I didn't want to get into the fray in the "Crack Me Up" thread, but it seems some of the proponents of IBOC are ignoring the 800 pound gorilla in the room. The reason the DXer's are upset is that a hobby that is old as the medium itself is 1: being mocked by some who don't understand that, and 2: the IBOC interference would NEVER be allowed as sideband splatter on AM or FM.
Us oldtimers got into this business because of the romantic notion of a listener hundreds or even thousands of miles away. Just as I would listen to WCFL, WLS, CKLW, KB15 in eastern Pennsylvania as a kid, I today get thrilled when a piece of mail comes from Greenland, Iceland, Norway or Scotland with a reception report of the little 1kw local signal I work at along the east coast of US.
Us oldtimers remember the nausiousness before taking our FCC exams to be able to operate a transmitter and get crappy pay for working at our first commercial station. I remember screwing up the morse code test three times, and drawing a power supply circuit that would have killed anyone who touched it. But I finally passed (only to have it later brought down to a General License).
I don't know oldtimers. Maybe it's time we hung up our headphones and keys. Even the Coast Guard has stopped Morse Code practices. There is so much hash and manmade noise on the AM band, it's near impossible to do any out of town listening in a metropolitan area, day or night.
Maybe it's time we stop worrying about the youngin's self destruction of the Commercial Broadcast bands. When the whole band is totally unlistenable, they'll turn to us to fix it. But youngin's you'll need to remember this: ... --- ...
Us oldtimers got into this business because of the romantic notion of a listener hundreds or even thousands of miles away. Just as I would listen to WCFL, WLS, CKLW, KB15 in eastern Pennsylvania as a kid, I today get thrilled when a piece of mail comes from Greenland, Iceland, Norway or Scotland with a reception report of the little 1kw local signal I work at along the east coast of US.
Us oldtimers remember the nausiousness before taking our FCC exams to be able to operate a transmitter and get crappy pay for working at our first commercial station. I remember screwing up the morse code test three times, and drawing a power supply circuit that would have killed anyone who touched it. But I finally passed (only to have it later brought down to a General License).
I don't know oldtimers. Maybe it's time we hung up our headphones and keys. Even the Coast Guard has stopped Morse Code practices. There is so much hash and manmade noise on the AM band, it's near impossible to do any out of town listening in a metropolitan area, day or night.
Maybe it's time we stop worrying about the youngin's self destruction of the Commercial Broadcast bands. When the whole band is totally unlistenable, they'll turn to us to fix it. But youngin's you'll need to remember this: ... --- ...
