Canada is being cautious when it comes to IBOC.
Testers conclude that “required regulation revisions might indicate that FM IBOC is impractical in the existing Canadian environment,” and they recommend monitoring IBOC deployment and receiver uptake in the United States before committing more resources to further tests.
You’ll recall that Canadian regulators in December referred to the country’s Eureka-147 rollout as stalled.
In subsequent FM tests conducted by CBC/Radio Canada, some things went well, with HD Radio coverage found to be “far less sensitive to multipath” than analog FM. But the results were not all positive. “FM HD Radio created noticeable interference to first-adjacent stations within their protected contours,” the group states in a report to the NRSC. (Such groups often update the U.S. standards-setting body on their IBOC-related tests.)
The CRTC also said in December it is open to testing Digital Radio Mondiale.
Read more in an upcoming issue of Radio World.
