[BC] FCC Deletes digital report from today's meeting

[Peter Moncure]

Stan Tacker wrote:
>My point was this...At night, interference adds up.  Thus, nighttime
>interference from IBOC operation is not a local issue. It impacts everyone
>on the center frequency and each adjacent channel.
The naked emperor here is that FCC has never adequately addressed 
protected skywave areas.  While manmade noise in the MW band has 
significantly increased in the 50+ years since the regs were written, 
the average skywave fields are drastically underestimated, perhaps by 
10 dB or more in many cases, when compared with FCC's 
formulae.  These calculations predict skywave fields over 3 mV/M in 
almost no cases anywhere, and that is clearly in error.

This raises several points.

While the ratio is to some extent a wash, since interferer and victim 
are both underestimated, it is not so clear how to combine these 
larger-than-predicted interfering fields, or how to assess them in 
conjunction with the various Ibiquity digital modulations.  I offer 
the IBUZ nighttime debacle as a way to re-examine actual skywave 
performance.  Though its market may suffer from satellite 
competition, I believe there is a place for a reasonably 
interference-free AM skywave service in more than just nostalgic memory.

If I were the Emperor of FCC, and had no armies of lawyers to inhibit 
my decrees, I would
1) immediately require all AM receivers manufactured or sold in the 
USA to be capable of digital service with upgradeable codecs, from at 
least DRM and Ibiquity,
2) set a date for conversion of all AM service above 1600 kHz to 
standalone digital, and a later date for <1610 kHz.
3) fund a committee to measure skywave signals both analog and Ibiquity.

If nighttime service is necessary to preserve the AM band, it should 
be planned with data in hand.  Though our software was extensively 
used by Ibiquity to model coverage, I am guilty of not insisting that 
it be done better initially.  I understand that there are large 
political pressures to preserve the status quo in the large markets, 
especially for the clears, but this may prove shortsighted.


-- 
Peter Moncure, VP RadioSoft