HOW WONDERFUL IS THIS!

[R.F. Burns]

R.F. Burns predicted:

I'm looking forward to 2010 when IBOC has taken hold and you guys will have to find something else to obsess over. Don't believe me, only time will tell.

To which Tom Wells got angry enough to write:

Time will tell? I need no more listening to definitively state every AM that goes HD sounds awful, RIGHT NOW, as soon as they
start, and every podunk rimshot into chicago now sounds better than the big ones currently running IBOC.

I am >this< close to making a trip downtown to leave some commentary in some public files.

This hare-brain scheme has broken about 10 radios in current usage, of a radio collection of about 40-50,
mostly working, but now all "ruint" by the Alliance's pig-headed insistance upon delivering data in a wavelength where phase distortion
will limit the coverage of HD decoding yet the destruction induced travels far beyond on 4 other AM channels.
I see the IBOC as causing little interference to the host "channel" analog-limited at 5kc, especially over 400-500 miles.
The flamethrowers really kick in above/below the host channel.

I worked liike mad to keep my RF environement pure, and now radio stations are going to hand me a signal that is
PRE-INTERFERED WITH? Not Acceptable.

How wonderful? WGN, WBBM, WLS currently operate as disemboweled zombies of the borg in daytime, rewarding listeners with muffled audio and continuous background hissing.

"Wonderful" doesn't break anyone's radios, regardless of how they choose to use it, and regardless of how you ( as a broadcaster) think
they ought to use it.

"Wonderful" doesn't pass noxious gas in your face while offering to sell you a clothes-pin.

Tom, I hope you DO put some commentary into some public files.

But with regard to Mr. Burns, you must remember, he is a person who works for a large broadcaster in Manhattan, as recently stated by him in "Lack of consumer votes/reviews indicative of HD's failure":

I work in broadcasting and was in Manhattan a few miles north of the WTC when they went down. I spent the next 2 days in the city working to keep us on the air.

He also introduced us all to the concept of "IBOC competition". What is "IBOC competition" you ask?

R.F. Burns previously stated in "HD AM in NJ/NY":

It’s called honesty and too few in here will admit where their anti bias comes from. As an example, if they DX fine, if they own stations which suffer from IBOC competition fine,

To which I extrapolated from this very revealing statement in the same thread:

...IBOC competition. Wow, that's a new term that I never heard before! "IBOC competition". I love it! In other words, if I'm a big station and I want to blow my smaller neighbor on an adjacent channel out of the water all I have to do is put on IBOC? Yessss!!!!!!

This indicates to me that perhaps at least some of the proponents of AM IBOC consider that it may used as a tool by larger stations in larger markets to blow smaller adjacent channel stations in neighboring markets away. Is this what some of the larger stations in larger markets are doing? Who knows?

Maybe the birthright of the larger broadcasters is enough to justify this kind of adjacent channel interference. What do you think the FCC thinks is the price the public should pay for an "acceptable" level of deliberate adjacent channel interference and do you think that it would be conceivable that the FCC could possibly approve a technology that does this?

Remember this! If you say nothing, then the FCC may very well give that approval. Please, if you disagree that this kind of adjacent channel interference is acceptable at any public price, do what Tom Wells is ">this< close" to doing and put some comments into a public file. Anything you can do is better than doing nothing at all.

I'd say FMExtra and D-Cam are IBOCs competition and nowhere did I state that any boradcaster has the right to interfere with another licensed broadcaster. I only said that stations are licensed to cover certain geographical regions. If you own or listen to a station and find that your properly operating radio is being interfered with within it's protected coverage area, then by all means report the interfering station to the FCC. No one has ever said that smaller broadcasters have no rights and you haven't seen anything I've written lauding IBOC on AM. What I have written about and very much in favor of is IBOC on FM. As to AM interference, I can only say that I have driven between NY and massachusettes and had no interference issue on any audible station within it's local area. If you find otherwise might I suggest you compile a list so that those of us who haven't experienced this interference problem can observe it for ourself.

 

[calstymes]

R.F. Burns protested:

I'd say FMExtra and D-Cam are IBOCs competition

Actually, FMeXtra can coexist quite nicely with FM IBOC. The two serve different purposes and they are NOT in competition. FMeXtra COULD be a primary competitor to HD if it wanted to, but that is not how it is being marketed and the fact that you can use it now, right out of the box already makes it "better" than HD for certain applications. As for D-Cam, I don't know enough about it to comment intelligently on it. Actually, I don't comment very intelligently on anything very often. It's amazing that my posts here don't get pulled for incoherency more often!

and nowhere did I state that any broadcaster has the right to interfere with another licensed broadcaster.

And I didn't say that you did say that. What I said was that I extrapolated that something called "IBOC competition" exists because YOU used the term to indicate that one station CAN suffer from another's station use of IBOC. By using this term you validated the existence of interference and gave it a name (even though you never actually heard it yourself from your perch north of NYC). Honestly, I thought it was a rather good name that you came up with there.

I only said that stations are licensed to cover certain geographical regions.

Indeed they are!

If you own or listen to a station and find that your properly operating radio is being interfered with within it's protected coverage area, then by all means report the interfering station to the FCC. No one has ever said that smaller broadcasters have no rights and you haven't seen anything I've written lauding IBOC on AM.

But, but, but... I thought AM IBOC was going to save the AM band from having no listeners anymore! I'm SO confused! I could have sworn that you used to say that since before you were R.F. Burns. My bad!

What I have written about and very much in favor of is IBOC on FM. As to AM interference, I can only say that I have driven between NY and massachusettes and had no interference issue on any audible station within it's local area. If you find otherwise might I suggest you compile a list so that those of us who haven't experienced this interference problem can observe it for ourself.

The list will appear in the FCC Public Notices of complaints filed in the months ahead. There is actually one glaring case of interference right in your own backyard involving interference to a station that is licensed and whose transmitter is in your own county but which can no longer be heard in an adjoining county when the big gun that is adjacent to it has its IBOC carrier on during the day. I go to that adjoining county often, and I can no longer hear this radio station broadcasting from your county during the day.

So, is my radio receiver still "properly operating" and may I conclude that something which sounds like a buzzzz is interfering with its being able to receive that radio station anymore?

These are rhetorical questions and no reply required.