KDKA wipe out by WBZ

[amfmsw]

I'm in South Jersey. We have a local daytimer WIBG on 1020Kc. At night I USED to be able to listen to KDKA clearly. Now, WBZ wipes them out with HD buzzsaw. And if Boston doesn't kill 'em, WINS 1010 in NYC finishes them off.

 

[Jordan327]

Well, maybe its a good thing. You're not missing much.

 

[trefdawg]

Hey, I live near Steubenville Ohio...ahhh 25+ miles from the KDKA tower and the Boston Tea Party knocks it out big time.

 

[71dude]

Don't sweat it guys - it's only Neal Boortz and Bill O'Reilly you're not hearing.

 

[Snafu]

These days the night time signal isn't much of anything east of Blairsville. Not that there would be anything interesting to listen to anyway.

 

[JohnW]

I'm in Rochester, NY and WBZ kills 2 that I listen to. I listen to KDKA because my son lives in Pittsburgh. I also lose local WYSL (1040) at night due to the hash. IBOC is killing nighttime AM for anyone interested in skywave listening.

 

[trefdawg]

Don't worry I'm not sweating it. I get my hit of O'Reily live via 1370 out of Moundsville or 1430 out of Weirton. However I would be one p'd Pittsburgh Pirate Fan at night if I was still trying to catch a late night radio only game on 1020...guess it's good that the Pirate flagship is 104.7FM.

 

[collegeDJ86]

WBZ's nighttime IBOC has actually been documented in a formal complaint by Rochester's WYSL (1040 AM).

Read the article here: http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0049/t.9916.html

 

[FreddyE1977]

I lived in Michigan in the early 90's, and WBZ would wipe KD off the dial there, years before IBOC.
I also spend a lot of time in Somerset County (60 miles from Pittsburgh) and KD's signal is very poor
there. I think a lot has to do with poor ground conductivity as compared to Boston, Michigan, New
Jersey, and other areas that are swampier. True you guys in Rochester are not missing much except
medical infomercials and Carol Lee Espy hosting Tradio. (sorry for the shaky keystrokes, it's just
Frank Conrad rolling over in his grave).

Not that I disagree with your comments about IBOC. WEAE wipes a good 60 MHz off of my
nighttime dial. Very irritating (although it is fun to listen to Madden on analog lisping his
way through 4 hrs. every day)

 

[BRNout]

Does KYW cause problems for any of you out there? Recently, they've gone back to using the HD jammer at night and within 30 miles of Philly it obliterates everything between 1040 and 1080 and can even be heard under WBZ and WBAL.

 

[Pratte4Life]

I'm an idiot- but I know I'd be more idiotic if I didn't ask-

Could you please tell me what an HD jammer is, and what IBOC stands for?

 

[FreddyE1977]

you're not an idiot, I only learned it recently myself by investigating the pain that
WEAE's digital signal was causing me.

IBOC stands for In-Board-On-Channel. It is a method of digital broadcasting whereby a digital signal
is sandwiched around the existing audio signal on an AM station. In order to accommodate this the
analog signal's bandwith needs to be scrunched down, making the analog audio sound like a phone
call on the old Export Telephone Co. On an analog receiver it sounds like that streaming noise you get
on a dial-up modem. Not working as advertised, the buzzing noise of the sidebands seems to extend
far beyond the 10kHz channel assignment. (minds more witty than mine have referred to it as In-
Board-Adjacent-Channel). WEAE's tower is close enough to my home that it blows away an entire
60kHz of my AM band. (I mis-spoke earlier when I said 60MHz. They don't blow away the whole band,
yet). The thing I fail to grasp is why stations want to make their analog signal sound like crud when
that is the way 99.3% of their audience is hearing them.

I would have to guess on the HD Jammer, but I believe that some vigilantes have taken after IBOC, much as some irritated people have acquired illegal cell phone jammers. In theory it would be very easy to disrupt IBOC. You would not even need a carrier to be on full time, you would just need to send out an occasional disruptive burst of code to disrupt the stream. A jumpy, erratic and congested stream will not do wonders for HD receiver sales.

 

[Savage]

I agree, you're not an idiot. But IBOC actually stands for In-BAND, on-channel. In other words, "we can do analog AND digital all at once on ONE convenient dial spot!" The only problem being: it can't be done, not with 10 kHz bandwidth. IBOC amounts to a feat of engineering legerdemain kind of like trying to pick yourself and all your weight up off the floor by grasping your shoelaces and lifting firmly.

Get the skinny at:

www.StopIBOC.com

 

[FreddyE1977]

when my sister was taking a vote on what to buy my dad for his 70th. birthday,
and the choice came down to a state-of-the-art digital printer or an HD radio,
I cast the deciding vote for the printer.

Making the world safe for skywave....one less HD receiver at a time.

 

[pqgeorge]

when my sister was taking a vote on what to buy my dad for his 70th. birthday,
and the choice came down to a state-of-the-art digital printer or an HD radio,
I cast the deciding vote for the printer.

Making the world safe for skywave....one less HD receiver at a time.

I personally am a little peeved that I cannot listen so well to KDKA anymore, like I used to. I love listening to "Dr. Knowledge" on KDKA even here in WBZ's backyard in Whitman, MA. I'm using an old DF receiver (mainly for LW aeronautical beacon use) that also works on the AM band as well. I am just about able to tightly notch out 'BZ's IBOC hash and am able to hear KD's signal, though very sporatically between WBZ and WINS's IBOC slop. I really don't think that this IBOC on AM is going to fly for long. It's very destructive to the AM band and simply ruins the sound of AM radio, already damaged with the NRSC pre-emphasis curve and the Clear Channel's mandate to squeeze AM's bandwidth even moreso.