Simply random stuff

[ar surround]

Just got a new car with SiriusXM, and I’m exploring whether or not to keep it. I usually listen to podcasts when I’m in the car (the damned thing connects to just anout everything except terrestrial TV), so it might not be worth the subscription fee. Of course, the button will always be there reminding me of what I’m missing.

In the meantime, I’ll give 14 a listen.

Are SiriusXM music programs still low bandwidth?

 

[JediJoker]

Are SiriusXM music programs still low bandwidth?

Pretty sure they still are, along with HD Radio. The first thing I do in a rental car is turn off HD Radio, and I avoid using satellite, if it's offered. I find the level of lossy compression unlistenable, even for talk.

 

[barfle]

So many AM stations are either signing off and selling their tower sites because the property is more valuable than the station or, in the case of some of the heritage AM stations, selling the tower site and downgrading the signal to multiplex (sharing a tower) with another station. It happened in Baltimore (I think WBAL) and several other places.

I know WIBC, which was the home of the Indy 500 in Indianapolis, sold their AM transmitter site a couple of years ago.

There are a few legacy AM radio stations, but most of it around here is political, religious, non-English, or some sort of a a combination of those.

 

[barfle]

When I was young and living in central Florida, at night I sometimes listened to an AM station I think in Arkansas, pop station. The skip was fantastic. One thing about AM is it bounces around everywhere.
One night I heard WLS in Chicago on FM for a bit. Funny thing was I happened to be at a house a bunch of bikers from Chicago area lived in. That same bunch were in a B grade biker movie once.

In the summer of ‘65, I went to work on a hay farm in Francois Lake, British Columbia. I was living in Orange, California at the time, and I dragged a “general coverage” radio with me. I strung up a dipole antenna made from zip cord, and listened to the Dodger games in the evening. I also got coverage of the Watts riots.

 

[barfle]

Are SiriusXM music programs still low bandwidth?

I don’t remember which satellite (Sirius or XM), but one of them is supposedly pretty good. I believe there’s a thread on that somewhere on QQ, but maybe AVS.

 

[ar surround]

I don’t remember which satellite (Sirius or XM), but one of them is supposedly pretty good. I believe there’s a thread on that somewhere on QQ, but maybe AVS.

I thought that SiriusXM was one service?

 

[barfle]

I thought that SiriusXM was one service?

They started separate, but merged several years ago. Each had their own satellite(s) and each had their own algorithms.

 

[barfle]

I thought that SiriusXM was one service?

I think XM had the higher fidelity. So if you have a choice, ask which satellite they are using and pick one with XM's bird.
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/threads/xm-radio-goes-surround.6650/

Sadly, the sound and vision link is toast.

 

[kvsawilson]

When I was young and living in central Florida, at night I sometimes listened to an AM station I think in Arkansas, pop station. The skip was fantastic. One thing about AM is it bounces around everywhere.

Yeah, I grew up in southern New Mexico and, at night, we listened to KOMA out of Oklahoma City. Remember driving around in Yellowstone once and scanning the dial and that same stattion came through up there.
Of course, we also had XEROK from just across the border in Mexico, which was the station ZZ Top sang about on Heard it on the X. It was a "border blaster" station aimed at the American market and was broadcast at much higher power than was allowed in the US and I think could be heard in most of the country..