Re: Quebec City AMs

[Dan Strassberg <dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net>]

At 08:22 PM 9/11/98 -0400, you wrote:
>On Thu, 10 Sep 1998, Dan Strassberg wrote:
>
>> >
>> Your comment suggests that the CRTC will not be granting new licenses on
>> those frequencies. I bet Bob can hardly wait! If 730 in Montral does go
>> dark, WJTO's 29W (is that the right number?) will REALLY get out at
>> night--all the way to Bath, even.
>> 
>
>  Just a random thought.......what happens if Quebec finally breaks away
>from the rest of Canada, anybody care to speculate?
>
Hey, Quebec is French and the French played a big part in designing the
Euereka-147 digital-audio-broadcasting (DAB) system that Canada is
implementing. Therefore, I'm sure that, given the origins of Canada's DAB
system, Quebec, if it breaks away from Canada, will rush to implement the
system. French technology is always elegant, but relatively little of it
actually works. Eureka 147 has a reputation for working. In other words, it
is an exception. However, I doubt that the terrestrial implementation, which
operates in L Band--an unGodly high frequency band--has been evaluated by
anybody but strong partisans. (Biased evaluations are one of the techniques
the French use to hide the fact that most of their technology works only on
paper.) I imagine that Eureka works splendily if the receiver is in an open
field the size of a football field and you have a clear line of sight to the
transmitter, but at those frequencies, I can't believe that it works worth a
damn in most urban areas. So, when the citoyens start to complain that,
after spending Q$2000 for a Eureka radio, they can't pick up any stations
unless they leave their homes and find an open field, Quebec will go back to
FM. Even if Quebec does not break away from Canada, we should soon see how
accurate my prediction is. I think Canada is starting L-band DAB
broadcasting within a few months.

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Dan Strassberg (Note: Address is CASE SENSITIVE!)
ALL _LOWER_ CASE!!!--> dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net
(617) 558-4205; Fax (617) 928-4205

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