FCC Urged To Allow Technical Change That Would Improve FM’s Digital Coverage.

[SolarMax]

From "Inside Radio" Jan. 20:
FCC Urged To Allow Technical Change That Would Improve FM’s Digital Coverage.

-Not clear on the "asymmetric sideband" concept on FM
-Another ploy to get more licensing fees for the developers from station operators?

[WOHO]

Nothing to see here...Leonard "Lawsuit" Kahn had his "Powerside" that took his ISB AM Stereo system and dumped most of it into one sideband, which did work on analog radios, but digital, I would think not so much?
It's a shame Leonard had to be such a litigating arse, as AM radio could have made a positive step in 1983 (improving AM receivers in the process) with a single Stereo AM standard, had they not had to fight him for 10 damn years...

[Dr. Sandi]

Asymmetric sideband is already a feature of HD transmitters. All it does is reduce the sideband radiation on one side of the main channel or the other. It allows HD stations to use the full -10 dB HD signal on upper or lower sideband and reduce it on the other so it doesn't interfere with a closely spaced station adjacent to the other sideband.

This means that an HD station that's too close to a first or second adjacent station can reduce power on the offending sideband to keep the HD out of the neighboring station's bandwidth. But assuming there is no nearby station on the opposite sideband from the HD channel, the HD station can use full power on that side. Full HD power would be 10 dB below the licensed analog power in that direction. (10 dB means 10% of the licensed analog power).

It's built into my 6 year old Nautel system, so there's no extra licensing charge. It's just a logical tool that the FCC can't be bothered to formalize while they do their other important work pleasuring somebody's dog.

I think the HD people would just like to get their experimental status formalized after all of this time and the effort spent proving that the technique is viable.

No magic involved here.

[Ben Zonia]

The FCC created the first adjacent problems before HD. In the early 1960s, the FCC decided that areas in markets close to larger cities, they had to allow 3 kW/300 feet Class A stations to overlap the U/D ratios to first adjacent Class Bs, or there would be few or no FMs in those areas. And they also allowed grandfathered superpower. Fortunately, in most situations, there is a relatively close first adjacent only on one side, so the HD equivalent of powerside should help in many cases. Fortunately, the FCC only had 20 Class A frequencies. The one I heard about most is WBCT 93.7 with 320000 watts to WHMI 93.5 with ~3000 watts, now 5200 watts.

[Dr. Sandi]

Speaking of short-spaced allocations...

For a long time now, the FCC has experimented with finding out how much manure can be stuffed into a fixed size of burlap bag without having it explode.

Unfortunately, the bag exploded years ago, but they keep filling it anyway.

[Ben Zonia]

Speaking of short-spaced allocations...

For a long time now, the FCC has experimented with finding out how much manure can be stuffed into a fixed size of burlap bag without having it explode.

Unfortunately, the bag exploded years ago, but they keep filling it anyway.

It's mainly the translators.