Re: Stereo for voice (was RE: Dr. Laura anywhere in New England?)

[Aaron Read <aread@speakeasy.net>]

At 02:53 PM 7/15/2003, Garrett Wollman wrote:
><<On Tue, 15 Jul 2003 13:38:17 -0400, Aaron Read <aread@speakeasy.net> said:
>
> > However, WTKK/FM Talk is in stereo (when I checked it at 1:30pm, during
> > Bill O'Reilly)...go figure.  Must be the whole "listeners think stereo
> > light means good signal" thing Garrett mentioned.  Are any of WTKK's shows
> > explicitly stereo?  As in, you'd really lose something if it weren't in 
> stereo?
>
>WTKK runs subcarriers (RDS in particular), so perhaps they need to
>keep the pilot on?  (Subcarriers are normally demodulated with a
>synchronous detector locked to a multiple of the stereo pilot -- in
>the case of the L-R [matrix stereo] subcarrier it's twice the 19-kHz
>pilot; RDS is three times.)
>
>-GAWollman


That COULD be it...but WBUR (almost-all-mono, remember) uses both their 
audio subcarriers (67 and 92kHz), for Vietnamese-language programming I 
think (I don't know the language for sure, sitting here listening to 
it...it sure sounds East Asian to me).

WBUR did use their 57kHz subcarrier for RDS...but I don't think they do 
anymore; but I don't have a RDS receiver handy.   I do remember there being 
a RDS receiver in one of the racks of Master Control at WBUR (it was there 
specifically for that purpose) and I thought I saw the call letters there 
when it was tuned to 90.9...I *know* we saw "WERS" when we tuned it to 88.9.

FWIW, I have been meaning to make it so WZBC can switch to mono when they 
air talk programming (like Democracy Now, and Sounds of Dissent).  Their 
stereo generation is handled by their Omnia 3FM but when you switch it to 
mono, the damn Marti PnP1000 auto-senses it and injects its own stereo 
pilot (yes, I know...but it does, I've seen it) and Marti/BE tech support 
says there's no way to disable it.

That's bullhooey, of course...it CAN be disabled, I just haven't wanted to 
waste a whole day fiddling with the circuit boards trying to rig it to be 
disabled.  If you're ever in a position to purchase a Marti PNP 
transmitter, keep that in mind.  :-)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aaron "Bishop" Read             aread@speakeasy.net
FriedBagels Consulting          AOL-IM: readaaron
http://www.friedbagels.com      Boston, MA