Extended AM broadcast band
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The extended AM broadcast band (sometimes known as the X-band) is a medium wave broadcast allocation (1610 kHz–1710 kHz). The band became officially available c. 1993 only in ITU Region 2 (North and South America). It is popular with microbroadcasters for having slightly better propagation characteristics than the standard AM band. Though supported on most (but not all) modern AM radio units sold in the Americas, this band is often unavailable to older radio receivers except for those with substantial overcoverage. On such radios, the 1600-1700 segment was labelled "Police", since it was the original police radio band.
In the United States, commercial broadcasters using these frequencies are required to use AM stereo, though there is little commercial availability of the required receivers. Plus few stations in the band actually broadcast in stereo, and the FCC seems uninterested in fining them for violating the requirement.[citation needed]
Although the extended band is not officially allocated in Europe it is used by Vatican Radio and a number of "hobby" Pirate Radio stations, particularly in The Netherlands, Greece and Serbia.
In Australia, many commercial licenses have been released for the band. However, they have restrictions not placed on licensees of the standard MW band, including a much narrower bandwidth and greatly reducing sound quality. The vast bulk of licenses have never been used. Due to a number of factors, few Australian stations in this band have many listeners.
