[HN Gopher] Am Stereo
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Am Stereo
Author : LeoPanthera
Score : 35 points
Date : 2022-10-27 06:43 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.amstereo.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.amstereo.org)
| rudolfwinestock wrote:
| If you view the source code for that page, you'll note that the
| HTML tags are in all caps. The very first line is:
|
| <!DOCTYPE HTML><HTML><HEAD><META CHARSET="windows-1252">
|
| And the copyright line is Copyright (c) 1997-2022 Kevtronics,
| Inc.
| marginalia_nu wrote:
| I'd not expect an HTML5 doctype. More like ol' <!DOCTYPE HTML
| PUBLIC "-//SoftQuad//DTD HoTMetaL PRO 4.0::19971010::extensions
| to HTML 4.0//EN">
| LargoLasskhyfv wrote:
| Uhm... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Radio_Mondiale ?
| retrac wrote:
| Maybe longwave can make a come back with digital modulation.
| There's a ~100 kbit/s broadcast channel available way down
| there, with uniquely excellent propagation characteristics.
| (Viewing radio as a wave, at such long wavelengths, when the
| radio waves encounter buildings, or even mountain ranges, they
| diffract around them. It's like how most of the energy of a
| wave on the surface of some water diffracts around a small rock
| sticking out of the water, rather than being stopped by it.) A
| single transmitter can cover most of a continent, with indoor
| and even some ground penetration. Receivers are simple, and can
| have tiny antennas despite the wavelength. There are even
| watches that can sync themselves to longwave time signal
| broadcasts, which are about the only thing on LW currently
| broadcast in North America.
| aidenn0 wrote:
| Both DRM and iBiquity HD-Radio are mentioned on the page.
| jcrawfordor wrote:
| This website is targeted at the US/Canadian audience, where HD
| Radio is used rather than DRM. HD Radio does exist for AM
| stations, but has failed to catch on even more than it has
| failed for FM (which is a pretty sad story). In my market, for
| example, there is only a single AM station with HD that's
| receivable... and that's probably better than the average. It's
| a Spanish-language sports station, so it sort of falls into two
| of the popular AM brackets.
|
| In 2020 the FCC went ahead with adoption of "all-digital" AM
| stations with no analog audio. There are enough advantages to
| the all-digital arrangement, which is of course much more
| similar to DAB, that some people think it might breathe a
| little life back into HD radio - I'm skeptical, but only time
| will tell.
|
| In general AM radio has little popularity in the US outside of
| news and sportscasting. Foreign language stations are also a
| bit of an AM holdout since they benefit from the larger
| catchment area.
|
| Now I'm not sure that I agree with the authors criticism of
| IBOC HD Radio as unproven, it works quite well these days, but
| it is clear that remarkably few radio receivers on the market
| have HD radio support... even in expensive hi-fi and home
| theater receivers. Where HD radio has been fairly successful is
| in cars, with HD radio being a fairly common but far from
| universal feature in car head units.
| Aloha wrote:
| HD Radio uptake is quite variable by market. In some markets
| it's quite dense, others not do much.
|
| Other than slightly worse stereo separation FM Multiplex
| sounds better, other than the stations running the whole HD
| channel for one audio stream.
| LeoPanthera wrote:
| Title was submitted as "AM Stereo" but was munged by HN.
| h3mb3 wrote:
| You can edit it back.
| LeoPanthera wrote:
| I don't know how, there's no Edit button.
| greatquux wrote:
| I think this is the webpage of one of my favorite YouTubers
| VWestlife:
| https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1ydE9gDHTdvbNVIgEKIKzw He makes
| all sorts of cool retro videos on computers, hi-fi systems,
| records, tapes, etc. And he's been doing it for a really long
| time too! Like, recording early stuff on camcorders and
| digitizing and uploading.
| martyvis wrote:
| Back in the day, 1984, when I was an electrical engineer trainee,
| I was seconded to the electronics repair shop for the summer at
| the steelworks where I worked. I got to choose a kit to build and
| I chose this one from local magazine based on the Motorola kit. I
| think I intended to integrate it with a car radio. I don't think
| I got it to work all that reliably. Only a few of the music AM
| stations seemed to pick it up here in Australia. Very quickly FM
| won out. http://messui.polygonal-
| moogle.com/sch/kits/AMstereoEA.pdf
| smackeyacky wrote:
| I hadn't thought about AM Stereo in a long time. I had an old car
| with a 2nd hand "Voxson" AM Stereo unit in it, the stereo light
| would light up on 2CA (in the ACT in the late eighties).
| Unfortunately for AM stereo, Australia didn't really have
| widespread FM stations outside of the major cities until a
| similar period and the hype was all about FM.
|
| Australia is huge and AM radio stations were able to broadcast
| much further than the first FM stations, so if you were looking
| for an FM station on a long trip you'd be fiddling with the radio
| trying to find another station, even with new-fangled digital
| tuners and seek functions.
|
| I suppose it didn't help that AM stereo, in practice, was
| somewhat underwhelming compared to FM when you could find it,
| especially in a noisy car with a pair of sun damaged 6" speakers
| and the windows down because you didn't have A/C.
| aidenn0 wrote:
| For those curious about the specific modulation:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-QUAM
| Aloha wrote:
| AM Stereo with a wide-IF receiver will pass 13khz of audio, it
| sounds quite good when it's clean. As does regular AM, on a
| vintage radio with a wife IF, it can sound great.
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(page generated 2022-10-28 23:01 UTC)