In-band On-channel - Challenges

Challenges

AM IBOC in the United States still faces some serious technological challenges of its own, including nighttime interference with other stations. iBiquity was previously using PAC (also used at a higher bitrate in Sirius satellite radio, see Digital Audio Radio Service), but in August 2003 a switch to HDC (based-upon ACC) was made to rectify these problems. HDC has been customized for IBOC, and it is also likely that the patent rights and royalties for every transmitter and receiver can be retained longer by creating a more proprietary system. Digital Radio Mondiale is also developing an IBOC system, likely to be used worldwide with AM shortwave radio, and possibly with broadcast AM and FM. Neither of those have been approved yet for ITU region 2 (the Americas). The system, however, unlike HD Radio, does not permit the existing analog signal and the digital signal to live together in the same channel. DRM requires an additional channel to maintain both signals.

Both AM and FM IBOC signals cause interference to adjacent-channel stations, but not within the station’s interference-free protected contours designated by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC). It has led to derogatory terms such as IBAC (In-band adjacent-channel) and IBUZ (since the interference sounds like a buzz.) The range of a station on an HD Radio receiver is somewhat less than its analog signal. However, in June, 2008, a group of US broadcasters and equipment manufacturers requested that the U.S. FCC increase the permissible FM IBOC power from 1% (currently) to a maximum of 10% of the analog power. On January 29, 2010, the FCC approved the request. In addition, tropospheric ducting and e-skip can reduce the range of the digital signal, as well as the analog.

In-band on-channel digital radios using iBiquity's standard are being marketed under the brand "HD Radio" to highlight the purported quality of reception. As of June 2008, over 60 different receiver models have been made, and stations have received blanket (no longer individual and experimental) authorization from the U.S. FCC to transmit in a multiplexed multichannel mode on FM. Originally, the use of HD Radio transmission on AM was limited to daytime only, and not allowed at night due to potential problems with skywave radio propagation. The FCC lifted this restriction in early 2007. DRM, however, is being used across Europe on shortwave, which is entirely AM skywave, without issue. With the proper receiver, many of those stations can be heard in North America as well, sans the analog signal.