Re: [IRCA] [NRC-AM] 1010 WINS TO SIGN OFF TONIGHT

["Neil Kazaross" <neilkaz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Herein lies the problem with this flawed tech. A super power 50 KW ND local 
and you can't keep it locked in 18 miles away at Jim's fine QTH !! I remain 
amazed that the FCC hasn't shelved AM HD !!

Anyhow..what is needed for AM is for the FCC to pressure power companies 
about endless line noise (they don't care in IL) and to pressure device 
makers to add that 10 cent part to reduce AM emissions and to do their part 
to put decent analog AM sections in car rx's.

18 miles and you can't listen to WHAM in HD ..OMG .. 73 gagging KAZ

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Scott Fybush" <scott@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Neil Kazaross" <neilkaz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; "Mailing list for the 
International Radio Club of America" <irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: <am@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, August 03, 2007 9:18 PM
Subject: Re: [IRCA] [NRC-AM] 1010 WINS TO SIGN OFF TONIGHT


> Neil Kazaross wrote:
>> This is not a flame, but please allow me to ask, and you answer from a 
>> broadcaster's perspective !
>>
>> What is the point of HD on AM news talk stations that don't play any 
>> music ?
>
> If Paul won't take this one on, I'm fool enough to try.
>
> Keep in mind that even though we all know that analog radio, if not 
> bandwidth-constrained, can sound extremely good on a properly-designed 
> receiver under optimum signal conditions, most broadcasters have long 
> since become accustomed to the cruddy, muffled sound that's typical of the 
> AM section of most contemporary radios.
>
> If you believe that that's what analog AM sounds like (and for the 
> majority of listeners these days, that IS what analog AM sounds like), the 
> improved frequency response and low (nonexistent, actually) noise floor of 
> AM HD seems like an attractive prospect, especially for AM news-talkers 
> competing against the growing number of FM stations finding success with 
> news-talk formats (Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City, just to name a few 
> big examples.)
>
> I've spent some time listening to New York's WOR in HD, and a little time 
> listening to my local WHAM in HD (can't stand most of the programming 
> there, so I don't spend a lot of time with it!), and there's something to 
> be said for hearing the music bumpers and such in stereo and with more 
> than 5 kHz frequency response.
>
> Unfortunately, at least to my ears, the reality doesn't live up to the 
> hype where AM HD is concerned - at least not yet. The limited bitrate 
> available for the AM HD signal (24 kbps) leads to annoying artifacting on 
> all but the very best-processed stations (KFAB in Omaha is probably the 
> best-sounding HD AM news-talker I've heard so far, in part because they 
> roll off the digital audio at about 12 kHz to give the codec an easier 
> job), and of course we all know about the adjacent-channel interference 
> issues and the nighttime skywave issues.
>
> There's also the issue of very limited usable range for the digital signal 
> at current power levels. When we had our weekend get-together out at Jim 
> Renfrew's place in Clarendon last weekend, I could hear just one HD AM 
> signal, WLGZ 990 at about 8 miles distant, and even that one not very 
> well. WHAM 1180, with 50 kW at perhaps 18 miles, decoded for only a few 
> seconds, and WHTK 1280 (5 kW ND at 23 miles or so) not at all.
>
> That's not the story broadcasters were sold in the early years of HD, and 
> many of the AM stations that adopted the system did so with hopes of a 
> much better system than it's turned out to be.
>
> In this particular case (1010 WINS), I really wonder what they'll 
> accomplish. WINS already suffers from some painfully tight DA nulls - it's 
> all but inaudible for big chunks of my usual NYC commute, from my cousin's 
> house in Montebello, Rockland County (less than 25 miles from the 50 kW 
> transmitter) down the Thruway and the Palisades to the George Washington 
> Bridge. I don't have HD in my car yet, but it's hard to imagine that an HD 
> signal on 1010 would be very useful during that drive, either. The audio 
> from WINS is already carried as an HD2 on sister station WWFS 102.7, which 
> can be clearly heard in many of the areas of New Jersey and upstate NY 
> that 1010 doesn't reach well.
>
> s
>

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