Orban Optimod-AM 9400 Operating Manual Download

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OPTIMOD-AM DIGITAL

OPERATION

3-7

tically named .orb94fwb and .orb94wnb files that 9400 PC Remote installed on your
computer. These files contain the preset values in plaintext form. Their default
folder is

c:\Program Files\9400\Presets

If the amount of transmitter power available is limited and you wish to cover the
widest possible area, you may choose to process harder (by advancing the

ESS

ORE

control at the cost of slight audible distortion and increased compression). You

may also wish to reduce the amount of high frequency receiver equalization and/or
decrease the audio bandwidth of the processing (by adjusting the system low-pass
filter) because you will discover that you can achieve a louder sound with the same
amount of distortion if you do this.

You will find out that in any setup there is

direct trade-off between loudness,

brightness, and distortion. You can improve any single parameter, but only at the
expense of one or both of the other two. This is true of any processor, not just
OPTIMOD-AM. Perhaps the most difficult part of adjusting a processor is determin-
ing the best trade-off for a given situation. If most of your listeners are located
where your signal is strong, it is wiser to give up ultimate loudness to achieve
brightness and low distortion. A listener can compensate for loudness by simply ad-
justing the volume control. But there is

nothing

the listener can do to make a dirty

signal sound clean again, or to undo the effects of excessive high-frequency limiting.

If processing for high quality is done carefully, the sound will also be excellent on
small radios. Although such a signal might fall slightly short of ultimate loudness, it
will tend to compensate with an openness, depth, and punch (even on small radios)
that cannot be obtained when the signal is excessively squashed. On the other hand,
if many listeners receive a weak signal or one that is frequently contaminated by in-
terference, then processing harder to achieve maximum loudness, uniformity, and
average modulation will let the station be heard more easily. You may therefore
wish to process quite differently during the day than at night, when skywave inter-
ference is often a problem. OPTIMOD-AM's programmable presets make this easy.

If women form a significant portion of the station's audience, bear in mind that
women are more sensitive to distortion and listening fatigue than men are. In any
format requiring long-term listening to achieve market share, great care should be
taken not to alienate women by excessive stridency, harshness, or distortion.

AM radio has been losing its market share to FM in many countries because the pub-
lic believes that AM has lower sound quality. While this is inevitably true (except in
the automobile, where multipath often degrades FM reception below “entertain-
ment quality”), the damage can be minimized by processing the audio to make the
best of the limitations of the AM channel and to avoid processing artifacts.
OPTIMOD-AM is uniquely effective in optimizing these trade-offs, and the discussion
below tells you in more detail how to do this.

Shortwave/HF Processing

The goals for HF broadcasters are likely to be quite different than they would be in
MW, LW, or FM broadcast. Listeners to HF broadcasts are often highly motivated and
will continue to listen even when the signal is severely degraded by poor propaga-
tion conditions or by interference that would almost certainly cause the average LW,
MW, or FM listener to tune to another station.

Orban Optimod-AM 9400, Operating Manual

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