Among AM HD Users, Opinions Vary
by Randy J. Stine, 09.02.2010
The experiences of broadcast engineers managing AM HD Radio signals appear to vary greatly.
(snip)
Noncommercial WKAR(AM) in East Lansing, Mich., launched HD Radio in 2005 but turned off the digital carrier in 2009, according to Harold Beer, chief engineer for WKAR, which is licensed to Michigan State University.
“After years of encouraging listeners to get better quality wideband AM radios, we ended up degrading their listening experience with a 5 kHz bandwidth, –35 dB SNR analog signal once we turned on the IBOC digital,” Beer said.
“We also collected a number of negative comments due to the digital carrier, including complaints about the buzz that was always present, especially if a listener had an analog tuned radio that was slightly off-channel.” WKAR is a daytime directional AM operating on 870 kHz with 10 kW.
A collection of stories dealing with the new in-band, on-channel (IBOC) technology used in HD Radio (tm) on the AM band
What's been your experience with AM IBOC?
Do you own or plan to buy an HD-capable radio?
Where will AM IBOC be in five years?
Welcome to AM-IBOC!
There's a lot of noise (pardon the pun) surrounding IBOC and HD Radio on the AM band today. This blog exists to highlight the stories being written about this technology. Since AM HD implementation was closely linked to FM, I've included some FM-only stories, too.
Pro and con, for and against, good and bad. Let's see where this goes.
Pro and con, for and against, good and bad. Let's see where this goes.
