All Digital AM??? An ENG's perspective.

[ThaDood]

Has this been posted and linked here already?   http://www.engineeringradio.us/blog/2020/04/all-digital-am/
Not a bad read.

[JimIO]

They could switch all the sports stations to digital first and see how that works.

~

[BoomboxDX]

From the article:
"Further, once the all digital conversion starts, more and more co-channel digital interference will happen, likely cutting down that contour to a great extent."

Er.... no. By the time the band went all-digital -- that is, if it ever does -- the band will be so thinned out of stations that interference from other AM broadcasters would undoubtedly be a non-issue.

Right now there are AM stations existing on the thin edge of the wedge, financially. If the corona recession continues for another year, more of them may be gone. That's in addition to standard AM audience attrition. So I don't think this engineer guy has to worry about co-channel digital interference.

[Kingbear Radio]

At night, it seems like a little of that digital hash noise can go a long way. I wonder if someone has even tested on channel and adjacent station interference to see what the effects are?

Grumpy Bear: I think they're only wanting to go digital because anything called "Digital" is the buzz word of the moment. I don't know, but I think it's going to be a hard sell.

Boombox, I think you're right, AM fortunes are low already. Canada is being hit harder apprently, at least as far as an article I read about their COVID situation with radio stations, saying mediumwave is most vulnerable there.

K-Bear