The only other approach is AM digital, and unless electronics manufacturers start making AM digital receivers, that option won't have a future.
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FM - no AM - portable CD player
- Thread starter kfbkfb
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The only other approach is AM digital, and unless electronics manufacturers start making AM digital receivers, that option won't have a future.
AM digital is fairly new compared to our other solutions, with the first experiments being around 2016, I think. We might be able to get manufacturers on board with "digital crystal sound!", but it's a long shot.
Existing HD Radio's will already receive full-digital (MA3) AM stations.
Hence no extra investment on behalf of manufacturers, which further suggests that we should back MA3
Well, actually there IS extra investment, in that manufacturers have to pay a license fee for every HD radio they sell. Which is why so few manufacturers install it. Unlike AM & FM which is freeware.
Perhaps a US Government "AM mandate" would be the thing to do, if a radio has an FM tuner it must have an AM tuner (exception for inclusion in devices documented to emit a lot of noise in the AM band - electric cars, smart phones for example), and FM HD radios must include AM HD.
Kirk Bayne
Kirk Bayne
It's been 20 years since iBiquity claimed that patent. Time to declare HD a public good, like FM/AM, and allow manufacturers to capitalize on it.
You see how well that worked with vaccine mandates. People in this country do not like to be forced to do anything. Plus, as I've said, the electronics business is now mainly based in China, and they don't always pay attention to US laws and rules.
iBiquity sold the rights for HD Radio to DTS (for $167 million), and then DTS was sold to Xperi. These licensing companies are in the business to make money, not to serve the "public good."
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If they thought a mandate would solve AMs problems, it would have been part of their revitalization plan.
You can't force companies to lose money. They'd rather get out of the business altogether.
AM is 120 year old technology that is ready for retirement.
It was ready for retirement in the 60's.
And let’s add a horse and buggy mandate too.
Dear lord, AM is dead.
Let.
It.
Go.
Dear lord, AM is dead.
Let.
It.
Go.
Perhaps require a noise blanker in the AM radio mandate, also, perhaps a standardized type of audio dynamic range reduction (compression) which could be undone by a complementary expander in the AM receiver, thereby increasing the fidelity of AM while remaining compatible with AM radios wo/expanders.
Kirk Bayne
Kirk Bayne
Let's assume this could be done. What I'm learning from this discussion is HOW MUCH WILL IT COST each station to do this? Manufacturers will not do this, unless they have an incentive to do so, whatever that may be. Since the AM band is useless for any application other than broadcasting, and we could defy logic and keep it going for that purpose
, the only thing that will save it is COMPELLING CONTENT. Without that, let AM broadcasters turn in their licenses IF they could originate the AM programming on their FM translators. However, again, it gets back to compelling content. In my part of West Virginia, we lost businesses we thought would be here forever over the past 50-some years, decades before COVID-19.
As I said, the word "mandate" is not one you want to throw around. The FCC has no teeth for enforcing these kinds of things over foreign companies, particularly in communist countries. You might think it's a great idea, but the practicality of it doesn't exist. AM radio is what it is. There will be no technical investments in it any more.
Do you have a consensus definition of what that means? That everyone will agree on? Because if you scan these pages, you'll see everybody has their own personal idea of what "compelling content" is. And even if you come up with the next big thing, you have to overcome the audio quality issue that Major Armstrong solved 90 years ago.
Most (all?) of the TV sets made after the ATSC 1.0 tuner mandate were made outside the USA.
Enforcing the mandate is simple, products are not allowed into the USA unless they meet the mandate.
Considering the increased noise (impulse and steady), I think requiring a noise blanker in all AM radios made after a certain date is a reasonable requirement.
Kirk Bayne
Enforcing the mandate is simple, products are not allowed into the USA unless they meet the mandate.
Considering the increased noise (impulse and steady), I think requiring a noise blanker in all AM radios made after a certain date is a reasonable requirement.
Kirk Bayne
Let me know when it happens. I'll be waiting. Remember the subject of this thread (that you started?). They're making radios without AM.
If you put more rules on those radios, you'll see even less of them being made.
Ahh humanity. We all are so alike and yet our opinions can be so much different. I love Sports, but you might like listening to vinyl albums (me too, by the way), and so our definiton of compelling on the radio could be so distinct. That doesn't necessarily mean it's a lost cause. I mean we have categorized people's interests into radio genres such as classic hits, news/talk, comedy, hip-hop, sports, travel info, alternative, etc. Unfortunately, AM has been way homogenized into all talk stations on every frequency. Some markets, like Atlantic, Iowa, have a nice balance from 3 major cities: Omaha, Des Moines, and KC.
Scientists have known for decades that the average range of human hearing is 15 khz. AM stations and recievers of old often came close to that mark, but with 10 khz spacing, AM had a disadvantage. I have a portable radio that I can manually set the bandwidth between 1 and 6. I notice that between 4 and 6 (wideband), it gets close to FM quality, then I push the music/voice button and it sounds good. But imagine having 8-10 or more! Perhaps it's time to experiment with widening those station allotments again.
Sure FM "solves" this problem with ease, and I'm always happy to tune into an FM station, but it feels more like a cheat code than a solution.
I’m sorry…you think anyone beyond the existing limited and dying audience is going to listen to AM again? The ship sailed. The horse left the barn. The genie is out of the bottle. Whichever cliche you want, that isn’t going to happen, and no mandate is going to change that because no manufacturer is going to bother making a useless technology if you increase the cost—when there is zero consumer demand.
That's because; like Europe and most of Asia before, the U.S. was moving from analog TV to digital. The government got involved in forcing that change for one reason, and one reason only:
The ability to auction-off planned-to-be abandoned spectrum. The AM broadcast band has no usable or auction-able spectrum. In case you haven't figured out the way things are yet: Motivation always involves money.
Stay tuned for the next round, where the government will force ATSC 1.0 stations to consolidate all DTV stations to one signal per market via ATSC 3.0. That way all that remaining TV spectrum will be auctioned-off to cell/PCS providers too.
Given this is 2022, somehow I doubt off shore manufacturers are working on their next iteration of a portable CD player/radio combination. Your idea would be the equivalent of requiring all off shore auto manufacturers to include a buggy whip with every new Kia, Hyundai, Nissan, BMW, or Mazda.
1940's thinking.
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