HD Radio Upgrade: FCC Concentrates and Asks Again
Comments on proposed IBOC power increase due by July 6, replies by July 17
About a year ago a consortium of radio licensees and equipment manufacturers asked the Commission to please, please, please increase the maximum permissible digital power of FM stations using “HD Radio” technology. The requested increase was not a minor tweak by any means: the proposal would rocket the current max upward by a factor of ten, to 10% of the station’s authorized analog power for some, but not necessarily all, stations. (It seems that some Super B stations running at that higher digital power might interfere with the analog signal of some first adjacent B’s, so Super B’s would be exempted out of the increase.)
As we previously reported, last October the Commission invited comments on the proposal. While a bunch of comments were filed back then, in late May the FCC sent out yet another invite. The deadline for that second round of comments was just announced: July 6 for comments, July 17 for replies.
Gentlemen (and ladies), start your word processors.
From the initial round of comments there appeared to be considerable disagreement as to whether the proposal really is a good idea. The HD Radio cheerleaders, of course, were all rah-rah for the power boost. But given that those same cheerleaders tend to paint a generally glorious picture of how good HD Radio is already, you have to wonder why they feel the need for a major league power increase. And while the threat of potential interference tends to get downplayed by the proponents, the fact that even they recognize the need to deny at least one class of station the proposed increase because of interference concerns does not inspire confidence. Still, the proponents urge expeditious action on the proposed power increase to fix “the coverage shortfalls and reception difficulties” which occur at the current levels.
Not among the cheerleaders: NPR. NPR, which provided a wealth of test data and related analysis early on, has advised that it’s working on yet more testing, with a further report due to be presented this coming September. And a significant number of other early commenters expressed strong opposition to the proposal.
So the Commission has asked for further comment from the public.
In particular, the FCC asks whether it should hold off on the proposed power increase until the next NPR study is submitted and people have had a chance to review and comment on it. Alternatively, the FCC suggests that it might be inclined to act now – and if it were to do so, it wants to know whether it should establish standards to “ensure the lack of interference” to analog operations on first adjacents. Along the same lines, the Commission asks whether it should establish “more specific procedures to resolve digital-into-analog interference complaints.”
If you feel like chiming in on any of these questions, here’s your chance. Remember – comments are due by July 6, replies by July 17.
Proponents of HD from the start, for many years now, have been telling us how wonderful it is and how wonderful the coverage is. Some of us listening under real world conditions,like the average consumer would, have known for some time that digital coverage was only about 2/3rds of analog. NOW Ibiquity feels they need a huge power increase to fix what they first said was not a problem. Hmmmmm. High level combing stations won't be able to take advantage due to the very high losses involved. For even low level combining stations it will be expensive to make the increase. I will leave the interference issues to those doing the research.
I guess we should not complain too much. A local HDTV station is having their phones ring off the hook after they turned off their analog TV transmitter and put the same channel digital on. Same thing, digital coverage does not match analog. I think it is time we put real transmitters on the air for testing and stop using computer simulations for coverage predictions. Garbage in, garbage out still applies.