Our May meeting featured John Kean, Senior Technologist for NPR Labs and Dr. Ellyn Sheffield, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Towson University. John and Ellyn were co-lead project investigators for the Advanced IBOC Coverage and Interference Analysis (AICCS) project, conducted last year by NPR (see final report). The results were used by the FCC in crafting its recent Order permitting increased digital ERP for IBOC DAB (“HD Radio”).

John and Ellyn discussed the technical background and methodology of their research and showed numerous slides and pictures from their field studies. They brought examples of the over-the-air audio clips they used to study real world listener reaction to main channel audio affected by differing IBOC injection levels.

The commission has cleared the way for broadcasters to increase their HD carriers by 6 dB by simply notifying the FCC by letter within 10 days. Increases to the full 10 dB or increases for super-powered FMs still require the filing for an STA.