WHAM has been shutting IBOC off at night

[JohnW]

I've noticed that WHAM's IBOC hash has been off at night lately. I wonder if I am the only one who notices (either way)....

 

[JohnnyElectron]

Yes, we do care, about only 83, make that 82, of the 'hundreds' of daytime AM-HD stations actually still run HD at night. There is a website that lists all the stations that turn off the HD at night now, and those that have dumped it all together. Do a search for it, or maybe somebody can add the link to this thread that tells the true list of who bothers to keep HD-AM on at night anymore.

 

[audioguy]

Add WSCR, AM 670 to that list, at least for the past few days... no idea if this is temporary or not.

 

[KB1OKL]

http://topazdesigns.com/iboc/station-list.html

 

[fybush]

WHAM turned off its nighttime IBOC on corporate orders, to reduce the noise floor for sister station WWVA while it's running at low power after losing its towers.

Can't say I've missed it...

 

[JohnnyElectron]

Scott wrote: "...WHAM turned off its nighttime IBOC on corporate orders, to reduce the noise floor for sister station WWVA while it's running at low power after losing its towers..."

WHAT?
AM-HD at night causes interference to 1st adjacent stations?
Tell me it isn't so Easter Bunny! (that's because there really is a Santa Claus)

 

[Tom Wells]

Amazingly, WSCR 670 has had theirs off for several days. And with the iboc off there isn't any more parasitic
oscillation adding buzzes to the audio peaks. Or what ever that rasp could have been.
Sounded like a good old fashioned parasitic.

 

[calstymes]

Tom Wells did observe:

Amazingly, WSCR 670 has had theirs off for several days. And with the iboc off there isn't any more parasitic
oscillation adding buzzes to the audio peaks. Or what ever that rasp could have been.
Sounded like a good old fashioned parasitic.

Radio fans from all around Chicago are enjoying the sound of the new WSCR 670. We should all let management know we appreciate them making the station sound good again by dropping IBOC.

 

[KB1OKL]

I can't wait to check that out, I'm setting up a new AM DX er I mean radio listening post with two close to 1000' beverage antennas, a Misek phaser to "steer" them and two receivers: an R-390A and a Super Pro 600. All I need to do is make some sort of balun so I can run them both from the output of the phaser. That's called Heavy Weight Radio

 

[Tom Wells]

Tom Wells did observe:

Amazingly, WSCR 670 has had theirs off for several days. And with the iboc off there isn't any more parasitic
oscillation adding buzzes to the audio peaks. Or what ever that rasp could have been.
Sounded like a good old fashioned parasitic.

Radio fans from all around Chicago are enjoying the sound of the new WSCR 670. We should all let management know we appreciate them making the station sound good again by dropping IBOC.

It's back today and they've gotten the "rasp" 90% gone. Still a tiny bit left.

Bigger question is why WTMJ in Milwaukee is stuck with rev 1 ( with sidebands way close in, and lots of hiss on the host analog as a result)?

 

[spunker88]

Im pretty sure its because of WWVA running at reduced power. WWVA's signal would probably be overpowered by WHAM's IBOC signal at night. Even when WWVA was running 50kw, it was still being bombarded pretty good by WHAM where I am in Upstate NY. Since both stations have a common owner its easy enough to do.

 

[Link]

It would be great if they had to file an sta to stop running HD at night. Then they could explain they are doing it to avoid interfering with the adjacent channel.

 

[KB1OKL]

Im pretty sure its because of WWVA running at reduced power. WWVA's signal would probably be overpowered by WHAM's IBOC signal at night. Even when WWVA was running 50kw, it was still being bombarded pretty good by WHAM where I am in Upstate NY. Since both stations have a common owner its easy enough to do.

Yes and that's hypocrisy at it's worst.

 

[davideduardo]

Im pretty sure its because of WWVA running at reduced power. WWVA's signal would probably be overpowered by WHAM's IBOC signal at night. Even when WWVA was running 50kw, it was still being bombarded pretty good by WHAM where I am in Upstate NY. Since both stations have a common owner its easy enough to do.

And the Wheeling metro survey area suddenly includes a county in "upstate NY?"

 

[KB1OKL]

Im pretty sure its because of WWVA running at reduced power. WWVA's signal would probably be overpowered by WHAM's IBOC signal at night. Even when WWVA was running 50kw, it was still being bombarded pretty good by WHAM where I am in Upstate NY. Since both stations have a common owner its easy enough to do.

And the Wheeling metro survey area suddenly includes a county in "upstate NY?"

Radio listeners don't give a hoot whether they are in a stations protected contour or not, they just listen.

 

[davideduardo]

Radio listeners don't give a hoot whether they are in a stations protected contour or not, they just listen.

Very few. Very very few do listen outside a station's immediate market area.

Even fewer listen at night, because night radio listening is a small percentage of daytime listening.

And stations derive no revenue... essential to continue operating... from outside the local market.

 

[tomservo]

Radio listeners don't give a hoot whether they are in a stations protected contour or not, they just listen.

And the FCC doesn't care about anyone outside that mythical blue circle on the contour maps. The advertisers don't even care about anyone outside the core service area, unless it's a rural station like what I've got around me. I hear ads for my town's businesses on stations that are distant, but only because we're part of a greater rural region with few media choices compared to, say, Buffalo or Sacramento. Some of these stations do sell outside their primary coverage area, but only because the Delta is flat as a flitter and the signals really do propagate much further than the predicted models. But the stations are by no means guaranteed those listeners should another first adjacent signal or HD signal from out of the area find its way into the listener's radio in place of the target station.

No advertiser in Memphis is targeting the Batesville, Mississippi listener, even though many AMs and a few of their FMs easily make the 56 mile air trip down the highway. And certainly no advertiser on WSB gives a hoot about a DXer in Brainerd, Minnesota listening to Re-Boortz at 3 am.

I like DX, you like DX, but we are a minority at the whims of progress and business. FM skip is not really a factor enough to make HD interference widespread, but AM HD at night is a disaster, on that we agree. It should be turned off across the board.

 

[Tom Wells]

When I used to have work in Senatobia, I was always sad when WEVL faded out about 20 miles north of there.

Is the Como Steakhouse still in business?

 

[Savage]

And until The Great IBOC Killer In The Sky sent a microburst to (tragically) silence WWVA, I can attest firsthand: the IBOC interference from 1170 was killing critical hours and night WHAM coverage in almost every county of the Rochester SMSA except Monroe.

Ummm....I believe WHAM's nighttime protected contour extends a couple hundred miles.

I know, I know. Who cares? They can listen online, right??

But let an IBOC perpetrator get stepped on in the tiniest sense with one teaspoonful of interference, and they scream like bloody murder and get their FCC lackeys to hand them what they want on a silver platter. As in: CBS vs. WNYC's site move recently.

The hypocrisy in HD Radio is knee-deep and piling higher and deeper. And the stupidity of the interference is magnified by the system's utter irrelevance in the marketplace.

 

[JohnnyElectron]

Did 670 Chicago go to the 'wideband' version of IBOC where the main channel has the old 10KHz audio bandwidth (and only the neighbors get stepped-on)?
What's really tragic is when WFAN would run IBOC at night and trash the mighty AM650 WSM on G.O.O. Saturday Nights