[IRCA] "HD" DX?

[Barry McLarnon <bdm@xxxxxxxxxx>]

No, I haven't gone over to the dark side, but I did get a chance to borrow a 
Boston Acoustics "HD" receiver and play with it a bit.  I'm not in range of 
any FM IBOC stations, so I've mostly been trying it out on AM.  It's a fair 
to middlin' AM receiver when connected to a decent antenna, though somewhat 
prone to front end overload from strong local signals.  Of course, I was 
particular interested in seeing what the receiver would do with AM IBOC 
skywave signals, so I spent some time checking them out around sunset today.  
I found that a surprising number of stations (e.g., WFAN, WCBS, WGY, WHAM) 
are shutting off their IBOC at local sunset rather than leaving it on until 6 
pm as they are permitted to do - not exactly a ringing endorsement of the 
technology when they don't keep it on as long as they can.

Anyway, I found a total of 10 stations that the receiver recognized as running 
IBOC (i.e., the "HD" symbol on the display lit up).  Of those, only three 
decoded to the point of producing a display of the callsign: WBZ, WTIC and 
WDCD.  The most interesting reception was of WDCD (1540, Albany NY, 205 miles 
from me), where I actually received the digital audio stream, for a grand 
total of about 5 seconds.  There wasn't a huge change in audio quality - the 
striking change was the sudden disappearance of co-channel interference 
(mainly from CHIN).  Aside from that one brief burst, I had zilch digital 
audio decoding from a host of strong IBOC signals.

So, is this the first reported instance of AM IBOC audio reception via 
skywave?  Even if I can claim that dubious distinction, it certainly doesn't 
change my opinion, expressed years ago, that AM IBOC would be an absolute dud 
as far as DX'ers are concerned, and is a train wreck in general.

Barry

-- 
Barry McLarnon  VE3JF  Ottawa, ON
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