Patrick Martin wrote: > Barry & Chuck, > > Then in layman's terms, we have two choices if IBOC becomes a reality > across the band. One, we move on to another band or move pyhsically to > another location. Any other choices?
That's a somewhat pessimistic way of putting it, which is very much in keeping with the way these threads seem to be going. I'm involved in other hobbies that are slowly being eroded by changing times and changing technologies - coin collecting, for instance, where clubs like mine (which is about to celebrate its centennial) are coming to terms with dwindling (and aging) membership rosters and a lack of new blood. But they've got nothing on this crowd when it comes to turning over every possible rock to find the gloomiest possible way to reframe any discussion of what might - or might not - happen. I can certainly understand why there's ample cause for concern. I'm worried, too. What I don't get is the apparent desire to drive the last nail into the coffin long before we know how this will actually play out. Here's how I'm looking at the next few years: some frequencies will get noisier when night IBOC starts. A handful will become unusable - 1020 in the northeast, for instance, when WBZ kicks on at night. (1040's already unusable for me, thanks to my local WYSL.) A fair number of channels will have only a few - or no - IBOC signals putting enough power in my direction to create any more noise than is already there. But as I keep trying to point out, there's nothing magical about IBOC sidebands and skywave. If I can null WWL's 50 kilowatts of analog on 870, I'm going to be able to null its 500 watts of digital on 860 and 880, too. (If WWL even runs IBOC, which isn't a done deal AFAIK.) Ditto for WBT, or KMOX, or WCCO where I am. My best guess, based on the stations that already have IBOC installed and a few that I know are planning to install it, is that I may completely lose between 15 and 20 frequencies when night IBOC kicks in. That's not pretty. I'm not happy about it. But for me, at least, it's just one more in a series of annoyances that include rising levels of ambient electrical noise, an increase in illegal full-power night operation, and the breakdown of the clear channels that started decades ago, and of which this is just the latest symptom. And you know what? I think of myself as an optimist. Without being a Pollyanna about the whole thing, I can at least be interested in studying how the system works once it's in operation. Fact is, nobody knows exactly what will happen - how many stations will adopt the system, how bad the interference will be in the real world, what sort of marketplace backlash there might be if and when stations with significant skywave audiences lose them to interference...and, as the post that started this thread implied, what developments in receiver technology might lie in our collective future. From the very beginning of the hobby, DXers have learned to adapt to changing technologies and changing band conditions. I'd love to have been alive and DXing in the 1930s, or even the 1960s, but here I am in 2007, at age 35, and I missed those opportunities. I could throw up my hands and declare the whole thing dead and go work on upgrading my set of commemorative half dollars...or I can try to find some interesting challenges in whatever the future holds. I choose the latter. s _______________________________________________ IRCA mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: [email protected]
