I'll go dumpster - diving at JOnes Bros (Giant auto salvage yard N of Atlanta) and see if I can't find one.
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OnTheAir123
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I have a 97 Ford Explorer Engineering SUV that is AM Stereo as well.
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carlvenorden
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I've been fortunate enough to be able to voice my opinion on IBOC over this and several other message boards, and in the pages of Radio World for a couple years now.
But I've had some time to think it all over again, since it was inevitable that IBOC would become the "future" and the future is now. And I took the liberty of re-reading everything I could find in Radio World from engineers and techs: many written by people I deeply respect.
My opinion "against" IBOC came from being a bit selfish: I love to DX. We all know that will be a thing of the past with IBOC, but then the AM band has been trashed for some time due to too many stations, power increases due to the cancellation of the frequency designations, but mainly because of man-made noise.
On AM, IBOC will make nearly every station "equal"........power levels will no longer be important because the digital signal travels only so far. It means hearing a "far away" station will be impossible; however, what you will hear will be clear signal without static, without drifting, and in CD quality stereo.
It is a given that listeners gravitated away from AM radio, not because of it's programming (i.e: if you like oldies and the only oldies station is AM, you would listen to it), but because of it's fidelity. Yes; AM stereo was a wonderful idea, but it failed simply because the FCC didn't get behind it. This time, the FCC is backing a system that works on both bands and benefits both bands, yet so many people are against it. It seems like a win/win, OR lose/lose situation depending on what camp you are from.
Lets look at this in a different perspective:
For those of us who dislike IBOC because of it's potential for adjacent channel hash/the loss of long distance listening, take this opportunity to scan the dial at night and listen closely to what you hear (you can do this during the day as well, because chances are I'll be right about this no matter when you tune in):
IF you can receive 20 clear channel stations at your location, you will notice that 15 of them are carrying the same programming: probably "Coast to Coast AM" with George Noory.
It's a good program, but you really only need one clear signal to hear it on. It is few clear channels today that program locally: so for those of us that like WBZ or KDKA; well we are going to lose reception of that programming. My local AM stations go to such low power at night that they blend into the background noice and I can't hear them anyway.
But, with IBOC, I have a better chance of picking up 10 local signals clearly no matter when I tune in. And because they will be local signals, they will sound the same day or night.
And if there are now 10 "new" clear channels in my area, programming will "have" to be varied, since if 6 of the 10 program "Coast to Coast AM"....probably only one station will get ratings and the other 5 could leave the air.
To recap; my point is that IBOC has the ability to make the AM band, "The New Band".....making it a destination place like FM: It will be "FM Like" 24/7........it will now always be local, and given the programs available off the bird, and the few that are locally programmed, the variety available to be heard should grow above and beyond what we can hear right now.
Lastly; hey...I love to listen to WBZ at night, because Steve LaVellies (sp) talk show is non-confrontational......so I find it to be "original", there is no yelling or arguing; it's easy-listening talk radio. But at 5am, it goes all local news, and I have no use for Boston Wx when I live in Northeast Pa. But if Steve is off, and I scan the dial, I rarely find anything but one or two talk shows (C.to C, or Truckin' Bozo) amidst the rest of the dial which is truly hash right now........neither show interests me, and the FM dial is filled with the same 300 songs I've heard 3000 times.......so the radio goes off.
IBOC, in my opinion will open up a whole new broadcasting frontier........and that is an idea that up to now, very few of us have thought about.
Comments?........
But I've had some time to think it all over again, since it was inevitable that IBOC would become the "future" and the future is now. And I took the liberty of re-reading everything I could find in Radio World from engineers and techs: many written by people I deeply respect.
My opinion "against" IBOC came from being a bit selfish: I love to DX. We all know that will be a thing of the past with IBOC, but then the AM band has been trashed for some time due to too many stations, power increases due to the cancellation of the frequency designations, but mainly because of man-made noise.
On AM, IBOC will make nearly every station "equal"........power levels will no longer be important because the digital signal travels only so far. It means hearing a "far away" station will be impossible; however, what you will hear will be clear signal without static, without drifting, and in CD quality stereo.
It is a given that listeners gravitated away from AM radio, not because of it's programming (i.e: if you like oldies and the only oldies station is AM, you would listen to it), but because of it's fidelity. Yes; AM stereo was a wonderful idea, but it failed simply because the FCC didn't get behind it. This time, the FCC is backing a system that works on both bands and benefits both bands, yet so many people are against it. It seems like a win/win, OR lose/lose situation depending on what camp you are from.
Lets look at this in a different perspective:
For those of us who dislike IBOC because of it's potential for adjacent channel hash/the loss of long distance listening, take this opportunity to scan the dial at night and listen closely to what you hear (you can do this during the day as well, because chances are I'll be right about this no matter when you tune in):
IF you can receive 20 clear channel stations at your location, you will notice that 15 of them are carrying the same programming: probably "Coast to Coast AM" with George Noory.
It's a good program, but you really only need one clear signal to hear it on. It is few clear channels today that program locally: so for those of us that like WBZ or KDKA; well we are going to lose reception of that programming. My local AM stations go to such low power at night that they blend into the background noice and I can't hear them anyway.
But, with IBOC, I have a better chance of picking up 10 local signals clearly no matter when I tune in. And because they will be local signals, they will sound the same day or night.
And if there are now 10 "new" clear channels in my area, programming will "have" to be varied, since if 6 of the 10 program "Coast to Coast AM"....probably only one station will get ratings and the other 5 could leave the air.
To recap; my point is that IBOC has the ability to make the AM band, "The New Band".....making it a destination place like FM: It will be "FM Like" 24/7........it will now always be local, and given the programs available off the bird, and the few that are locally programmed, the variety available to be heard should grow above and beyond what we can hear right now.
Lastly; hey...I love to listen to WBZ at night, because Steve LaVellies (sp) talk show is non-confrontational......so I find it to be "original", there is no yelling or arguing; it's easy-listening talk radio. But at 5am, it goes all local news, and I have no use for Boston Wx when I live in Northeast Pa. But if Steve is off, and I scan the dial, I rarely find anything but one or two talk shows (C.to C, or Truckin' Bozo) amidst the rest of the dial which is truly hash right now........neither show interests me, and the FM dial is filled with the same 300 songs I've heard 3000 times.......so the radio goes off.
IBOC, in my opinion will open up a whole new broadcasting frontier........and that is an idea that up to now, very few of us have thought about.
Comments?........
carlvenorden said:
I'm not sure where you got that information. Power levels matter just as much for IBOC as they do for analog. The distance at which you can "lock" the HD Radio signal is significantly less that the distance at which the analog signal is audible, but nevertheless, if the station reduced the entire signal, the distances are reduced for both analog and IBOC. And, if a skywave station is really nailing your receiver from 500 miles away, you might get the HD Radio bitstream to lock, too. Any signal at a given frequency "looks like analog" to the F-layer of the ionosphere. The ionosphere does not discriminate.
No, you won't. If the local analogs are too weak as it stands today, you have zero chance of getting their IBOC counterparts in the future.
Carl, I dunno where you got the notion that AM HD is "CD quality", but man it ain't! ???
In fact, the few samples I've been able to get online (there's no AM HD for 100 miles for me) don't sound much better than satellite radio -- in other words like a 48 kbps stream at best. Nowhere near CD quality.
I think the real solution to reviving the AM band would be forcefully killing off all those little 1,000 watt and under "locals" that give the graveyard frequencies their name... And not just at night - during the day, too. If the biz is gonna be serious about IBOC on AM, there's gonna have to be some serious pruning of the little guys. (According to the conspiracy theorists, this is what iBiquity wants anyway!) Impose a minimum power limit, say 5 or 10 kW on all the current local channels, with the necessary nighttime protections to maintain service in digital mode and have at it.
We'll still have our big 50 kW regionals, and all the smaller stations will have the power to cover this country's sprawling metros. And with a lot fewer stations, there'll be less boo-hoo-ing about 2nd/3rd adjancents interfering with distant out of town signals.
Call me crazy (everyone else does) but with or without IBOC going big, I think this is the long-term trend of AM anyway. Why not go ahead and make it official?
In fact, the few samples I've been able to get online (there's no AM HD for 100 miles for me) don't sound much better than satellite radio -- in other words like a 48 kbps stream at best. Nowhere near CD quality.
I think the real solution to reviving the AM band would be forcefully killing off all those little 1,000 watt and under "locals" that give the graveyard frequencies their name... And not just at night - during the day, too. If the biz is gonna be serious about IBOC on AM, there's gonna have to be some serious pruning of the little guys. (According to the conspiracy theorists, this is what iBiquity wants anyway!) Impose a minimum power limit, say 5 or 10 kW on all the current local channels, with the necessary nighttime protections to maintain service in digital mode and have at it.
We'll still have our big 50 kW regionals, and all the smaller stations will have the power to cover this country's sprawling metros. And with a lot fewer stations, there'll be less boo-hoo-ing about 2nd/3rd adjancents interfering with distant out of town signals.
Call me crazy (everyone else does) but with or without IBOC going big, I think this is the long-term trend of AM anyway. Why not go ahead and make it official?
Zach, what about moving a lot more of those lower-powered stations, with increased power, into the expanded band? That's 90kHz of mostly empty space across the country, and while I understand the arguments against filling it, I think it would be a great idea to upgrade a reasonable number of lower-powered locals on graveyard frequencies to the X-band. This would keep new stations from cropping up and creating a graveyard situation in the upper frequencies and would alleviate some of the problems on the graveyard frequencies that already exist in the band below 1610. Thoughts, anyone?
Josh, I'm sure that idea is viable. I think the expanded band could hold more stations without being too overcrowded. Of course the whole idea of the X-band was to decrease congestion but it seems the FCC botched that when they allowed the old frequencies to stay in use once a station made the move.
I still think that there's going to be some serious bloodletting on the AM dial, especially if IBOC really takes hold. In the graveyards, even in the daytime I think there's going to be some unforseen issues with doing digital during the day. At night it's gonna be really interesting. I wonder how many stations will just cut the IBOC off at night as they have been doing, because it'll be useless?
I still think that there's going to be some serious bloodletting on the AM dial, especially if IBOC really takes hold. In the graveyards, even in the daytime I think there's going to be some unforseen issues with doing digital during the day. At night it's gonna be really interesting. I wonder how many stations will just cut the IBOC off at night as they have been doing, because it'll be useless?
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