[BC] IBOC in trouble?

[WFIFeng@aol.com]

In a message dated 07/27/2005 3:55:46 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
lowen at pari.edu writes:

> Securely flashing over the air with consumer receivers is going to be 
>  interesting.  I can just see the crackers with home-brew AM transmitters 
>  cracking into all those IBOC receivers...and I can also see all the issues 
>  with bad flashing, too.

That's a good point... but how likely is this to occur? Granted, the threat 
is non-zero... but how often, for example, have we seen computer whiz kids 
(with too much time on their hands) hack into the EAS with sound-card generated 
tones & a small transmitter near a station's studios? None, to my knowledge. 
Although, I suppose the "thrill" factor of destroying a bunch of radios would 
higher, considering the fact that there'd be little chance of getting caught, 
compared to the EAS scenario... but really, how many susceptible radios would be 
within range of said LP transmitter?

I suspect that the threat level would be slightly greater from a disgruntled 
employee at a station, than from a kid's "toy".

The bad-flashing scenario would probably be the greater concern... suddenly, 
a number of radios HD sections "drop dead" when bad code is mistakenly fed 
from the station? Hmmm, probably not too likely. Might afflict a receiver here or 
there. That's something that would have to be field-tested... and is probably 
too expensive to make robust, thus is why a fixed codec is being proposed.

Now, a radio with a USB port that could be flashed by the user's PC or "thumb 
drive"... there's an idea that might be plausible... but how many would 
bother, or even care to figure it out? The average level of technical expertise of 
John & Jane Q Public is "If it stops working, whack it! If that doesn't work, 
change the battery. If that doesn't work, chuck it."

Willie...