Will analog radio go dark in 2015?

[jras20]

I found this link, wondered if any of it was true?  I guess if they killed analog radio to all HD I'll need to go to XM to be able to get anything.

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/145092

[Savage]

Ummm.....the linked article is about radio in the UK.  And there is a clear statement in the last paragraph that there is no such proposal under consideration for USA radio broadcasting.  Also the article states that the FCC has expressly declined to set a deadline for ending analog radio.

[Tom Wells]

And when the blind lead the blind, they shall both fall into the ditch.  You can Google to see whose wise-acre remark this was.

Digitize everything now, so we can get it over with, admire them mess, then go back to functional technologies.
I am tired of digital failures only intended to suck up consumer dollars.
I want products that last 10 to 50 years, not the latest disappointing whiz-bang throwaway gimmick.


Ahhh! My car windows won't go down, they're digital! AHH! My phone won't work, it's digital.
My TV keeps blanking out, pixelating and turning faces into monstrous multicolored blobs, it's DIGITAL.

Can someone tell me why phone dialing went from digital to analog?  I mean, it was pure digital for 75 years before they
"upgraded" dialing to dual-tone analog sinewave decoding.   Just wondering.

[stormy01]

Can someone tell me why phone dialing went from digital to analog?  I mean, it was pure digital for 75 years before they
"upgraded" dialing to dual-tone analog sinewave decoding.   Just wondering.

I believe in part, the old dial phone technology generated pulses that the 'switch' needed to drive the relays. Digital was deemed more efficient since relays consumed a lot more power than digital, took up a lot of floor space and they were mechanical, which were subject to breakdown. There are solid state relays, but even these are expensive and take up quite a bit of space. I seem to think digital landline is fine, perhaps are you talking about cellular? Any over-the-air digital signal has to overcome a threshold

If the signal does not equal or exceed the threshold, then there would be a dropout, or absence of signal. That's one of the inherent disadvantages of digital, though in some cases the technology has been perfected to the point a signal can be decoded at signal levels lower than -160dBm, which is barely above the the noise, but that's professional equipment, not consumer-grade equipment.

[landtuna]

I believe in part, the old dial phone technology generated pulses that the 'switch' needed to drive the relays. Digital was deemed more efficient since relays consumed a lot more power than digital, took up a lot of floor space and they were mechanical, which were subject to breakdown.

Correctomundo!  Those old mechanical relays were about the size of a large coffee can.  With the explosion of phone numbers over the past 30 or so years it would have been a nightmare to build central offices large enough to hold all the equipment necessary.  Also, the relays cannot be programmed.  They merely connect or disconnect.  With touch-tone dialing a computer can interpret the different commands (which is what the tones actually are) and perform functions other than connect/disconnect.

Those old central offices were way louder than an automobile factory with all the switching going on.

[stormy01]

I believe in part, the old dial phone technology generated pulses that the 'switch' needed to drive the relays. Digital was deemed more efficient since relays consumed a lot more power than digital, took up a lot of floor space and they were mechanical, which were subject to breakdown.

Correctomundo!  Those old mechanical relays were about the size of a large coffee can.  With the explosion of phone numbers over the past 30 or so years it would have been a nightmare to build central offices large enough to hold all the equipment necessary.  Also, the relays cannot be programmed.  They merely connect or disconnect.  With touch-tone dialing a computer can interpret the different commands (which is what the tones actually are) and perform functions other than connect/disconnect.

Those old central offices were way louder than an automobile factory with all the switching going on.

Keeping track of all those relays would have been a great career upgrade from being a bean counter!
(and don't forget the ear protectors)

[landtuna]

Keeping track of all those relays would have been a great career upgrade from being a bean counter!
(and don't forget the ear protectors)

I did.  It wasn't!  Got out of the central office and into PBX and Long Lines as fast as possible!

Now climbing poles......THAT was fun!!!

[oldiesfan6479]

Got out of the central office and into PBX and Long Lines as fast as possible!

"Long Lines" as in the old TV network lines or POTS long distance?

[Tom Wells]

Everyone glossed right over the fact that the old relay driven switches were directly driven digital logic hand-wired addresing.
The touch tone system everyone thinks of as digital is purely analog, using two sine waves.
That's why it requires less power.  It's not digital until later on in the system.
The pulse system is pure digital, states of zero or one, current or no current.

I'll again challenge anyone to cite an example of any system developed by evolution or "God" that uses a a digital mode.
There are none, because they are not robust enough for life systems.
The laws of physics, rife with entropy and the "real world" with its "unexpected problems", smacks down such foolishness quickly.

The old car had many reasons to run poorly, but still got you where you were going.
The digital based auto just stops and you get to go where you are headed in a tow truck.

I find the suggestion that everything go digital to be dangerously ignorant.

I will not drive a car where the steering is digital, I want a great big analog gearbox to await my input and do my bidding 100% of the time instantly with no decoding and interpretation. I've seen too many encoder driven systems begin interpreting "clockwise" as "counterclockwise".
I've had a newer car interpret my command to run the wiper/washer cycle as a request to turn off the headlights AT NIGHT AT 60 MPH while its SNOWING.
Call me a luddite, but at least I'll stick with technolgies I can trust.  No digital radio for me, thank you.
It will not support my desire to listen to great bluegrass from Nashville on the way to work here in Chicago.
Don't suggest that the wi-fi method with an iphone is radio.   It's a completely different thing because it cannot work in real-time as radio does.

[Nick]

Here's an example of something that went digital that is much superior to its analog replacement: CDs and DVDs.
Records and tapes have noise and can be easily destroyed, and tapes have a short life. A CD or DVD burned today will outlive your children.

Radio should remain analog or go all digital. Why do stations turn off the IBUZ for live sports? Because of the delay. What will happen to all the HD radios out there if a new, more efficient audio codec is developed that say, allows for 10 subchannels? If radio goes digital, the government will have to subsidize converter boxes.
If we could have all-digital radio at the current analog power levels, stations would be receivable in HD all the way out to the 30-40 dBu analog contour without dropouts, which is better than what is possible now.