

Similarly, we don't run stereo on the AM because (a) there are no receivers, (b) the talk format makes stereo irrelevant and (b) in C-QUAM mode, we would have to reduce modulation to protect the stereo image. There would definitely be a coverage deficit in fringe areas in reducing negative peaks from 99% to about 92%. Plus FCC regs require detailed nuisance proof-of-performance periodic tests with C-QUAM. Again: not worth it.

If we were programming MUSIC, however....dassa whole different critter.... 8)

 

[iyiyi]

Good solid reasons!

 

[badjef]

We run the translator in mono to get every teaspoon out of our 99w ERP, but in truth, the coverage benefit of mono over stereo is overrated with modern receivers. Really, the talk programming we carry doesn't benefit from stereo, so we don't bother.

Similarly, we don't run stereo on the AM because (a) there are no receivers,

If you saw a future in it, you would still be doing it.

(b) the talk format makes stereo irrelevant

That's not how WINS was looking at it back in the day. Spots were in stereo for those receivers such as mine.

and (b) in C-QUAM mode, we would have to reduce modulation to protect the stereo image. There would definitely be a coverage deficit in fringe areas in reducing negative peaks from 99% to about 92%.

I did not experience that with Kahn. Mono and stereo was very close. C-quAM audio was irratating when shifting between stereo and mono.

Plus FCC regs require detailed nuisance proof-of-performance periodic tests with C-QUAM. Again: not worth it.

That would be my tipping point.

If we were programming MUSIC, however....dassa whole different critter.... 8)

If politics didn't trump everything, we would all be having pleasant experiences with AM radio, today.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!