Re: Rant About LPFM

["R.L. Caron" <k4gp@peganet.com>]

<< I think the real drawback of FM-band IBOC DAB is likely to be
unsatisfacotry coverage in the digital mode. USA Digital Radio is proposing
a system that falls back to analog when the digital signal becomes
inaccessible, thus forcing analog/digital simulcasts in perpetuity. >>

The biggest flaw in IBOC is that it is rooted in negativity: it wasn't
"invented" because it was the best way to deliver a digital signal to
receivers, but the result of a knee-jerk reaction to the perception (and an
erroneous one, at that) that the E-147 system would give everyone equal
coverage. Noboby took the time to study the system, to realize it operates
(or can operate) on a cellular concept, and to consider that a conversion
plan could have been developed to allocate more "pods" to stations with
greater existing coverage. As a matter of fact, the big stations could have
become even bigger by buying up pod space from the allocations of the small
stations in nearby towns, states, etc.

Well, none of that matters today. We're on the way to adopting a system for
digital broadcasting that's been rejected as a standard in every other
nation in the world. Canadians driving south for the winter will find their
car radios useless after crossing the border, as will US citizens who
venture north into Canada. Now THAT is smart planning!

Well, by the time it is likely to make a dramatic difference, the AM
broadcast band will be a century old. Maybe that's long enough for any one
technology.