[IRCA] IBOC Reality

["Don Niccum" <donn@xxxxxxx>]

My wife does contract engineering and there is not an IBOC station in the
bunch.
Not only that, but there is no interest in any of her clients adding IBOC.
The primary reasons are lack of receivers and cost.  If the FCC does the
unthinkable
and makes Ibiquity IBOC mandatory, the cost will bankrupt a lot of small
broadcasters
around the country.  Plus the mandatory yearly licensing fees.  I thought it
was not legal
for the government to mandate something that would give one company a
monopoly?

IBOC looks good on paper but in this case, reality is biting.  The laws of
physics are
what they are and are not likely to change anytime soon no matter how many
desk bound
bureaucrats try to change them.  If the digital signal interferes with
adjacent channels, if it
does not fit within the NRSC mask as currently spelled out in the rules, it
is in violation of
FCC rules.  Period.  Time to write up the NOVs.

Sometimes, the best test equipment in the world does not tell the true
story.  Maybe it's
time to put the spectrum analyzers away and turn on an analog radio.
What the public is going to hear is what matters.

I am not professing the be an expert on IBOC, but all of the engineers that
I have personally
talked to about IBOC have nothing good to say about it.  I have heard IBOC
transmitters
referred to as "future backup transmitters".

Just because it says "digital" on the box does not necessarily mean it is
better.  I have this
feeling that if it becomes mandatory, someone is going to file suit.  Should
be an
interesting show.

And to all of you politicians out there, I would hate to be running for
elective office when
the public is told that their analog radios are no longer any good and they
have to shell
out hard earned bucks to buy digital radios if they want to listen.  All
because the
government says so.

Don Niccum
Roswell, NM
donn at dfn.com

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