Editing Broadcast range (section)

==Edge-of-range issues==
Those at the edge of a station's broadcast range will typically notice [[White noise|static]] in an [[analog signal|analog]] broadcast, while [[error correction]] will keep a [[Digital signal (electronics)|digital signal]] clear until it hits the [[cliff effect]] and suddenly disappears completely.  [[FM broadcasting|FM]] stations may flip back and forth (sometimes [[Flutter (electronics and communication)|annoyingly rapidly]] when moving) due to the [[capture effect]], while [[amplitude modulation|AM]] stations (including TV video) may overlay or fade with each other.

[[FM stereo]] will tend to get static more quickly than the [[monaural|monophonic]] sound due to its use of [[subcarrier]]s, so stations may choose to extend the usable part of their range by disabling the [[stereo generator]].  Listeners can also choose to disable stereo decoding on the receiver, though loss of the stereo [[pilot tone]] causes this to happen automatically.  Because this tends to turn on and off when at the threshold of reception, and the threshold is often set too low by the [[manufacturer]]'s [[product design]], manually disabling this when at the edge of the broadcast range prevents the annoying noisy-stereo/quiet-mono switching.

The same is true of [[analog TV]] stereo and [[second audio program]]s, and even for color TV, all of which use subcarriers.  [[Radio reading service]]s and other subcarrier services will also tend to suffer from dropouts sooner than the main station.

Technologies are available that allow for switching to a different signal carrying the same radio program when leaving the broadcast range of a station.  [[Radio Data System]] allows for switching to a different FM or station with the same [[identifier]], or even to (but not necessarily from) an AM station.  Satellite radio also is designed to switch seamlessly between repeaters and/or satellite when moving outside the range of one or the other.  [[HD Radio]] switches back to the analog signal as a [[HD Radio|fallback]] when the edge of the digital range is encountered, but the success of this from the listener's perspective depends on how well the station's [[broadcast engineer]] has synchronized the two.