HD Station Admits Digital is Inferior to Analog

[hipporadio]

I have an “old” ICOM RC-71A communications receiver with an “optional” Collins 16 kHz filter installed. It has a “broad skirt” and yields a decent AM envelope. I can “side tune” and enhance AM audio quality in 10-hertz increments to a point that yields “FM quality” on a deserving signal. I can easily track the “AM IBOC affront” on this receiver, also.

Spend an hour with this receiver, and there is NO DOUBT that IBOC is a disaster.

I’d like to send this pre-programmed receiver to an FCC Commissioner for a session!

Severely-diminished analog audio quality at the behest of the ONE-PERCENT of corporate radio hacks that actually profess to “enjoy” that fizzie-infested audio. This is SAD!

AM radio deserves better... AM radio deserves to be liberated from the IBOC “special interest”!

 

[calstymes]

R.F. Burns nicely questioned:

I'd have to know what kind of field strength the station has in the part of Westchester you are talkiing about. Perhaps you can identify the town where you are having trouble hearing the station.

As I said in a previous post, I often travel up and down Rt. 9, just east of the Hudson river.

If WRKL is receiving interference it isn't from WCBS. What time of day are you trying to listen to the station? Is it post sunset? (A time of day would be helpful).

During daylight hours only. I have never been able to hear WRKL at night.

Here's the WRKL FCC page; http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/amq?list=0&facid=50057
Take a look at the null they put into the east, north east from Pomona.

I do not drive north of Ossining. The signal strength of the station used to decrease as you travel north on Rt. 9 and in Ossining it used to be listenable. Now you can not hear it at all there and can just barely hear it to the south now, but there is so much interference it is virtually impossible to stay with it. It would appear that both the signal strength of WRKL and the interference (which did not always exist) increases as you travel south on Rt. 9 from Ossining but it now obliterates it for most of the trip on the area of Rt. 9 where it was formerly listenable. This would have been from just north of the Tappanzee bridge in the area of Tarrytown.

After dark they run four towers and 800 watts. I don't know how long ago you used to listen to WRKL.

I listened to WRKL for about a year prior to early July, 2006 when the interference started. I remember it well because it was right around the July 4th holiday that year and I was on vacation. I remember being bewildered about what the heck had happened to its signal!

When they were an English language station, they ran about 72 watts post sunset with a much less restrictive pattern from their 2 tower array.

"Post sunset" is not a factor here.

 

[R.F. Burns]

I would suspect other factors at work (Such as the fact that it was around that time that WRKL installed a new ground system so it may be that their pattern is more as it should be compared with what you used to receive). WREF (850Khz) is also 30 Khz from WCBS and even with my srf 42 (stereo AM walkman) I can hear that station who's signal is much weaker than WRKL with no interference from WCBS. The overall noise floor has risen over the years. New LED type lights cause all sorts or interference. By the way, I believe WCBS had been in IBOC prior to July 4th (I bought my receptor in Feb of 2006 and they were already running IBOC). I'd suggest you contact CONED (The power company) and report the increased noise. I used to report leaky transformers all the time to my local power company and they'd resolve the problem within days. It became easier to track them down when I used my TH5 tri-bander. I was able to give the power company beam headings to help them resolve interference. If you are really concerned you might take a few minutes and track down the real noise source.

 

[hipporadio]

...And I like MUSIC [the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan]... and I have enjoyed them on some Class-4 AM transmissions at 1450 kHz also! ‘Hopefully before sunset – LOL!

As I grow older, I've seen the AM band digress. These “health ‘n beauty” infomercialsfor the band make me sick - so do the AM radio prescriptions offered by corporate radio! How can we stop this? –not with IBOC, trust me. I’m a political Libertarian, but I’m calling upon GOVERNMENT to do its DUTY and restore the “AM field”. An early mentor suggested that “You CAN’T change Mother Nature” in regards to AM business –he was correct thirty years ago! ‘Just restore AM radio as is WAS! ... Then, Leave it alone to fend for itself. I have this suspicion that it will do just fine TODAY!

We DON’T need bandwidth-limiting IBOC, and we don’t need a compromised digital component – we DO need good dedicated broadcasters to grab the challis and practice their faith. AM will be saved by GOOD PROGRAMMING—NOT a defective modulation scheme.

 

[JJS]

‘Just restore AM radio as is WAS! ... Then, Leave it alone to fend for itself. I have this suspicion that it will do just fine TODAY!

I can't imagine what you mean by this. Would you take away the licenses of those who seem to cram the band? Would you compensate these owners? Would you take on the RF-generating microprocessors in every home and office, the LEDs and CFLs, the AM-jamming electronics in the newer receivers themselves? If you were true to your libertarian leanings, you'd allow the marketplace to decide on the optimal AM allotments, letting the strong stations buy out the weak.

 

[hipporadio]

‘Just restore AM radio as is WAS! ... Then, Leave it alone to fend for itself. I have this suspicion that it will do just fine TODAY!

I can't imagine what you mean by this. Would you take away the licenses of those who seem to cram the band? Would you compensate these owners?.

Since you have but a mere 21 posts here, I’m going to speculate that you’re a recently-arrived corporate radio TRIP – delivered here by your bosses [since you have minimal posts] to accomplish nothing more than an assault on the mindset I promote. Take a breather, and ask yourself – is the radio biz good... Are you glad... and Happy? Is corporate radio treating you well? I’m sure [if your mind is fully functioning]—you’ll say YES--out of simple obligation. So WHY attack me—a successful prologue to this miserable industry, and someone who provides the simplest commentary? You can’t attack anyone elese, so [i GUESS] - Take on ME--I'm ready for you're POORLY PRESENTED CORPORATE RADIO ARGUMENTS.

Bring it on AND let's go!

 

[JJS]

Is corporate radio treating you well? I’m sure [if your mind is fully functioning]—you’ll say YES--out of simple obligation. So WHY attack me—a successful prologue to this miserable industry, and someone who provides the simplest commentary?

I wasn't attacking you, just pointing out the impossibility of turning back the clock. I was asking you to add some useful substance to a vague proposal. And if you were looking for a return to "big stick" AM radio, I offered one reasonable approach.

R.J. Burns can probably figure out who I am. A long-time satellite subscriber, not a shill for corporate terrestrial radio by any means.

 

[murcuryvapor]

Contemporary Rock CD's are "engineered" to be loud by normalizing the tracks.

Normalizing is taking the peaks to as much as 100% modulation, and raises the lowest 'valleys' of the dynamics proportionally. You're talking about compression-in this case, multiband compression.

Yes and you lose the dynamics in the process which takes all the life out of the music.

It was merely a technical correction. I wasn't commenting on aesthetics.

 

[calstymes]

My old buddy R.F. Burns nicely analyzed:

I would suspect other factors at work (Such as the fact that it was around that time that WRKL installed a new ground system so it may be that their pattern is more as it should be compared with what you used to receive). WREF (850Khz) is also 30 Khz from WCBS and even with my srf 42 (stereo AM walkman) I can hear that station who's signal is much weaker than WRKL with no interference from WCBS. The overall noise floor has risen over the years. New LED type lights cause all sorts or interference. By the way, I believe WCBS had been in IBOC prior to July 4th (I bought my receptor in Feb of 2006 and they were already running IBOC). I'd suggest you contact CONED (The power company) and report the increased noise. I used to report leaky transformers all the time to my local power company and they'd resolve the problem within days. It became easier to track them down when I used my TH5 tri-bander. I was able to give the power company beam headings to help them resolve interference. If you are really concerned you might take a few minutes and track down the real noise source.

R.F., you got nice. This is a wonderful development! And thank you for all the help.

When I am back on Rt. 9 I will try and track down the real noise source. I don't get up there all that often but perhaps I can rent some DF equipment and go up to Westchester for a day of radio direction finding.