could not get WBZ in Hartford last night

[Dan.Strassberg]

But you've now put your finger on what I believe is the biggest botch
of all in the system. As I understand it (and apparently as you also
understand it), the system incorporates no provision for software
upgrades to the receivers that would allow them to receive
digital-only AM-band HD Radio signals--that is, signals that contained
no conventional analog modulation and whose digital modulation was
moved inward toward the main carrier to occupy the spectrum vacated by
the analog modulation (thus freeing up at least part of the
first-adjacent-channel spectra). Please correct me if I am wrong about
this Achilles heel of iBiquity's technology.

BTW, when I asked Glynn Walden about it, he declared most vehemently
that software upgradeability of the receivers would be an unnecessary
complication. I gathered from his vehemence that the subject had come
up previously in discussions within iBiquity. It was right after I
heard his vehement denunciation of receiver software upgreability that
I completely wrote off any contributions he might have made to the
system.

-----
Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
eFax 1-707-215-6367

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Garrett Wollman" <wollman@bimajority.org>
To: "Kevin Vahey" <kvahey@gmail.com>
Cc: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2007 11:03 AM
Subject: could not get WBZ in Hartford last night


> <<On Wed, 21 Nov 2007 10:10:04 -0500, "Kevin Vahey"
> <kvahey@gmail.com> said:
>
>> I was trying to listen to the Bruins game on BZ last night and
>> around
>> Hartford I lost the signal completly to HASH from KDKA-HD
>
>> Seriously are we looking at HD being a daytime only service in the
>> future?
>
> I've long believed that the AM hybrid digital system is a botch, but
> stations aren't interested in my opinion.[1] The digital-only mode
> would work better, probably as well as DRM does, but in the absence
> of
> receivers there's no reason why any owner would want to do that.
> When
> I spoke to him a couple of years ago, Glynn Walden was convinced
> that
> going all-digital, and taking marginal signals off the air, was The
> Way to deal with the interference problem.
>
> -GAWollman
>
> [1] Of course, I've also long believed that class-A stations (and
> class-B stations with significant nighttime service areas) should be
> required to offer unique programming during the hours of darkness;
> to
> run all-satellite at night like so many do is a waste of spectrum.
> That ship sailed three decades ago.