Thunderstorms wreak havoc with MY reception!

[Chuck]

At this point other than doing HD on a translator for experimental reasons, I can't see the benefit for spending the money on moving to IBOC. It would be a great time however to have special rules written for translators concerning the percentage of digital to analog RF. Due to the very limited coverage provided by translators maybe a 250 watt translator could transmit 50 watts of digital power or some mathematical calculation where the digital coverage would be 100% of the analog signal.

I think that would be very reasonable, and that is probably what it would take to make this actually work. Somewhere, there is a minimum power level that gives acceptable results. When you go below that point, (whatever it is) HD becomes an exercise in futility. My gut feeling is for HD to really work well in a hybrid world, the digital signal needs to be about 10% of the analog signal. The problem with that is the interference that it potentially creates. Perhaps as people get a little more experience with this, at least on FM, the digital power can be increased enough to make it work really well.

Since translators frequently only protect second adjacent channels, increased interference could be an issue. Obviously, it would increase interference somewhat, but would it really matter in the real world? I doubt that a 25 watt or even a 50 watt digital signal would cause huge problems for its neighbors.

I'll bet that if Ibiquity could get the rules changed to allow translators (and LPFM's too, since they are more or less the same beast) to have a minimum HD signal level in the 25-50 watt range, you'd have a lot of people very interested in coming on board. I would, especially if Ibiquity came up with a licensing plan that was in line with the economics of running these things. With few exceptions, they are not exactly cash generators.