Let's talk cross-talk (SCA ?2)

[johnbasalla]

Cross-talk from the main channel into the SCA sound was a continual problem. I assume it's not as bad as it used to be. What are/were the best ways to eliminate or lower cross-talk, and how difficult is it? I've also heard of very minimal cross-talk coming from the SCA service onto the main channel, but never heard that myself. Any interesting stories? The only one I have is of a Radio Reading Service leaving a commercial Rock music FM station's subcarrier to that of an NPR station because, as the C.E. explained, the programming content better matches and there are less problems with cross-talk.

 

[nd2023]

If there's an HD station, put it on an HD2 or HD3. No crosstalk issues there, just IBUZ.

 

[RadeoEngineer]

I've run numerous SCA's in the past and I always found that minimizing cross talk meant keeping the transmitter well tuned for minimum AM noise. There was always a little CT into the SCA but from the SCA to the main was negligable. This was many years ago and modern exciters/transmitters probably do a bit better.

 

[ChiefEngineer]

We are using an SCA to route program material and no crosstalk with marti 1ru encoder/decoder and a 60s era CCA transmitter. Newer exciter. I have yet to hear any crosstalk.

 

[TomT]

Years back we had to use an SCA to feed an AM station. Fed the AM station audio into a phone line, tuned transmitter for minimum cross-talk. Crude, but it worked.

 

[radiosaur]

I used to engineer a CHR in the 80’s. There was never a problem with being louder than the cross town CHR station because they also ran a paging company and had the station loaded up with paging channel subcarriers. Every time the PD had the engineers jack up the main channel audio the pager engineer would begin screaming about data errors due to crosstalk. Clipping would certainly trash the subs.