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An actual use for AM IBOC

L

LynnW

I'm not in the broadcasting business. I stumbled into these forums a few months ago and I have really enjoyed learning about your industry.

Anyway, I have discovered an actual use for AM IBOC. Recently, our organization went from three fixed work shifts to rotating shifts. My colleagues who are now on midnight shift have been having trouble sleeping during the day, especially those who live more urban areas. They were talking a few days ago about what could block the city noises and white noise generators.

I suggested that they tune a radio to either 1110 or 1130, the adjacent frequencies for KMOX, the CBS owned 50,000 watt station and set the volume to a comfortable level. They report that the hiss works great and all have been sleeping better. I'm sure KMOX, CBS, Ibiquity and Mr. Stubble would all be pleased and proud of the service they are rendering to my co-workers.

While the above may sound like a joke and it is humorous, it is also a fact.
 
Hopefully, your company has a great insurance plan....you can ask most broadcasters (especially engineers) about the effects of working too many "shifts". ;D
 
LynnW said:
Anyway, I have discovered an actual use for AM IBOC. Recently, our organization went from three fixed work shifts to rotating shifts. My colleagues who are now on midnight shift have been having trouble sleeping during the day, especially those who live more urban areas. They were talking a few days ago about what could block the city noises and white noise generators.
Click to expand...

White noise is indeed quite effective at masking other sounds. I first discovered this as a college freshman when I tried to fall asleep at a reasonable hour in preparation for my Physics classes early the next morning. Unfortunately, the "jocks" in the dorm used to yell and kick soccer balls around the hallways well past midnight, so I would tune my FM clock radio past 108 and turn up the hiss high enough to cover up the racket, and it really helped.

Another productive use for IBOC exciters comes to mind:

When AM IBOC broadcasters realize there's no reason to continue sending digital sidebands, I hope they leave the GPS-referenced carrier lock on their exciters enabled, because precise frequency control can be beneficial in AM analog broadcasting. During critical hours and at night, this will eliminate the slow "wump wump wump" beat you often hear when two stations are a few Hz apart.

The new Nautels are shipped from the factory with an input for a 10 MHz precise frequency reference, so all they need is a GPS or Rubidium timebase to take full advantage of this feature. Of course, you also need the cooperation of co-channel stations, but if you can get the biggest signals on board, it will help.
 
LynnW said:
I'm not in the broadcasting business. I stumbled into these forums a few months ago and I have really enjoyed learning about your industry.

Anyway, I have discovered an actual use for AM IBOC. Recently, our organization went from three fixed work shifts to rotating shifts. My colleagues who are now on midnight shift have been having trouble sleeping during the day, especially those who live more urban areas. They were talking a few days ago about what could block the city noises and white noise generators.

I suggested that they tune a radio to either 1110 or 1130, the adjacent frequencies for KMOX, the CBS owned 50,000 watt station and set the volume to a comfortable level. They report that the hiss works great and all have been sleeping better. I'm sure KMOX, CBS, Ibiquity and Mr. Stubble would all be pleased and proud of the service they are rendering to my co-workers.

While the above may sound like a joke and it is humorous, it is also a fact.
Click to expand...

Well, Lynn..... it's funny that you would write about this. In fact, last week, I actually used the IBOC slop from a local station,
by setting a portable radio for 1020 to make an adjustment for an IPOD input on a board at a station I work at (the IBOC slop is almost a
perfect continuous source of white noise). I did not have a tone generator handy so I just used my faithful Grundig Yachtboy 305 as
a continuous source of audio (white noise) to adjust the input for an IPOD player on the station's on-air board. It's a
college station and students tend to use the input quite frequently for their IPOD's and laptops. So, when the connector went,
I had to install a new one. So, since IBOC hiss is simply white noise, I figured.... hell, the noise should used for..... something ;)

What a novel idea! (for now......) ;D
 
The best part is that you don't have to buy an HD radio to use this what appears to be only benefit of IBOC. In fact you'd be better off not buying one on the very slight chance that your shiny new HD receiver might actually pick up an AM HD station and ruin your sleep.
 
An HD radio won't work for this, as they are "smart" enough to recognize the hash on an adjacent-to-iboc hiss on channel, and they will give you only a mild low mush, not the full spectrum white noise.
 
Tom Wells said:
An HD radio won't work for this, as they are "smart" enough to recognize the hash on an adjacent-to-iboc hiss on channel, and they will give you only a mild low mush, not the full spectrum white noise.
Click to expand...

Isn't it funny...... the sidebands (hash) of an IBOC AM station are actually louder than the main channel and also bleed into it as well. This is improvement?
 
WBZ-HD at approximately 4:30am had objectionably loud digital USB noise within WYSL's passband, two miles from the transmitter site, due north within the main lobe of the station.

WYSL field strength in this area exceeds 60 mv/m. Our nighttime interference-free protected contour is 13.687 mv/m.

I fervently wish a plague on the houses of Glynn Walden, Tom Jordan, Dan Mason, Paul Donovan and Mark Manuelian. Hope somebody does something like this to them. And soon.
 
Like a jacob's ladder coupled to a really high-Q tuned circuit tuned to 1030?
Zzzzziip, Zzzziiip, Zziiiiip.
 
Savage said:
WBZ-HD at approximately 4:30am had objectionably loud digital USB noise within WYSL's passband, two miles from the transmitter site, due north within the main lobe of the station.

WYSL field strength in this area exceeds 60 mv/m. Our nighttime interference-free protected contour is 13.687 mv/m.

I fervently wish a plague on the houses of Glynn Walden, Tom Jordan, Dan Mason, Paul Donovan and Mark Manuelian. Hope somebody does something like this to them. And soon.
Click to expand...

Yup and at 40 miles from their transmitters WBZ sounds like krap on an analog radio and sounds ever worse on an iBlock radio when it will actually come in although i've given up on that POS radio, they must like wasting money on electricity or something. Nightly here on that part of the dial we have a whooshathon from 1000 to 1050. It amazing how destructive just a few 50KW clears with IBUZ can be. WFAN is terible, WLW and WOR take turns to see which can be the most destructive on a given night, WGY is usually not too bad here for some reason, WCBS is terrible most nights,WINS, KDKA and WBZ, whoosh up as I've said from 1000-to 1050. WTIC is terrible as is WHAM, WPHT whooshes it up here sometime. WMKI Boston even ruins reception on a station I like on 1250. WDCD is terrible most nights here also. Great technology, ruins reception of other stations, should be an FCC regulation against this sort of thing, oh there is? Hmmm.
 
Tom, that would be a highly entertaining solution to the WBZ-HD problem. But I recall a real-life interference battle that actually happened in a market where I once worked. For reasons you will see, I will not divulge the market, station or identities of those involved.

The case involved a run-down old drive-in theater which found itself in the position where the only way they could make money was by featuring porn. The drive-in had belatedly abandoned its 1950s cast-aluminum RCA car speakers for an RF audio system, with an operating frequency of 540 kHz. Unfortunately (for the drive-in) the frequency was shared by a nearby Christian AM daytimer, whose TX was only about two air-miles away. Of course, since the station operated only in the daytime and the drive-in only operated after sunset, there should have been no conflict.

But there was. :D For some odd reason, patrons of the grind-and-grunt movies found themselves listening to God's word and song every night. VERY loudly.

Last I knew, the drive-in had closed permanently. Maybe nobody told them they might have selected another frequency. Or maybe they heard The Word. As the old storyteller said, I don't know. Nobody knows.
;)
 
I can find NO upside for AM IBOC... I FULLY understand the challenges facing those that proactively-execute transmission via the AM medium today, and I am often saddened by their lack of reward for their fine efforts; BUT I cannot support a system that so severely degrades available service to all but a VERY FEW within the “professional fraternity” that shamelessly self-promote a DEFECTIVE and DESTRUCTIVE “band aid” that near-feloniously promotes a fantasy-driven “quick fix” that is so-defied by a retail environment that is ANYTHHING BUT! My career is rooted in “consumer research”... Interest in FM HD transmission is nill at best [and shows NO signs of the curve changing direction]... HD on the AM band, in its defective and ungratifying form, traverses that curve even less... Simply, it’s a non-starter and a flawed technology that invites a a logical and definitive “end”!

I have a very deep respect for those that own AM stations and “take the bull by the horns” – I was one once, also. Last week, I took delivery of a GM vehicle with an uncustomary GOOD-PERFORMING AM receiver—a small late-to-the-table penance to a cadre of poor receivers that have poisoned AM presentation and programming efforts. I was so happy to enjoy exceptional AM reception in my car, but realized that I may have been alone—as most would not have even pushed the “band” switch – SAD!!!

Nonetheless, I would rather see AM radio “fade to print” in its illustrious and romantic history with a reasonable level of “dignity” than suffer the restraints of an unsuccessful IBOC “science fair project”. Am I missing something?
 
BTW... I’m at the parent's home listening to 1580 WIFE "Superoldies 1580" [Connersville. IN] at the boyhood home [10:20 PM]... SOUNDS GREAT on the Meduci AM tuner... 'Like FM, with that new BE TX and Omnia proc – SERIOUSLY!!! AM isn’t so bad! I'm diggin' the 1970s and their music on the AM band... And the awesome AM audio :) I LOVE THIS!!! 'NOTHING wrong with AM audio! :)
 
I’m waking up – and listening to WIFE [again]—that “audio marvel” engineered by Bob Hawkins—a man I would call FIRST upon winning an AM station in a poker game :D IT’S AN ART, and Bob is “gray-enough” to “git-it” [kinda like Walt H @WSM].

AM radio would be “just fine” IF it “clears its house” and nukes the self-interference that poisons it... Let’s empower the FCC to return the wisdom of its engineers who BELIEVE that “you can’t fool Mother Nature”. Many years ago, an awesome WNDU [Notre Dame] engineer—Mel D. told me that... HE WAS CORRECT!

IBOC IS NOT the “solution”—“band management” IS! AM radio has real advantages that all here recognize... Throw-in the seldom-experienced “good audio” as a bonus... Let’s keep this “Gray Lady” alive!
 
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