Does Anyone Here Know About Kahn Digital That Competes with HD Radio?

[And Awaayy We Go!!]

I just heard 2nd hand that it is a far better system than the iBiquity. Does anyone know any more about it or have an opinion about it?

 

[And Awaayy We Go!!]

If anyone knows where I can find out more information about it, please reply. Thanks.

 

[aaronread]

Kahn has a website - www.wrathofkahn.org that seems full of rambling invective but I didn't see much in the way of specs. Frankly, the Wikipedia page on CAM-D seems more coherent and informative, even though it similarly has almost nothing in the way of real information about the system's specs or even how it works. Taking Wikipedia at face value (always a dangerous thing to do, although what it claims does square with what I've heard about CAM-D) then CAM-D is "better" than HD Radio because it doesn't put out nearly as much energy in the adjacent-channel sidebands. However, CAM-D does nothing to improve the inherent signal-to-noise problems that analog AM has.

I think probably most important to CAM-D is the incredible scarcity of receivers. Nobody knows how many there are, but I'd be amazed if it's more than a few dozen prototypes. To my knowledge there are no plans by any OEM to make them, either. CAM-D might be the greatest thing since sliced bread (and I'm unconvinced that it is) but unless the receivers become widespread I can't see it being anything more than an oddity.

To be blunt, HD Radio is the only "official" DAB method in the United States...the FCC has accepted the NRSC-5 standard of iBiquity's HD Radio method of Digital Audio Broadcasting. That "officialness" is what receiver and transmitter OEM's need before they commit millions in R&D to produce products for stations and listeners. Now, admittedly, HD Radio for AM has a ton of problems...so much so that it's possible, albeit still rather unlikely, that the NRSC-5 standard could be dropped and a new standard adopted. Given how long it took NRSC-5 to come around, I think the cure might be as bad as the disease! :-\

Regardless, though, even if it happened...I don't see people flocking to CAM-D. Digital Radio Mondiale has a much better chance thanks to its prevalence in other countries and existing agreements by OEM's to make radios.

 

[And Awaayy We Go!!]

Thanks for the info. To be frank, HD Radio is pretty unimpressive and I was wondering if there was some other alternative available. Thanks for the Wikepedia tip which I'll check out.

 

[aaronread]

Yeah, I am a supporter of HD Radio for FM...we run it at WEOS and I'm going to run it on our soon-to-be-built Ithaca station, WITH. But even I'm not blind to its faults. For FM, though, it's a pretty decent system considering it doesn't require new spectrum. AM is another story...the nighttime skywave interference is proving a real stickler of a problem. (shrugs)

However, like DRM and CAM-D for AM...by no means is HD Radio the only solution for digital broadcasting on FM, either. There is the nifty digital subcarrier system FMeXtra by DRE,inc. It does virtually nothing to improve the quality or fidelity of the main FM carrier, but it does add potentially several extra program channels; e.g. "multicasting on the cheap". It's also completely backwards-compatible (and perfectly compatible with HD Radio on FM in the analog/digital hybrid mode) very flexible in implementation, and quite reasonably priced (about $10k). Plus receivers are available now, albeit in somewhat limited quantity in the USA because the system is proving so popular in certain European countries...and admittedly at the moment there's really only one model: the tabletop "Aruba".

Still, FMeXtra has real potential to be a fabulous one-two combo with HD Radio for FM...especially if OEM's start releasing receivers that decode both. Hasn't happened yet, but I think it might get there in a few years. Right now FMeXtra is primarily a replacement for existing analog SCA/subcarrier program delivery; the audio fidelity is 10 times better than your average SCA, and the broadcast reach is much better, too; out to the 50 or 60dBu contour instead of the 70 or 80dBu.