[AMRadio] Article on the role and future of AM radio

[w5jo at brightok.net]

I read that story Bob.  here are some things I do wish they could change to 
make AM better.

I live about 120 miles North of a Spanish language station that protects 
North in its normal operation.  A station I like to hear is a 250 watter, 
non-directional, 10 Kc. above them that is about 30 miles South of me .  The 
Spanish station's pattern precludes them from reaching a large part of the 
Metroplex where they operate so they filed for an STA 3 times to allow them 
to operate non-directional at their allowed power of 32 KW.  I bet this was 
an audience building move so they could increase their advertising rates.

There is so much spitting and sputtering on the desired signal that it 
becomes so irritating that I quit listening to my favorite station.  I filed 
a formal complaint with the FCC, by letter, after contacting the ownership 
of the offending station a couple of times.  The letter included information 
about both station's patterns, power level and signal levels at my home 
using my Icom IC 7300.  I also sent details about my installation for them 
to see how I arrived at my readings.

Low and behold a representative of the FCC called me to explain under the 
rules a station could operate at full power using a non-directional pattern 
as long as there are no complaints.  The result has been that they asked me 
to continue to monitor and log for an additional couple of weeks and write a 
narrative about my observations, which I did.  Soon the FCC employee, who 
happens to be a ham, took at the information to their lawyers and the 
offending station has reduced their operation to proper levels.  The rule is 
a directional station, who has complaints at full power, must reduce their 
power level to 1/4 of their allowed maximum to operate non-directional, 
which is , in this case, 8 KW.

The offending station is 10 Kc. below the desired station and they are 
allowed to 125% modulation, which adds to the problem I had.  If Ajit Pai 
really wants to help things they could reduce the maximum modulation to 100% 
to help with interference.  And I haven't even mentioned the problems with 
computers.

Jim
W5JO



-----Original Message----- 


AM broadcasting, that is.   While Politico is a, well, political site -
since many of us are also AM BC listeners I thought this article was
worth sharing:

https://www.politico.com/interactives/2019/magazine-am-radio-still-matters/

This is not a technical piece, but they've done a nice job of profiling
four AM stations that still serve the needs of their unique audiences.
(Click the red tower icon to hear a sample of each station's
programming).   Since AM radio is still the simplest way to  broadcast
information over long distances and can be received with the simplest
radios, I hope it continues to re-invent itself to stay a part of the
media landscape.

73, Bob W9RAN