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191 Comments
- Ghostwo, on 06/28/2009, -2/+136I wonder how many people are going to assume this article is about american cars because they didn't read the article...
- stuckinneutral, on 06/28/2009, -1/+69Im curious, does the US have any plans to end FM radio?
- morcheeba, on 06/29/2009, -4/+60I don't see the point... the entire FM spectrum takes the bandwidth of about 3 TV channels, so it's not like it's a massive savings.
- inactive, on 06/29/2009, -5/+57OMFG THE WHEEL IS ON THE WRONG SIDE!
- MutatedNantuko, on 06/29/2009, -2/+51Dailymail, guys. Come on. How many times has this site cured cancer now? 30? 80 times?
- inactive, on 06/29/2009, -2/+40Radio is important for getting information to people during emergencies. I don't think the US would make hundreds of millions of hand held radios obsolete.
- inactive, on 06/28/2009, -1/+33I don't think so. They just rolled out HD radio, so I expect most stations to eventually switch to that, but the normal signal still goes though with HD, so it should not be a problem for standard receivers.
- vsujohn2, on 06/29/2009, -2/+30BUT IF YOU CALL WITHIN THE NEXT 5 MINUTES YOU CAN DRIVE ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE ROAD... ABSOLUTELY FREE!
- vizerei, on 06/29/2009, -2/+30No, FM is not used for digital in the sense that you're thinking. Modulation comes from making the sound modulate(or wobble in a sense) the carrier frequency (Frequency Modulation - FM). With 1's and 0's you don't modulate frequency the same way, you just have a frequency with 1's and 0's coming across at whatever bandwidth you choose (to fit more 1's and 0's next to each other)
The modulation schemes are essentially amplitude modulation and phase modulation. However, that is slightly false, as it is a bit more complex than just saying 1 or 0 in front of an HPA transmitter as that is incredibly inefficient.. For frequency efficiency the modulation schemes come in PSK and QAM. PSK is roughly equivalent to FM, QAM is roughly equivalent to AM. In this scheme you have 4-PSK, 8-PSK, 16-PSK, and they may be able to push even 32-PSK or 64-PSK these days (unsure). Same numbering with QAM.
What that basically does is the amplitude or phase has that number of levels (instead of 0 and 1 it becomes 0, 1, 01, 10 etc as far as you would like to go). This enables you to have multiple bits represented in a single frequency slot with a single amplitude level or phase angle. These become very frequency efficient the higher the level of digital modulation you go. For instance, your cable modem typically uses 16QAM to transmit digitally over the coax lines out to the fiber trunks and it may or may not continue with a the same or higher order modulation for more frequency conservation.
I could get a lot more in to this subject but I'm sure everyone stopped reading this a long ways up. =P
Hope that help!
-Passionate Communications Engineer - 4321234, on 06/29/2009, -2/+29Digital killed the radio cars.
- smacksaw, on 06/28/2009, -2/+24And what about listening to radio from continental Europe? Are they abandoning FM as well? If you're like many in the UK and live in the south...think about pirate radio and the UK. If anything, there's less competition for anyone with an analogue signal if it goes digital. In fact, how can the UK complain if someone bumps up 10k or even 50k watts from Belgium or France? They aren't crossing signals since the UK got rid of them.
- vizerei, on 06/29/2009, -1/+20Actually, in the world of communications engineering analog modulation (such as FM) takes a ton of bandwidth and is incredibly ineffecient. Digital is the way to go for frequency space conservation--at least an order of magnitude more efficient. With that said, I believe keeping analog radio around is in the public's best interest as it's easier for john q public to find or build an analog radio in times of emergency (yes I said build).
For more information, see my reply to the next post. - Xpletive, on 06/29/2009, -1/+19swapping a head unit is SO difficult... quick EVERYONE PANIC
- Jaime2000, on 06/29/2009, -0/+17http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/digitalradio. ...
"Although the FCC has moved a step closer to bringing digital radio to you, at this time radio broadcasters are not required to convert to 'all-digital' broadcasting."
So, no, not yet. - DeskFlyer, on 06/28/2009, -1/+17Or they were too busy viewing this one which was off to the side:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-11960 ... - masterstghm, on 06/29/2009, -2/+18I stopped in the first few sentences because I realized it wouldn't affect me.
- inactive, on 06/29/2009, -1/+16All I need is the aux jack, thx.
- Technopundit, on 06/29/2009, -0/+13Standard FM Must accompany HD signals in the US. The FCC says so.
- Fishn2, on 06/29/2009, -1/+14I'm willing to bet the price will drop pretty quickly between now and 2015.
I doubt it's that big a deal. - sjbdallas, on 06/28/2009, -3/+15Satellite radio has failed miserably but I agree that MP3 players are a fair competitor. But with radio struggling like it is, I wonder if this kind of issue will kill it off for good.
- gcman94, on 06/29/2009, -2/+14podcasts + iPod/Mp3 player music + audiobooks = win
- TiMMY8765, on 06/29/2009, -0/+11ok if you have an older car but have you seen the interiors of newer cars? the entire thing is merged with the climate controls and wired to the steering wheel and there is no real "head unit" to take out. still no need to panic. just burn some CD's, the radios never play good music anyways.
- earlvanze, on 06/29/2009, -2/+12BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!
- coheedcollapse, on 06/29/2009, -0/+10Yeah I don't know where the hell they got the 300 pound cost statistic. Trying to cause fear and rage I'm guessing because it's nothing near that.
- piemcgee, on 06/29/2009, -6/+16All radio is awful.
- lnxfi, on 06/29/2009, -6/+16lose your meds?
- buddamus, on 06/28/2009, -0/+9I hope they open up some of the old radio frequencies to the public once it switches.
- rowlanjr, on 06/29/2009, -0/+9RIP Billy Mays....
- Linake, on 06/29/2009, -1/+10What are you? Rich? Or just severely in debt?
- johnpaul191, on 06/29/2009, -2/+11So........ your iPod FM transmitters might have an easier time finding an open channel?
- sexybobo, on 06/29/2009, -0/+8Not in the USA but in the UK where this article is about they are shutting it off in 5 years.
- StuartGibson, on 06/29/2009, -0/+8Not in the UK. We have BBC radio. Just on FM/AM we have:
Radio 1 - top 40 nonsense, no commercials
Radio 2 - music for the over 40s, no commercials
Radio 3 - classical music, no commercials
Radio 4 - talk (not talk radio though), quiz programs, plays and comedy, no commercials
Radio 5 - live sport, no commercials
There are a few more on digital as well. These are just the BBC channels, there are dozens more of national and local stations including the wonderful ClassicFM ("hipper" classical, but with commercials. - canudiggit123, on 06/29/2009, -0/+8they're*
- MAGZine, on 06/29/2009, -0/+7Well played.
- Xplorer, on 06/29/2009, -1/+8GOT ME WITH THE CAT LINE!
- TrueJournals, on 06/29/2009, -3/+10Really, though... the same can be argued about TV. Although, I agree... hand-crank radios are much easier to come by than hand-crank TVs...
- AFGUnit106, on 06/29/2009, -13/+20Big ***** deal
people bitch about advancing. We are not gonna technologically advance if you ***** pretend like this is the 1990s. People still bitch about "Oh you need 1 gb of ram for windows 7 and only 256mb for windows xp!" WELL DUH ITS ***** 2009 YOU IDIOTS.
Good that we cut off analogue tv, now lets cut off analog radio. - faizal5k, on 06/29/2009, -0/+7i'd hit it
- shauncullen, on 06/29/2009, -0/+6Canada is a massive country with a very low population density in most of it. AM radio is the only thing that can cover these massive areas, so in that way its not a bad thing its still kicking around. Rural areas need AM.
- wr332, on 06/29/2009, -2/+8yeah! a converter box for cars!
- funkyloki, on 06/29/2009, -0/+6***** you James. How's that for American?
- TrancePhreak, on 06/29/2009, -2/+8Which is a BS assessment. Many radios can be removed within 1 minute, just ask any car radio thief.
- 12Iceman, on 06/29/2009, -1/+7Very informative. Thanks for posting.
- Duffle, on 06/29/2009, -0/+6We still haven't gotten rid of AM radio. (In Canada)
- tmyprod, on 06/29/2009, -1/+6Yea, it's called the Top 40.
- vizerei, on 06/29/2009, -1/+6No, no current plans.
- igyigyigy, on 06/29/2009, -0/+5Nonsense, the daily mail would never do that. Never.
- twiztidsinz, on 06/29/2009, -0/+5But how else are you going to listen to what ClearChannel wants and tells you to listen to???
- AngelBunny, on 06/29/2009, -1/+6call me ignorant but I thought digital radio used the same frequencies as analog radio so if france upped the watts it would interfere with the digital radio of the UK stations.
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