FCC Proposes Authorizing Voluntary All-Digital AM Broadcasting!

FCC Proposes Authorizing Voluntary All-Digital AM Broadcasting!
https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-proposes-authorizing-voluntary-all-digital-am-broadcasting

 

Sounds like this would obsolete all the AM receivers, and I'm not sure if consumers are going to go for new ones.

This might kill AM broadcasting.

 

Gee, they will be able to play music formats!! Imagine that.... What a CF.

 

The last "Digital AM" broadcasting craze was also voluntary, and it fizzled out after a little bit.
Few consumers wanted to spend money on a receiver to receive Talk Radio.
Those that were interested in Fidelity stayed on FM, and the only people that invested in the new receivers were those who had to have the latest tech.

I can't see this changing anything anytime soon.

 

In this country some years ago there was a move to AM stereo if I remember correctly. Disappeared after a couple of years and very few radios were available in any case.

Much of AM broadcasting is talk back radio or local regional stations and can't see people rushing out to buy new radios just to listen to the same thing.

Somehow suspect AM analog will be around for time to come in larger countries where coverage over a wide area is needed.

 

I have HD radio in 2 of my vehicles. Don't use it much, usually just to listen to the local AM news stations with better sound quality.
As with digital TV, a stronger/cleaner signal is needed vs. analog to maintain usable reception so when listening to an AM HD station it will frequently drop out of digital and back to analog. If the signal was digital only it would go away completely. This happens in the city where the signals are generally strong, although there is interference and multipath in some places which may be a factor.

 

While driving around my region analog AM reception sucks compared to FM, unless I’m in the city where the station is. Even clear channel 50 kW KOA now has simulcast on FM which is much better. In the house it’s worse because because of the low frequency RFI these days.

I wouldn’t buy a receiver, even if AM reception was vastly improved with digital. I can’t stand talk radio, and that’s essentially all there is on AM other than a very rare sports that isn’t carried on TV here. I think it’s far too late to save AM BC. (Maybe FM benefits “unfairly” from height with antennas on the mountains here, like our ham repeaters, compared to flatlands, but hey that’s reality for me).

 

Rarely listen to FM radio. Have about 900 songs on I-pods in all vehicles for music. Do listen to AM radio most days for the programming that interests me. Also, most radio programming is available via computer.

 

This ^^^^

In the Washington DC area there is an AM station, WWFD AM 820, that is giving all digital a go on some sort of experimental basis. Its spectrum is a nice simple block centered on 820 kHz. On the plus side, its signal is entirely within the traditional AM broadcast band allocated bandwidth unlike stations with digital added that interferes with stations above and/or below the primary frequency. My two newer cars decode this just fine, but the range is atrocious compared to the myriad other DC stations with ground-wave coverage easily 40 miles or more daytime. Some stations easily have daytime range of 100+ miles. When I am in range of WWFD (something like 10-15 miles or so) the HD delivers consistent audio, but with that classic digital compressed "sound" that anyone growing up in the analog fidelity days probably finds not a step forward for mankind.

I often travel up the east coast and listen to a few powerhouse AM stations in NYC area enroute. One or two of these are the dual-mode stations that interfere with stations above and below the station's center frequency. During digital mode, it certainly is more quiet, but just not enough to matter really. Sometimes I turn off the HD mode in my radio to avoid the back and forth when on the fringe. This applies to the HD FM mode as well.

Then there was the world series where I listened to the Nationals games twice from DC's AM 1500 station while enroute to and in Maine. Just analog and perfectly readable. Interestingly I cannot hear this station just 40 miles away when home in Virginia.

AM digital is very interesting and I can see the allure, but so far I just can't see the point. I even listen to music on the local AM 1420 station in my hometown that actually has an analog bandwidth wider than the modern +/- 5 kHz limit... +/- 8 kHz or so although the energy past 5 kHz is greatly reduced per the FCC's allowances. Regardless, when I use my SDR with wider bandwidth, the audio is actually pretty darn good... daytime only of course. I wish car radios would allow the option for increased bandwidth for AM like the older receivers of yore could provide.

It seems to me paper pushing "communications professionals" have a thing for the word "digital" without really understanding what it replaces. Color me surprised.

 

AM BCB is for driving or stuck in traffic, all new vehicles will include digital if it becomes available.

 

Having been involved with the government as long as I have, I can assure you that anything "voluntary " always ends up mandatory.

 

Agree.

 

Eton Grundig's AM/FM/SW receiver, just a bit larger than the human ear, has its most reliable reception on AM, whether tuned to Chicago, Cincinnati, Denver, Des Moines, Louisville, Nashville, NYC, St. Louis, Toronto, or Windsor during Coast-to-Coast AM and American Trucking Network programs. These sources, when combined with NPR stations lucky to cover 60 miles radius, provide balance in news and information. Perhaps balance is seen as being dangerous and therefore AM radio has too much potential for nationwide revolution.

 

Or maybe "Electron pushing professionals" vs. "Amateurs".

LET'S GET DIGITAL, DIGITAL
I WANNA GO DIGITAL, DIGITAL
EVERYBODY'S INTO DIGITAL
LET ME HEAR YOUR PC TALK
I WANNA HEAR YOUR PC TALK
DIGITAL, DIGITAL

(Sung to the tune of "Let's Get Physical", by Oliva Newton-John)

Still - I like old fashioned AM. Can't believe its still around. Grew up listening to WOR, WBZ and WTIC (Bob Steele). Including on a crystal set, complete with galena crystal and cat whisker.

Brian - K6BRN