AM HD TURNOFF PACE ACCELERATES

[audioguy]

Thank you for your candor David. If Ibiquity would pull the plug on their QRM causing and ear fatiguing HD AM system, I would hate them a lot less!

 

[Chuck]

I told someone at the iBiquity booth at NAB today that HD was the worst thing to happen to AM radio since Leonard Kahn sued to stop AM Stereo.
They did not think that the comment was amusing.

Where is the "Like" button? ;D Good one, David!

 

[pianoplayer88key]

I told someone at the iBiquity booth at NAB today that HD was the worst thing to happen to AM radio since Leonard Kahn sued to stop AM Stereo.

They did not think that the comment was amusing.

David, how would you compare HD on AM to, say, driving the KTNQ PD around the southland listening to the AM Stereo platform motion? ;D

For me, I think I'd prefer the platform motion. (I hate compression artifacts in audio (or anything for that matter), although I'll tolerate it sometimes, like when using 16kbps mono mp3 with a 5 kHz lowpass.) Really though I'd prefer the C-Quam (or another system) to work properly even with weak signals and several-Hz-off-frequency co-channel interference.

As for digital, my basic opinion on how well it should work: if analog carrier could be detectable at that spot if it was a rural wilderness (and nothing else was on the air), then at the same spot in a metal-structure high-rise downtown with whatever electronics running the digital should decode perfectly. Also it should be bandwidth efficient (56k modems from what I read seem to have had 15-18 kbits/s/kHz efficiency - using 16 for example an AM channel should hold 160kbps) and allow baseball fans to listen to their game live in the stands (see the ball hit the bat & hear it simultaneously on their radio from the outfield upper deck - no 8-second delay). Oh, and no interfering with analog transmissions.

(Without co-channel, when my SRF-42 was working I could hear stereo separation on stations practically right at the noise level - stations that other similar (size, quality, target market, etc) radios couldn't hear at all. Also sometimes stereo vs mono switch made the difference in a station's intelligibility, with the noise covering the station in mono. This was true even for stations that didn't broadcast in stereo, due to the '42's forced stereo.)

 

[davideduardo]

Thank you for your candor David. If Ibiquity would pull the plug on their QRM causing and ear fatiguing HD AM system, I would hate them a lot less!

As a former AM Group PD (NY, CHI, LA, MIA, DFW, HOU, SAT, etc) I once had high hopes for AM HD but as I saw the low quality, the defective radios, the interference, I realized I was wrong and encouraged stations to turn it off.

 

[KB1OKL]

Happy hour arrives early today! McLarnon reports the AM-HD pop-count has slid a little more: we're down to 197! ;D Go to http://topazdesigns.com/iboc/station-list.html and behold the sea of "green" entries.

I told someone at the iBiquity booth at NAB today that HD was the worst thing to happen to AM radio since Leonard Kahn sued to stop AM Stereo.

They did not think that the comment was amusing.

They didn't already know that?? Talk about living in an insulated world.

 

[pqgeorge]

Happy hour arrives early today! McLarnon reports the AM-HD pop-count has slid a little more: we're down to 197! ;D Go to http://topazdesigns.com/iboc/station-list.html and behold the sea of "green" entries.

I told someone at the iBiquity booth at NAB today that HD was the worst thing to happen to AM radio since Leonard Kahn sued to stop AM Stereo.

They did not think that the comment was amusing.

Allow me to shake your hand, David! YES!!! HD is the worst thing to happen to AM radio, period. I say.... turn the damn noisemaker off........ PLEEEEEEEZE!!!!

 

[TheBigA]

YES!!! HD is the worst thing to happen to AM radio, period.

Worst thing? Really? There are 45 years of terrible FCC decisions, and that's the one you pick? Had none of the other decisions been made, there would never have been a need for HD in the first place.

 

[Savage]

No, David's right. HD was the worst. Bar none. There have been a lot of boneheaded moves, but allowing this destructive mess to potentially wipe out the industry's heritage medium was the worst blunder.

 

[davideduardo]

No, David's right. HD was the worst. Bar none. There have been a lot of boneheaded moves, but allowing this destructive mess to potentially wipe out the industry's heritage medium was the worst blunder.

As a secondary point, AM HD hurts FM HD.

In LA neither of the major HD AMs can get the delay synchronization right, so the frequent dropouts of HD well inside the 10 mV/m for KFI and KNX are accompanied by a slap back echo that is very annoying. So, the solution is to turn off HD.

The result is that to occasionally listen to news or talk on AM I have shut of HD for FM too. So at that point, while I have HD in the car, it is sefeated. No manner of stats from iBiquity can convince me that most HD install are being used.

 

[MarioMania]

Turn it off FCC

I bypass 730-790 in the daytimes because all the noise, I can't stand it

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

As a secondary point, AM HD hurts FM HD.

In LA neither of the major HD AMs can get the delay synchronization right, so the frequent dropouts of HD well inside the 10 mV/m for KFI and KNX are accompanied by a slap back echo that is very annoying. So, the solution is to turn off HD.

The result is that to occasionally listen to news or talk on AM I have shut of HD for FM too. So at that point, while I have HD in the car, it is sefeated. No manner of stats from iBiquity can convince me that most HD install are being used.

...and that, of course, assumes you have a radio which permits the user to shut off HD. Not all radios are like that.

 

[kc4rae]

Did a search to see if anyone else reported this, but I didn't see it. The search is limited, however.

WPLN's HD has been off for a while. When I checked yesterday, it was still off. Does it mean that Nashville's AMs are completely free of the hash permanently? We'll see.

 

[N1WVQ]

Current number is 198.

 

[audioguy]

I don't know how this affects the totals but over the weekend WSCR turned their IBOC jammer back on, to the consternation of those of us in the Chicago area who liked to listen to WSM at night. It is a travesty that the FCC allows this nightmare to continue.

 

[blackgold]

Please turn off the remaining HD-AM stations and switch them to C-Quam AM Stereo before the band dies!

 

[Tom Wells]

I don't know how this affects the totals but over the weekend WSCR turned their IBOC jammer back on, to the consternation of those of us in the Chicago area who liked to listen to WSM at night. It is a travesty that the FCC allows this nightmare to continue.

Not sure what to make of it yet. Almost sounds like the awful brute force early version as used by WTMJ 620.
First impression is very muddy, no sparkles, futzes or analog defects other than a profound abscence of upper end audio.
Probably decodes fine n HD but surely sounds worse than the version/setup/adjustements last used for HD,
where the HD seemed to decode fine, but had a buzz or lisp on audio peaks in analog decode.

I'd rather have the buzz and lisp effect on analog than the no buzz/lisp but atrocious hiss+muddiness as per WTMJ.

 

[Tom Wells]

Update: WSCR 670 does have bad sparkles, beyond the range normally occupied by an iboc AM.

These seem to be an "image response" of the analog information off the lower set of digital "sideband constellation products".

I have listened to the program material on 2 different radios to check.

The primary recipient of the sparking, or crackly sound is AM 640. Below that the whoosh of 620 WTMJ covers everything.
On the upper side, it's quickly covered by local 720 WGN.

 

[satech]

No IBOC on 710 WOR today!!! If this is a permanent decision to drop IBOC, then it is a big deal because WOR was the first AM station to transmit IBOC as soon as the FCC authorized it in October 2002, and WOR's engineers Tom Ray and Kerry Richards were vocal proponents of HD Radio, fiercely defending it against criticism in various online message boards... but I guess WOR's new owner (Clear Channel) may have different ideas. Now with the IBOC gone, WOR sounds brighter and louder even on my very narrowband car radio.

 

[johnnycakes]

Need a quick question answered. I live in the Greater Boston area near New Hampshire. I used to be able to tune the AM band up and down in my car radio day and night and catch all the DX, locals, crystal clear little static and interference. Nowadays, I hit the scan button on my car radio and all I pick up are the strongest Boston full-timers, which are noisy now, and some locals. Everything else is just loud static.. literally the entire band. Is this really bleedover and hash from IBOC, even during the day? According to hdradio.com, I've got AM HDs on 800, 1030, 1200, 1260 and 1430 in the market. Please help as I thought my tuner was broken but I'm questioning otherwise.

 

[satech]

False alarm about WOR -- their IBOC is back on now.

About the static on the car radio... does it happen all the time, or just when the engine is running? It could be alternator hash you're hearing, or a bad connection to the antenna or ground. If they use road salt in your area in the winter, the salt can get in and cause corrosion.

AM IBOC hash extends two channels above and below a station that's using it -- for example, when 1030 WBZ is transmitting IBOC you'll hear noise on 1010, 1020, 1040, and 1050 kHz -- but should not extend any further than that.