We have never heard a good word about so-called HD radio, the iBah digital hash-trash messing up the AM dial, and have yet to meet anyone who owns an HD radio.
But the press is on to force the AM band to go ALL HD, as demonstrated at the NAB Show, just concluded. Here's the whole story
http://www.diymedia.net/archive/0413.htm#041113
We naturally tend to perceive things from our own personal observations and experience and this is what I will do here.
I used to listen to a local non-commercial AM station which aired semi-local news material from the Ohio News Network during the day and which had locally produced programming, a different topic each of the five nights of the week, where listeners could call in and talk to experts on car care, gardening, travel, computers, and finances. These repeated on specific nights of the week. In the late morning, there was a locally hosted two hour call in on general topics of interest. A few hours in the afternoon NPR news was aired. The station, with local programming and familiar hosts, created a sense of community.
When three of the "old time" hosts retired the programs were replaced with BBC news feeds. The ONN news was curtailed and replaced with expanded NPR "fluff" programs. The local flavor and sense of community were lost and I stopped listening. Listener numbers decreased and since this was a listener supported station (I sent them $60/year) revenue dropped. The station was sold and is now broadcasting religious programming for a church.
In this example, technical limitations of AM had nothing to do with the demise.
My wife enjoys classical music and the classical FM station, operated by the same university as the AM station above, moved the classical programming to HD channels and put NPR all day long on the main channel. I researched HD receivers and found that they cost around $60 to $100 and do not work in my area so this option was dropped. We found an alternative source, a cable subscription to a music package which is housecasted via my FM transmitter. When mobile, the source is CDs.
Almost all of the programming entering our house is now via off air cable, web streaming, or satellite where the choices are greater and the commercials are gone. The exception is the listener supported PBS TV station operated by the same university as above. The reason this remains is that my wife enjoys the programming. It has nothing to do with the technology.
From my experience and point of view there is no technology fix for the stations using the AM band and I predict that if the HD scheme is implemented and AM goes dark that listenership will plummet. I am not going to replace all my AM receivers for programming I don't want to hear and I suspect many others who want over the air programming will just switch to FM.
Another example is mobile satellite radio. I had a trial subscription when I purchased a new vehicle and dropped it because the programs were the same low quality junk that I could receive free over the air. Even the satellite only programs were loaded with commercials and I just didn't want to listen. Again, this is only my perception.
Mr. Walden who was cited in the article Carl linked is promoting HD to replace AM and has presented his case to the FCC but he is one of the inventors of IBOC so his bias is obvious.
That's my take on this.
Neil
Imagine a world in which licensed AM was forced to go digital. Many stations would go dark and the band would have more open channels.
In this imaginary future Part 15 AM analog radio is still possible.
It might be the best thing that ever happened.
People with analog AM radios could tune around and find a Part 15 station, or start a Part 15 station based on the suceess of this website and the ALPB.
Eventually HD would fade away for lack of radios and Part 15 would own the dial.
This is the best news I've ever dreamed up.
Don't worry!
this won't happen for a while...quite a while. Said it would be the end of the decade before they even had a plan in place.
Then the "old"AM band should be open to hobby broadcasting with a higher power limit.
Mark
...Then the "old"AM band should be open to hobby broadcasting with a higher power limit.
We can hope but I put the chances of this happening at about 1 percent. Look at what happened when the higher UHF channels were vacated. The spectrum was auctioned off to the highest bidders. A vacated AM band would most likely be converted to the advantage of commercial interests. This has been the history of radio regulation since the Comm. Act of 1934. As an example, except for emergencies, ham radio operators are not allowed to pass messages unless they are of such little consequence that recourse to commercial services is not warranted. This was to protect Western Union, Bell, and other telegram services. The bias is always in favor of commercial over hobby or individual uses.
Neil
We've got to become greedy rich hobbyists with large lobbies between the front door and the living room.
We must arise by raising 4-meter antennas in protest against the opressors.
Stick to the same story throughout your whole life: the 50,000 Watt station in town is on MY FREQUENCY!
We must print our own Rule Book the way we want it!
Throw away the pulp trash FCC rule book.
Buy security uniforms for everyone in the family including the pets and put them on 24-hour alert!
Hobbyists are no fools!
Guess it kinda slipped my mind...government is run by corporations.
Mark
The ALPB will conquer the AM Band and I plan to with the help of the ALPB Members to Make Damn sure it does happen.
This is not a joke and I am as serious as a heart attack .
After loosing my gig with the ratings I was getting I am no happy camper with the people who kill all things good for money , even if it is short sighted .
What will the corporations - use
530 to 1700 for????
Our crappy little (oh - sorry Carl - CRUDDY
little clock radio that's worth about 10
dollars and only gets about 4 stations
well - is tuned to WTIC/AM/1080/50 kW
which is 3 miles away. Anything made
with that bad an RF stage would not get
any "HD Radio" at all. Also, "HD FM" is sort of
workable - but with some BIG EVERPRESENT
PROBLEMS. "HD AM" really doesn't work
at all.
The license to broadcast "HD" costs about
$30K, doesn't it? (That doesn't even count
the cost of equipment and installation.) And
from what I've heard, the radio station has
to pay the whole $30K at once. Installment
paying plans are not permitted.
I do think the whole thing will take a while,
and it will be interesting watching it happen.
Remember the way David Sarnoff and RCA
stole Major Ed Armstrong's invention of FM radio?
RCA and Sarnoff squashed Armstrong into a little
lump of matter about the size of a grain of sand. Armstrong
then proceeded to jump out a window. How high
was he? 60 stories up?
It's funny how FM radio worked out so well in the
end(!!!) But corporations have been "people squashers"
for a long time. That's nothing new.
Watch "Empire Of The Air" from PBS and see
THAT story. Unbelievable.
Some "uplifting comments" (whoo hoo!) from
Bruce, Over At... DOGRADIO
As a ham since 1969, I'm not aware of any rule that prevents a ham from passing messages. Third party messages are allowed -- (e.g. two hams exchanging messages for someone else) as long as the ham isn't paid for it. Third party messages are allowed between countries and around the world as long as there are agreements in place between countries allowing this. The only real restrictions are the ham can't get paid for the service, and they can't use it for commercial work -- e.g. I can't open up a pizza shop and take orders over ham radio for deliveries. I can't use ham radio in my taxi to talk with the dispatcher, etc. You can't use it for commercial use, and you can't get paid for your services. I suppose this would have prevented hams from charging less than, say, Western Union back in the day and competing with them, however they have always been allowed to send messages for free for anyone. Heck, there are hundreds of nets operating every day for the specific purpose of passing messages, many to those who are not hams.
But I 100% agree that any vacating of any of the AM band at any time in the future will indeed turn to the frequencies being auctioned off for commercial use.
Tim in Bovey