I hope this never happens, my collection of working antique radios will become doorstops if it does. I prefer analog audio wherever possible...My ear can average away analog noise, but digital breakup/dropout can not be averaged away so easily...
Audio quality has a lot to do with RX design. There is analog AM HiFi stereo, and it's audio quality can approach that of a decent FM RX. Most newer AM radios don't bother to design for good audio quality since they assume AM is talk only and need only sound as good as an 80's POTs phone line... Many modern FM tuners are rather halfassed too...If you listen to a high end tube or early SS rig from the years when top 40 AM was king, and classic music audiophiles were the FM market, and demanded that FM sound perfect you will never want digital.

Couple of repacking updates:

"UHF Channels 38 thru 50 will soon belong to Cell Carriers. The FCC will be putting out a list soon of the upcoming changes."

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/new...stage-4/162589

http://repackready.com/spectrum-repack-news/

jr

What will happen to TV stations below channel 36 after the channel repack? Will the repack render streaming video players such as the Roku boxes obsolete? I watch almost all my TV via streaming video instead of OTA, and use a Roku 2 with the Spectrum (formerly Time Warner Cable) app to receive local stations. I still have cable, but I don't use it; the only reason I have cable at all (the cable is connected to my VCR) is so the Spectrum app will receive my area's local TV stations (chalk that up to a crazy quirk in TWC's billing system, which has been there since long before their merger with Spectrum). My favorite channels are the DTV subchannels of channels 5, 8 and 19 from Cleveland (COZI TV, Antenna TV and MeTV, respectively); will these channels be affected at all by the repack? Since these channels are well below channel 36, I don't think it will have any effect at all; the repack only seems to be affecting channels from 36 to 51 (except channel 37, of course), if I understand correctly what I have been reading about it. The VHF stations and channels 51 and up won't be affected at all, so existing VHF channels and their subchannels will almost certainly be exempt from this action.

And often unnecessary.

I'm sorry, but I just half a year ago, built a software defined radio on my own, that picks up anywhere between 40MHz and 1.7GHz. It only has about 3MHz bandwidth (2MHz without any skipped "frames"), and I really don't want to have to redesign it to pick up some silly digital signal it probably can't decode anyway. I like FM as it is, and all of my radios in the house already support it.

I honestly don't think radio's gonna change much anytime soon. Tv, on the other hand... well, we'll always have converter boxes and adapters and stuff.

Is there presently available software for SDRs that will decode the digital signals already in use in the FM band? I suspect that you have noticed the IBOC "sidebands" attached to many analog FM signals, and *perhaps* are already decoding them.
Or perhaps not?

jr

They keep getting rid of more OTA channels and yes ITS SCARY! (I guess it doesnt matter because they arent analog anyway)

Next it will be all channels above 13!!

They want to sell that spectrum. Basically they're getting something for nothing. Spectrum is just a natural resource. They don't have to maintain it. The really scary part is they could sell us the air that we breathe.

Just like from the song "Taxman" by The Beatles.

Feel sorry for the pros in the biz that will get let go when some stations close up shop or merge with other stations.

Check this broadcasting forum out.I've been a member for years there and its very informative with info on these topics with the current DTV outlook.

http://www.radiodiscussions.com/show...Auction-thread

http://www.radiodiscussions.com/foru...-Policy-Debate

Central, thanks for those links....quite a bit of interesting reading I'll be doing over there!

No problem Bryan. Enjoy.

Looks as if we should have info on station moves in April.

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/1...nners-in-april

Blog on Rabbit Ears has some early info.

http://www.rabbitears.info/blog/

Stay tuned!
jr