|
I heard a very interesting talk tonight at our local radio club...the Delaware Valley Historic Radio Club. The CBS radio tech manager for WPHT-AM and WOGL-FM (the old flame-throwing WCAU combo. 38 states at night on AM) gave a lecture on Hi Def radio. Both AM and FM.
The interesting thing was the impact of adding digital to the side bands of AM. To do this, the analog carrier is being narrowed from it's usual 10kc either side of center...which is AM wideband...to 5kc. The digital is added outside that starting at 5kc to a limit of 15kc either side of center for a lower and upper digital sideband. The problem of station interference at the extra 15kc width is for a later discussion as they figure this out.
The net result is that AM wideband will go away as the AM's add digital. For now, AM digital is daytime only as the digital DX goes flying all over the place just like analog at night. It is up to the local station to determine if they configure their transmitter to go back to wideband on their transmitters at night or just shut down the digital.
All of this is to say that if your Superadio does not sound so good on some of your favorite AM stations, now you know where to look.
And if you ever see a monster, silver GE boom-box looking radio with a cassette player in it labeled as a model 3-5280C, grab it. It appears to be a Superadio in sheeps clothing and acts just like one. A great performer on AM and FM.
Dave A
|