In article ,
"David Eduardo" wrote:

"Telamon" wrote in message
...

What do you mean these radios were not meant for this purpose? Are you
turning into a complete nut case?

The radios were designed before HD became a standard. So they were not
designed to receive analog signals when HD was being broadcast
simultaneously, as the design predates HD. Duh.

HD is supposed to be compatible with existing radios Eduardo. Oh! I see
now that was just another lie. You got me good that time.

The FCC did not take your reception of either station into
consideration, as, unless you live right on the ocean, you are
outside the contours that are going to get any protection these
days.

Since I live close to the beach I get the best reception but inland
those stations do well on the car radio where I listen to AMBCB
most the time usually. FM reception is not that hot around here
with all the mountains just off the coast. AM usually offers better
reception.

Such marginal reception areas outside the primary contours of AMs is
exactly what both the FCC and American broadcasters were willing to
sacrifice to get digital capability. Everything has tradeoffs.

Ah yes the signal strength fallback position. You are about the only
person that thinks this is a good tradeoff.

How much more can digital (HD) be allowed to use? It is authorized
24/7 for AM and FM in the US, and I do not believe that there were
more than 24 hours in the day.

More stations could be using it.

There are perhaps 250 stations in the top 100 markets that warrant
use of HD; the rest are not viable full market signals. And, in that
fact, is the problem with AM today... The better signals were
licensed back from the 20's into the 30's, moved a bit in '28 and
after NARBA, but designed to cover existing 70 to 80 year back
population areas. Many growth areas have no good AMs, many AMs have
been outgrown by urban and suburban sprawl, and today's noise levels
all contribute to make most AMs poor HD candidates. The longer term
survival of AM is certainly in doubt when many major markets have
less than 10% of all listening to that band, and most of that in
definitely "senior" demographics.

What can I say about your reading comprehension that is already known to
readers of the news group. He did not ask why or if a station should
have HD he asked how HD could be used more than it is now.

The digital side bands could be
increased in power or bandwidth.

We can hope the power is eventually raised; on FM there have been
studies of raising the digital signal by as much as 10 db.

You can hope that. I don't and I think most people reading the news
group would not want that either.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California