[BC] GE Superadio III vs. IBOC hash

[Bailey, Scott]

   Arguments like these are why AM is just about dead. Nobody can agree
on anything, including everyone on this list! I can say that AM Stereo
would have been some sort of a savior, as far back as 1961, when the
commission allowed stereo on FM, but they took the attitude with AM, "if
it ain't broke, no sense in trying to fix it". But now, it's way too
late! How stupid could they have been!
   We only have on transmitter manufacture including an AM Stereo
exciter on with their box, and that's BE. There are not that many AM
stereo receivers in the field.  My 2003 Ford Explorer has AM stereo on
it, but there is only one station on AM in the Nashville Market that
plays any decent music that has the AM Exciter on, and that's WVOL on
1470. WVOL's format is Urban Oldies. WVOL uses a 5 KW BE box. Listening
to that station is a perfect example "of what could have been", if
people like Khan, the Harris big wigs, and Motorola would have came to
an agreement!
   Now, we here in the US have made a big mess of AM, and we now tend to
argue on how to clean it up. One problem is too many people have way too
much money tied up in their facilities and won't change to help the
masses come back to AM. Niche Programming is NOT the answer!

Rant Off....

Scott

-----Original Message-----
From: broadcast-bounces at radiolists.net
[mailto:broadcast-bounces at radiolists.net] On Behalf Of Kevin Tekel
Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2006 10:24 AM
To: broadcast at radiolists.net
Subject: [BC] GE Superadio III vs. IBOC hash

Robert Meuser wrote:
 > The problem with your statement is the the FCC or its predecessor set
 > up an unrealistic allocation system that has been further politically
 > corrupted over time.  Wideband radios do NOT work in today's
practical
 > broadcast environment.  This is a sad but true fact, except that we
CAN
 > employ some form of digital that will drastically improve the band
and
 > move radio into a new dimension.

Maybe so, but in that case we are going in the totally wrong direction
with hybrid IBOC.  If the band is already too crowded for +/- 10 kHz
analog to be practical, then +/- 15 kHz digital will be a total
disaster,
regardless if it "fits the mask" or not.

And FWIW, exlcuding IBOC hash, most of the complaints I hear about AM
reception these days aren't about adjacent-channel "monkey chatter";
they're about noise, static, and nighttime co-channel interference.
There are many AM stations out there whose signals get totally murdered
at
night because they're unlucky enough to be on a "graveyard channel".
Even
on a so-called "regional" channel, nighttime reception can become
sketchy
outside of a station's city-grade contour, and stations in the Expanded
Band often get hit with heavy co-channel skywave interference.

Restricting bandwidth -- at the transmitter and/or the receiver -- does
nothing to alleviate co-channel interference, and it is highly
questionable whether or not any kind of digital system (even DRM) would
be
able to work under these conditions.  The only effective solution is to
either clean out the band, or to pass a Constitutional amendment
officially declaring skywave propagation to be obsolete and illegal.





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