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- - Iboc (http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=202313)

Remember when, yrs ago you could tune around on the AM radio at night and hear those far off distant stations???

Not anymore. IBOC blocks your right to public airways.

http://www.etherzone.com/2007/zecc032007.shtml

More:

http://www.peak.org/mailing-list/archive/grc/msg02924.html

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whiskeydan (Post 1645349)

Yeah, I know. But Society as a whole is complicit in this.

Wonder why Georgia's runnin' out of water? look no further than those automatic sprinkler systems that water all the concrete and roads.....The age of excess is in it's death throes and the result ain't gonna be pretty,as necessary as a correction is.

There are too many wasting too much and too few making too much from too many,time for another revolution....never happen though.

Those are very misinformed rants in those links. HD radio won't harm AM stations. It may cause a problem from low power FM's though they only have a broadcast radius of a few hundred feet. LPFM is what is used for the "talking houses" you see on the for sale sign. I recently purchased a HD radio and I will say it's nothing really special. I also collect vintage radios and they work fine pulling in the few AM stations left. The big problem is when the mandatory switch to HDTV happens. That will render a lot of portable TV's and receivers obsolete. Unfortunately, AM radio is dying and there isn't much we can do about it. I spent 20 years in radio and sometimes miss it.

What sort of range does a 100W FM station have?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Larry Delor (Post 1645421)

What sort of range does a 100W FM station have?

At night, a mile or so.

Quote:

Originally Posted by powerpig (Post 1645444)

At night, a mile or so.

Are you sure ? when I was on 2m ham bands in my teen's I had a Icom 2AT (2.5w high power IIRC) that would reach a few different repeaters...one was at least 20mi away....

2m ham bands are 144mhz, FM is 100mhz, can't be that different.

-John

Quote:

Originally Posted by powerpig (Post 1645418)

Wow. You're very misinformed.
The FCC now allows 'jamming' of out of area stations using "in band on channel broadcasting". THEY seem to think you have no need to listen to some distant stations anymore. Just tune up and down the dial with an analog RX and you will hear all the hash.

Due to the lack of absorption of the reflected signal by the ionosphere's "D" layer, a 100 watt station could be heard for thousands of miles at night.
The FCC has always required AM broadcast stations to provide strick antenna pattern control and/or a power reduction at night for this very reason.

I just find it sad as a hobbyist SWL. The radio spectrum is becoming as polluted as the rest of the world. Perhaps AL Gore could help. :rolleyes:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Angel (Post 1645504)

A few yrs back during the talk of the LPFM licences a couple of us designed and built a few LPFM prototype transmitters for the new market.
When it fell thru an associate took it upon himself to put one on the air.
I designed a co-linear gain antenna which he used at a height of about 35 feet. We ran about 10 watts to the ant on an unused channel of the FM band.
The thing could be easily heard in the car for 5-10 miles out depending on the terrain. Perfect for a small municipality.
That was... until the feds showed up and took the transmitter.:eek: They were most impressed by it.
It ran for about a month or so. I still have another one around here somewhere...

Are you serious? I've heard people talking about pirate FM stations and stuff like that, but don't really know anything about it. Sounds like you do, though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dee8go (Post 1650814)

Are you serious? I've heard people talking about pirate FM stations and stuff like that, but don't really know anything about it. Sounds like you do, though.

Yes, The feds were most impressed by it. I think Jim said when they saw the equipment they said "Wow, you have a very nice signal unfortunately, we are going to have to take this..." It was not the usual backyard pirate radio gear they normally find.
I still have one of the three FM exciters that we built and the antenna.

The penalties are severe. The first visit (refered to as "The Knock") usually results in a slap of the hand and loss of gear. Rules...:rolleyes:

The Iboc thing really pisses me off. No one gives a damn about digital AM. XM has the market. Because of it, I can't listen to 590 out of Austin due to the Iboc trash from the local 570 and 620.