Reported in the April 11 issue of Radio World, IBOC has pretty much passed the testing period. They have even decided that AM IBOC can now be used at night with no extra permits required. This should be written into the registry in about the next 2 weeks.
Now if the FCC would only come up with an LPAM class that also allows IBOC. Or better yet some new FM and AM digital only channels! Either of these two choices might work for our school.
Sorry, couldn't find a link to the article, we get the printed magazine here at school.
I checked today. No rules yet. Very odd. They never take more than a month to release them.
IBOC is a disaster. The NAB and other industry "experts" have their heads in the sand on this one! IBOC will probably mean the end of any meaningful LPAM (including Part 15) service, because every IBOC station emits noise on both the first and second adjacent channels-- thereby consuming a total of 5 radio channels! And if the transmitter and antenna aren't properly tuned, it will interfere with the third adjacents as well.
WEAK-AM
Classical Music and More!
I didn't check the FCC page, just read the Radio World article and now that you mention it, it has been 30 days so it should have been written into the rules by now.
And you are right, IBOC is a channel hog! And the NAB was concerned about single channel gaurd band that stopped the micro FM proposal, now they have only single channel gaurd bands because of the digital portion of the signals.
The FCC really needs to come up with an open source, digital only scheme. The open source portion would benefit the consumers because the manufacturers wouldn't need to license the technology from the one single developer (Ibiquity). A (more or less) open mpeg4 method would have been prefered.
WEAK-AM
IBOC will probably mean the end of any meaningful LPAM (including Part 15) service
So this interference on adjacent channels would "compete" with the channel the Part 15 AM transmitter was broadcasting on. Would this simply reduce the range of a transmitter or do you see other problems occurring? Maybe this is the FCC way of getting rid of LPAM and Part 15 or would it just encourage more 'Pirate' activity with greater power to overcome the interfrence. This is very troubling as it is hard enough now without IBOC to get useful distance. This is not good. 🙁
Gerry
Unless one has more than one local on the X band, IBOC should not be a factor for daytime operation. I have no locals on the expanded band during the day, however at night its a different story. 1680 for example at night has Radio Disney and a Spanish Station and wipes out whatever signal I have on 1680. During the day naturally they are not there.
1630 is KCJJ from Iowa at night, 1640 is ESPN Radio from Biloxi , and all the others including 1610 to 1700 occupies the the slot at night. I think I counted three or four stations on 1660 alone at night . By stations going to IBOC would affect me none...the expanded band is already crowded and useless to use at night.
I would like to use 1710 but that is not authorized to use, though some are using that frequency. I'm in the null of many Cincinnati Radio stations, I could null out 55 KRC, one night I was getting WDUN from Gainsville clear right over it. I don't know if IBOC will affect everyone especially if you are in the null of your locals... at night.
Here in the Chicago area, the AM dial is already awash in noise generated by 620, 670, 720, 780, 890, 1200, 1300, 1390, and 1640, and 1690. Each one of these stations takes up 5 channels altogether. When they turn IBOC on at night (which 670 did last night, wiping out WSM on 650), the entire band will become a useless sea of noise.
Just wait! It's coming!
WEAK-AM
Classical Music and More!
1690 WVON from your area makes it down here pretty good at night.