J
JasonW
Guest
Hello All,
I was wondering...is it illegal to broadcast in the Long Wave band (150 kHz - 530 kHz) in the US? I know that the FCC allows 1 watt unlicensed "LowFER" beacons on 160 kHz - 190 kHz under the Part 15 rules. Also, the Long Wave band in the US is rather sparsely populated by aviation Non-Directional Beacons (NDBs), but they are narrowband (only 5 kHz for the relatively few "Talking NDBs" with voice weather advisories--most are even narrower morse-only Continuous Wave), and in any given area most Long Wave frequencies are unused.
Since AM IBOC requires much less radiated power than analog AM to get a listenable signal out to a given distance, and because there are currently no North American analog Long Wave radio stations to "IBUZ-out" with interference, digital-only AM IBOC could find its niche here.
With the lower IBOC power requirements, there would be no need for gigantic Long Wave towers--the NDB-style 100' - 200' towers or telephone pole-supported Marconi "Tee" wire antennas would work just fine.
An all-digital AM IBOC Long Wave service could be used for low-power local broadcasting or for longer-range regional broadcasting.
What do you all think? -- Jason
I was wondering...is it illegal to broadcast in the Long Wave band (150 kHz - 530 kHz) in the US? I know that the FCC allows 1 watt unlicensed "LowFER" beacons on 160 kHz - 190 kHz under the Part 15 rules. Also, the Long Wave band in the US is rather sparsely populated by aviation Non-Directional Beacons (NDBs), but they are narrowband (only 5 kHz for the relatively few "Talking NDBs" with voice weather advisories--most are even narrower morse-only Continuous Wave), and in any given area most Long Wave frequencies are unused.
Since AM IBOC requires much less radiated power than analog AM to get a listenable signal out to a given distance, and because there are currently no North American analog Long Wave radio stations to "IBUZ-out" with interference, digital-only AM IBOC could find its niche here.
With the lower IBOC power requirements, there would be no need for gigantic Long Wave towers--the NDB-style 100' - 200' towers or telephone pole-supported Marconi "Tee" wire antennas would work just fine.
An all-digital AM IBOC Long Wave service could be used for low-power local broadcasting or for longer-range regional broadcasting.
What do you all think? -- Jason