Kahn: FCC Should Act on Cam-D

Leonard Kahn thinks it’s time the FCC acted on his request. Earlier, he asked the agency to rescind its interim order authorizing stations to convert to HD Radio.
In January, Kahn, known to many in the industry for his work in AM stereo a decade and more ago, suggested the commission create a blue-ribbon panel to study other digital technologies for terrestrial radio, including his Cam-D system.
Once his AM digital system is developed, he intends to begin developing an FM system, which he hopes to complete by the end of 2004, Kahn states in a new filing to the commission.
Kahn believes the commission should take “immediate action” on his petition “to get at the truth re digital radio and halt this display by the NRSC of enormous conflicts of interest.
“For AM radio to be considered as a source of receiver sales and means to force the public to supposedly help the economy by making useless almost half a billion radios is ludicrous, almost as ludicrous as offering a service that only functions during daylight hours,” Kahn continued, “a service that even during daylight hours creates significant interference between stations as distant as New York and Cincinnati during the daytime and completely destroys their operation during the night.”
Of the NRSC, Kahn states, “The flaws of using unpaid engineers to evaluate highly complex technology has been proven over and over again going back to the days of Armstrong and his FM and through Crosby and FM stereo, and, of course, AM stereo.”
His new filing does not include technical details of his Cam-D system, although Kahn states that one of the tests to be conducted this year “will prove that the new signal can be received at least with an 8 kHz stereo fidelity over 1,000 miles away and with full 15 kHz stereo being transmitted which will not create interference beyond existing AM signals.”