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Digital Signals Spark Static From AM Radio

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the what's-that-I-can't-hear-you dept.

Carl Bialik writes "Digital radio is touted as broadcast radio's golden ticket, but the transition to digital broadcasts is creating static and interference for many smaller AM stations that are still analog-only, the Wall Street Journal reports: 'The AM stations most affected are those whose neighboring stations -- nearby on the dial -- add a digital signal.' The WSJ adds, 'For some small AM operators, it adds insult to injury that the only company licensing the digital broadcast technology is one backed by the small stations' deep-pocketed competitors.' Critics question why the FCC only approved the technology from that big radio-backed company, Ibiquity."

6 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds like my DVD remote also operating my old TV by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting
    My TV was so old that when I added a DVD player, the power button on the DVD remote also sent an "8" signal to the TV, thereby changing the channel. The company that made the TV had already been out of business for at least 10 years when I got the DVD player. I guess they never anticipated someone would have a clash of technologies more than two decades apart.

    Oddly enough, I have one of those "emergency" flashlights that would also change the channels on yet another ancient TV.

    And in yet another case, we had an ancient answering machine that would randomly pick up other people's conversations for seemingly no reason. Technologies clash more often than we realize.

  2. Re:Boo Hoo Hoo. by QAPete · · Score: 2, Interesting

    AM radio is unlistenable even without this new interference. It is static-laden, low-fi and intolerable, given any other option. That other option is satellite, of course. $0.33 per day plus a $50 radio is enough to get you set you up with a Sirius or XM satellite radio with terrific digital fidelity and static-free reception from coast-to-coast. On top of that, you get to hear people talk like human beings, not watered-down, pussified, 'G'-rated, FCC-compliant clones. I don't know anyone who can afford to drive a car that could not afford the above. I have Sirius, and I can tell you that once you start listening, you simply don't listen to FM radio anymore, let alone AM radio.

  3. FM is also affected by IBOC interference by n0spamus · · Score: 2, Interesting
    In particular, it causes neighboring FM stations to disappear if they are lower-powered or further away (a common experience when listening in the car). For example, when 107.7 in San Francisco turned on IBOC, it made 107.5 from Santa Cruz (the famous KPIG) disappear from the south bay.

    In my experience, it also degrades the analog FM signal (of the IBOC broadcaster) with additional multipath.

    It's sad that the FCC will go after 2 watt pirate broadcasters, but not care about interference on a much larger scale. And, as mentioned elsewhere, the codec is proprietary, and widely considered to sound like crap.

  4. Re:Ah, those Yankees by Detritus · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The "rest of the planet" is a gross exageration, try Western Europe, South Korea and Canada, with limited availability of radios and small audiences. It's also based on a broadcasting model that is a poor fit for the United States.

    --
    Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
  5. You want to know why the FCC blessed one method? by jejones · · Score: 3, Interesting

    All you have to do is look at the AM stereo fiasco.

  6. Re:Just like HDTV by Obfuscant · · Score: 2, Interesting
    The "broadband over power line" concept will kill shortwave.

    Already existing broadband has pretty much caused shortwave broadcasters to start committing suicide. That's because they've forgotten the reason for their existance.

    Shortwave broadcasting isn't supposed to be for distributing CD-quality music, it's supposed to be for distributing information over long distances to places that either don't have local information outlets or have restricted outlets. Analog works JUST FINE for that.

    DRM (the current shortwave digital standard) is suicide for shortwave broadcasters as such, since it requires either a very expensive radio or a cheap radio and computer to decode. It explicitely excludes the very audience that most needs shortwave; remote locations in third-world countries where nobody can afford a computer but can afford a twenty dollar shortwave radio. The people who can afford DRM can also afford an internet connection and thus get the digital feed that way. And they are doing that.

    And yes, BPL is a special case of shortwave killer, considering the interference it creates.