[BC] NYC IBUZ on 660-880

[Mark Humphrey]

On 6/25/06, Stan Tacker <stacker at krvt.com> wrote:
> Here's a question.  What do you suppose is the percentage of IBOC AM
> stations that have installed the system, but operate without it?

One AM station in this market (Philadelphia) installed it last year
and had it running during the NAB Radio Show, but now it's turned off
and no longer listed on the HD Radio website.  I've been told they had
trouble with poor pattern bandwidth and other antenna-related issues.

I do hear (and have measured) the digital noise of WCBS and WFAN down
here. Although it doesn't seem to interfere with local stations, it's
not nearly strong enough to decode.  Even WOR, the best New York
signal in this direction (with a predicted field strength better than
1 mV/m) will not play in digital, although sometimes my receiver will
decode their callsign.

So far, my drive tests with the JVC have shown that a predicted field
strength of 10 mV/m (6 dB higher than "city-grade") is necessary for
better than 50 percent AM digital coverage while driving roads with
overhead power lines.   Maybe the HD Alliance needs to undertake a
fundraising campaign to pay the utilities to replace those leaky
insulators!    In quiet areas, around 5 mV/m is sufficient, unless
there's a thunderstorm within 20 miles.  Frequent static crashes wreak
total havoc on the decoding process.

Mark