[IRCA] Waiting for the sky to fall...

[Scott Fybush <scott@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Here's my very preliminary report for the first night of 24/7 IBOC:

I ran a "baseline" bandscan starting at 11:45 or so - started at 530 and 
worked my way up the dial every 10 seconds or so, taking sketchy notes 
and rolling audio, just to have some clips of what things sounded like 
"before."

About 12:25 AM, I went back to the channels that were noted on the 
mailing lists as running IBOC.

700 is still loud and clear here with WLW, just as it was before midnight.

720 is taking a beating from WOR - WGN is there, but with a lot of noise 
over it that wasn't there before.

1090 has hash audible, but I can null the hash from WTAM and get clean WBAL.

1110 has some noise under WBT, but WBT is still listenable.

1130 still has clean WBBR, maybe even better than it was before midnight.

1150 still has some CKOC, no real sign of WRVA hash.

1200 was a mess anyway.

1220 still has WHK, with some noise beneath.

No obvious signs of hash anywhere else on the dial.

That was analog, on the R8A with the McKay Dymek DA5 antenna.

Now, heading for digital, to the Sangean HDT-1 with the supplied loop:

No sign of any HD signals on 700, 1100, 1140 or 1210 - not even the 
callsign data that has come through via skywave on other signals (WBZ) 
in the past.

WLW is reasonably clean in analog. WGN is audible, but with noise over it.

1090 and 1110 both clean in analog. 1130 and 1220 listenable as well.

Conclusions?

It's too soon to tell! None of my locals is running IBOC tonight - no 
sign of it on WLGZ 990, WHAM 1180 or WHTK 1280. I'd expect WHAM, which 
is ND-U, to have it on tomorrow night. I understand WLGZ and WHTK may 
both have issues to resolve with their nighttime DAs.

If any of the NYC signals besides WOR have IBOC on now, I can't tell 
from here. WSM and WSCR are clean here, ditto WGN/WBBM and WWL/WLS.

At least based on what's on RIGHT NOW (which can certainly change in a 
day or a week), this barely impinges on any actual DX here. We'll see if 
that remains the case as more stations sign on. I'm not looking forward 
to my locals turning on 24/7 digital, in any case.

s
Rochester NY
_______________________________________________
IRCA mailing list
IRCA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca

Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers

For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org

To Post a message: irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx