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How many AM stations still actively use HD Radio (AM-HD)? Are there any in your area?

Radio Disney really was the millennial childhood soundtrack! They were early adopters to AM HD, and hung on to a SXM channel for a while.

WDGY sounded great on AM HD. Now they only broadcast in analogue.

I think the future of AM HD is just about over. There was a little excitment around HD-only AM broadcasts, but all the stations who tried this approach lost substansial listener numbers.

AM radio itself is still alive and well, despite what people might think. I file it in the cable TV category - still profitable and useful, but still shrinking in audience size.
 
boiseengineer said:
Where the IBOC equipment was at KBOI 670.
It's a door now and the empty rack's been repurposed.

View attachment 8142
Click to expand...
In this case, a picture is worth at least a thousand words.

The story is deeper: think of the investment in AM IBOC originally made and the decision not to update the gear as that first generation gear aged out.
 
DavidEduardo said:
The story is deeper: think of the investment in AM IBOC originally made and the decision not to update the gear as that first generation gear aged out.
Click to expand...
The first-gen AM IBOC exciters were based on a PC running Linux, made during the height of the early to mid 2000s PC motherboard "capacitor plague". After a few years the caps popped and the exciters were deemed unrepairable because the motherboards were no longer available.

exciter.png
 
chriscervantez said:
I have the Sangean HDT-1x and this can decode AM Stereo, although it’s been quite a while since I’ve came across a station that supports AM Stereo. The 1x has been discontinued and replaced with a newer model, but I’m not sure if the newer model supports AM Stereo.
Click to expand...

Just curious…was this from your personal experience?

I ask because I have a ‘1X, but I’ve never had it near enough to a true C-QUAM station to decode - Oakland was too far away from Napa’s KVON when I lived in northern California and I never took the ‘1X up there; in Denver, there are five AM HD stations with the likelihood of a sixth at some point in the near future. I don’t think there’s a C-QUAM station in the entire state of Colorado.
 
Mark Roberts said:
Just curious…was this from your personal experience?

I ask because I have a ‘1X, but I’ve never had it near enough to a true C-QUAM station to decode - Oakland was too far away from Napa’s KVON when I lived in northern California and I never took the ‘1X up there; in Denver, there are five AM HD stations with the likelihood of a sixth at some point in the near future. I don’t think there’s a C-QUAM station in the entire state of Colorado.
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Yes, it’s from personal experience. I purchased the radio when it was new and came out. I actually had the HDT-1, but decided to upgrade to the 1x. I lived in Peoria, IL at the time and both 1470 WMBD and 1290 WIRL ran AM Stereo. I knew the engineer and with upgrades to equipment, he told me that they had to discontinue it, because for some reason (which I can’t remember) it wasn’t compatible.

With the crowded band in DFW, I can’t DX as much as used to, but I’ll have to pull the radio out of my closet and see if I can find any stations still broadcasting in C-QUAM.
 
KCBC's HD coverage reaches into the Bay Area during the daytime so I can not fault them for trying. Probably the most solid skywave coverage comes off KSL 1160. I have heard KSL on the West Coast, sometimes as a "solid HD decode" at night. On the East Coast WGY does well at night; I could even decode CIAO 530 on occasion.
 
RF101 said:
KCBC's HD coverage reaches into the Bay Area during the daytime so I can not fault them for trying. Probably the most solid skywave coverage comes off KSL 1160. I have heard KSL on the West Coast, sometimes as a "solid HD decode" at night. On the East Coast WGY does well at night; I could even decode CIAO 530 on occasion.
Click to expand...

Never could get AM HD to lock onto KCBC when I lived in Oakland.
 
chriscervantez said:
Yes, it’s from personal experience. I purchased the radio when it was new and came out. I actually had the HDT-1, but decided to upgrade to the 1x. I lived in Peoria, IL at the time and both 1470 WMBD and 1290 WIRL ran AM Stereo. I knew the engineer and with upgrades to equipment, he told me that they had to discontinue it, because for some reason (which I can’t remember) it wasn’t compatible.

With the crowded band in DFW, I can’t DX as much as used to, but I’ll have to pull the radio out of my closet and see if I can find any stations still broadcasting in C-QUAM.
Click to expand...

You took the same path that I did. I had the 1, but didn’t really like it, especially because the output level was so high. I have heard, though, that some broadcast engineers liked it just for that reason. The 1x was a better match to my other equipment.
 
Listening to KLVZ (???) in Denver. In HD, AM actually is listenable. When the HD drops out, the signal goes to high noise, mono, reduced bandwidth unlistenable.
 
radiofan2023 said:
Why not just replace the caps?
Click to expand...
Some of them were miniatures that simply could not be serviced on the motherboard.

Personally, since building my first “PC” about 45 years ago, I would not even attempt service a motherboard. Replacement was faster and did no involve miniature components and multi-level circuits.
 
RF101 said:
KCBC's HD coverage reaches into the Bay Area during the daytime so I can not fault them for trying. Probably the most solid skywave coverage comes off KSL 1160. I have heard KSL on the West Coast, sometimes as a "solid HD decode" at night. On the East Coast WGY does well at night; I could even decode CIAO 530 on occasion.
Click to expand...

I've managed to decode WFDF in HD at night in west Michigan.
 
K6JHU said:
Listening to KLVZ (???) in Denver. In HD, AM actually is listenable. When the HD drops out, the signal goes to high noise, mono, reduced bandwidth unlistenable.
Click to expand...

The digital artifacts are tough for me to listen to, though. So I have a choice: either digital distortion on 810 when in HD, or FM hiss/noise from the 99-watt FM translator (K237GG) on Lookout Mountain that doesn’t make it much east past downtown Denver. Well, there’s the stream as well but it’s of so-so audio quality at best. I wish it were better.
 
radiofan2023 said:
Don’t use hdradio.com. If you want accurate info, use this site instead: HD Radio Directory The guy who runs it posts on this message board @dxsphere, so you can message him updates or changes.
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Thank you for the reply. I have used that and it shows no AM HD radio stations. In fact, the Sangean HDR-18 has an HD Seek feature. I have tried it and I have yet to tune any.

We seem to have a number of FM HD stations in the Minneapolis-St. Paul DMA, however.
 
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