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WBZ in..

Western Michigan on Thursday night. I was around South Haven (the 33 mile marker on I-196) when my HD radio picked up the HD signal and station info. Obviously, they were talking about the Red Sox!! That is one heck of a signal for HD!
 
blamethemayo said:
wbz is a powerhouse.

Used to be - before they converted to IBOC. I used to be able to hear them easily in Texas, even West Texas, by nulling the closer 1030's. For some reason, they were much stronger than the New York stations. But since they converted to IBOC - NOTHING. GONE.
 
We measure AM station power by TPO not ERP. WBZ chose not to waste their power in the
Atlantic Ocean. They really have an ERP of 70,000 going west from Boston, MA.
 
I generally travel w/ my Bose radio and listen to it a lot on the road. WBZ came in well at night in VA (Shenandoah Valley), TN (about 1 hr N of Chatta.) and GA, (Atlanta metro, Warm Springs, Forsyth). In Lake City FL and Englewood FL, occasional traces not worth listening to.
Sometimes in late fall, early winter, it can be received 2-3 hrs before local sunset in SC. In VA (between Richmond and the NC state line) it's like a local the first hour or 2 of the day depending on the weather.
 
Comes in like a local in Rochester, NY. Unfortunately, IBOC hash usually kills KDKA which is what I want to listen to.
 
Heard it....quite well actually....in Flagstaff, AZ on an August night in the mid-60s.
 
Listening to it at night this week from Decatur, IL - as usual, it comes in well aside from the very occasional fade. I was actually listening to Dan Ray last night for about an hour and really didn't suffer for it.

WBZ is stronger over here than any of the New Yorkers and WTIC Hartford is displaced by KRLD Dallas.
 
I don't think WBZ's conversion to IBOC is the primary cause of their apparent inability to travel as far as they used to. I still get WBZ on occasion with the same strength as before. However, the signal gets covered by IBOC from 1040 WHO Des Moines where I live, and it makes it sound as if WBZ was weak or non-existent. Sometimes WHO is weak enough that WBZ punches right through, and when it does, it covers WHO. I don't know if KDKA runs IBOC on 1020; that could be another reason for WBZ's effective signal weakness.
 
Interesting, Phillip... because I'm in a spot where exactly the opposite happens. I usually get WBZ covering up WHO, and on the rare chance that WHO is strong, it covers up WBZ. The fickle ways of skywave, eh? ;D
 
Probably hearing the sidebands from WINS and WBZ. I know ever since the allowance date, I've had a hell of a time trying to pull in KDKA due to all the hash.
 
Ahhhh that's it, IBOC from WINS. I was wondering what throws hash on my local WMVP Chicago signal on some nights. Out here, WINS almost always gets overrun by CFRB Toronto, but that has no bearing on what WINS's HD Radio signal does.
 
blamethemayo said:
i really hope wbz (and the other stations) give up hd. it serves very little purpose and causes great harm.

Agreed. The technology is faulty within the confines of the present system. FM IBOC is far more worthwhile, but the AM dial would need to be completely reallocated for this to work dependably.

It should be scrapped.
 
AM isn't 'lost' as such because of IBOC per se- it's because the FCC is willing to let anything *like* IBOC on the air (not to mention all the flea-power permits). Out-of-market listening apparently doesn't pay the bills.
 
The night of the Iowa caucuses I was trying to listen to WHO for the up to date reports (WHO does throw a listenable signal into the east) but the IBOC hiss from 1030 was almost impossible to null out. Probably less than 1 degree of reception. KDKA is unlistenable because of WBZ's IBOC as well. I can't null out the south side of WBZ. It's a shame that there are not any AM fans on the FCC.
WBZ does have a great signal..I can remember driving on I-30 in NE Texas listening to the Stanley Cup playoffs on WBZ.
Strangely enough, a few years ago I contacted WBZ because I was receiving in SE PA the signal of a drop in from Memphis TN under their signal. A few days after I was unable to get that Memphis station and have not received it up here to this day. Now they step all over their neighbors with abandon.
I get the impression that IBOC is not being adapted by the public. I 've never talked to any non-radio head that ever heard about it. There has to be a better way.
 
From Chester County, PA, I tend to hear some IBOC hiss from WBZ but not so much that I can't null it out to hear KDKA. It depends on the conditions each night because some nights, WBZ's hiss isn't strong enough to cause problems. Many nights, I can't detect any hiss from 'BZ at all. It just depends on the atmospheric conditions.

KYW, on the other hand, hisses all over the place at my location - adversely impacting 1040 WHO, 1050 WEPN/CHUM, 1070 CBA and 1080 WTIC. When KYW's nighttime IBOC (a.k.a. Soviet-era jammer) is off, all come in here. The frequencies at 1050 and 1070 are nigh impossible to hear over the crappy hiss and now WTIC's previously good signal is buried under high-pitched noise. It will really pi$$ me off next summer during Red Sox season, that's for sure. And, I listen with some good world band radios - not cheapies. So, don't come on here and tell me how it's limited "only" to between 1050 and 1070 because it ain't so. Even good radios pick up the splatter 20 kHz out on each side.

When it comes to hiss on 1040, look to KYW as a culprit just as much as WBZ. They are, by far, the worst offender at my location.

About IBOC, we are in total agreement. There has to be a better way because this isn't cutting it. All this interference for what? So that the 5 people with HD radios who live within 10 miles of the 50 kw transmitter can hear HD? At the expense of everyone else? Because most HD radios won't achieve lock with much less than a perfect signal.

Ironically, CBS radio has the answer for KYW - plopping it on an HD-2 channel of one of the FM stations. Great idea. Now, why not just dismantle the damn AM hashmaker? All it does is cause interference and make the analog feed sound flat. In fact, this is a great answer for most of the big broadcasters. Because FM HD can be viable - unlike AM. Bring back C-QUAM stereo for AM instead!
 
dxho said:
AM isn't 'lost' as such because of IBOC per se- it's because the FCC is willing to let anything *like* IBOC on the air (not to mention all the flea-power permits). Out-of-market listening apparently doesn't pay the bills.

Are we really sure about that? A whole lot of commercials I am hearing these days are for national chains / national products, etc. Therefore they are as relevant 1000 miles away as they are local.
 
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