Drop the draconian, Cold War restrictions on HF broadcast stations
The hoary, unenforced and inefficient rules in 73.788(a) through (d) limit innovation and raise barriers to entry. Drop the excessive minimum power rules and the command-and-control restrictions on content and audience.
buzz
shared this idea
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Paul Thurst
commented
Shortwave listening in the US has declined, mostly due to the lack of decent programming in English. The assumption is that US radio listeners will not put up with the variable nature of HF broadcasting. The continued domestic sales of shortwave radios, the large number and variety of US based shortwave listener websites and popularity of Amateur Radio shows that there is a segment of the US that is interested in shortwave. Additionally, as other commenters have pointed out, domestic HF broadcasting could fill a niche once filled by AM clear channel stations before that band became overcrowed and effectively reduced to 2 mv/m ground wave contour reception.
Low band (60 and 49 meter) low power shortwave, especially that which uses DRM might well cover a large area inexpensively with a reliable quality signal.
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DB
commented
Opening up the SW or HF band for domestic broadcasting could well be the answer to easing overcrowding on the AM and FM bands as opposed to taking VHF channels 5 & 6 away from television and allocating it to FM. Using the HF band for this purpose would especially be effective if DRM, which is already FCC-approved for SW, was mandated.
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Brendan Wahl
commented
The regulations concerning domestic HF broadcasting are widely seen to be archaic and easily circumvented. Opening up the bands would enable new forms of digital broadcasting, particularly Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM), to be widely implemented. New types of national broadcasting could be put into place, and would enable broadcasters to reach wide audiences without great expense or infrastructure. Given the simple ability to use the bands, new ways to provide 24 hour news, music, and other types of programming can be developed to utilize the new frequencies efficiently and economically when compared to wire-based and expensive infrastructure systems such as LTE, Wimax, and Internet based information systems.
Public safety can also be enhanced: using DRM and shortwave, hurricane warnings and information (including video) could be disseminated over major portions of the country using only one or two transmitter sites. This could even be extended to broadcasting such information as the Weather Channel nation-wide, showing weather maps with the audio. The possibilities are endless, and we need to start now!
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Mark Phillips
commented
Get with it FCC!
Your job is to serve us not restrict us. Stop taking money from big business interests and do your job properly.
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Anonymous
commented
An new domestic SW broadcasting technique, that would have little impact on receiving out-of-country transmissions, would be a 60 and 49 meter SW BC bands NVIS (Near Vertical Incidence Skywave) using DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale). DRM would permit single-frequency networks of lower powered (1 KW) transmitters to provide regional coverage. (Chicago/StLouis,Detroit/Indianapolis/Minneapolis for example).
As NVIS is active primarily in the daytime, the limitation could be placed on this service that it can be active only 1/2 hour after local dawn, and up to 1/2 hour after local sunset. Antenna patterns can be regulated to point upward, with little to know radiation towards the horizon.
This is spectrum is pretty much wasted at these times of day right now. So, why not permit this?
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Anonymous
commented
An new domestic SW broadcasting technique, that would have little impact on receiving out-of-country transmissions, would be a 60 and 49 meter SW BC bands NVIS (Near Vertical Incidence Skywave) using DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale). DRM would permit single-frequency networks of lower powered (1 KW) transmitters to provide regional coverage. (Chicago/StLouis,Detroit/Indianapolis/Minneapolis for example).
As NVIS is active primarily in the daytime, the limitation could be placed on this service that it can be active only 1/2 hour after local dawn, and up to 1/2 hour after local sunset. Antenna patterns can be regulated to point upward, with little to know radiation towards the horizon.
This is spectrum is pretty much wasted at these times of day right now. So, why not permit this?
