Any other HD Radios that can Force analog?

[jras20]

Is there a cheaper HD Tuner that can force analog like the Sangean HD1x? I like that.

 

[tomservo]

I think most of the car stereo headunits can force analog. No specific model info though, but I was told that JVCs can do it.

 

[DaveBayArea]

If you're handy with a soldering iron & not scared to open it up, there's a way to change the Sony here:

http://www.ham-radio.com/k6sti/xdr-f1hd.htm

Dave B.

 

[nd2023]

Isn't it amazing that we are buying HD Radios with the "feature" of disabling HD?

 

[hubcity]

Isn't it amazing that we are buying HD Radios with the "feature" of disabling HD?

Not for nothing, but my stereo FM radio has a "mono" button for exactly the same reason - defeat of the feature in fringe areas where it detracts from listening.

 

[badjef]

Isn't it amazing that we are buying HD Radios with the "feature" of disabling HD?

Not for nothing, but my stereo FM radio has a "mono" button for exactly the same reason - defeat of the feature in fringe areas where it detracts from listening.

Defeat the feature when the digital is lagging the analogue audio.

It does offer a better sounding analogue than an analogue radio has. It appears to be the ancillary benefit of an other-than-anologue-radio.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

 

[nd2023]

My Insignia portable HD radio is a great portable analog radio.

 

[mgpt6]

Marantaz SR6005 will cycle through HD1, HD2 ,HD3. then analog,if HD avilable and receivable.

 

[Chuck]

My Insignia portable HD radio is a great portable analog radio.

I guess I got a bad one. It was the only one they had in stock. The radio would not pick up a local analog Class A FM station inside my house, which is 6 miles from the transmitter by line of sight. I found that unsatisfactory, especially since even the worst radios I own have no problem with it in the same location.

Mine went back to Best Buy. They did not seem the least bit surprised

 

[tomservo]

I guess I got a bad one. It was the only one they had in stock. The radio would not pick up a local analog Class A FM station inside my house, which is 6 miles from the transmitter by line of sight. I found that unsatisfactory, especially since even the worst radios I own have no problem with it in the same location.

Mine went back to Best Buy. They did not seem the least bit surprised

Sounds like it was defective. Of course some here will equate Insignia's poor build quality directly with HD, but I suspect it's just that it's the Best Buy house brand cutting corners like they do on ALL their stuff.

My first HD portable is very sensitive, to the point it washes out on analog signals when there's a nearby strong signal on a close frequency (and by close I mean anywhere from 88-108 MHz). But it can pull HD out of next to nothing. It's slower to decode, but once it does, it's usually rock solid when sitting still. The buttons are maddeningly frustrating to use on this model, with a complete mind of their own.

The second one? An excellent analog radio, that runs circles around everything else I own at the moment. But the RDS is 99% broken and the HD is every bit as fiddly as everyone here says HD is on any other radio. It decodes noticeably faster yet doesn't hold on nearly as well. It's pretty useless in the car, and I can see all my market's C class FM HD towers from just a mile or two up the road (most are full Cs, 100 kW or less at 18-1900 feet.)

I just chalk it up to poor build quality and poor quality control. At least both's batteries work well. I get about 15 hours from both IIRC.

 

[Chuck]

Sounds like it was defective. Of course some here will equate Insignia's poor build quality directly with HD, but I suspect it's just that it's the Best Buy house brand cutting corners like they do on ALL their stuff.

Maybe. They didn't have another one in stock to try and they didn't seem to be expecting any more of them in the near future. I guess that is indicative of how well they are selling where I live. To be fair, there are only two stations that broadcast in HD in my area. Neither could really be considered "local" at their store location. Their transmitters are both about 50 miles away, and I had no expectation that the HD would work. I wasn’t disappointed in that prediction. There was no HD at all, although the Sony tuners seem to receive them most of the time.

The main reason I purchased it was to monitor the RDS feed on the local station - which I happen to own. As you mentioned, the RDS seemed very erratic, not just on my station, but on several other stations in the area. Does anyone know of a good portable radio that supports RDS?

 

[badjef]

Sounds like it was defective. Of course some here will equate Insignia's poor build quality directly with HD, but I suspect it's just that it's the Best Buy house brand cutting corners like they do on ALL their stuff.

Maybe. They didn't have another one in stock to try and they didn't seem to be expecting any more of them in the near future. I guess that is indicative of how well they are selling where I live. To be fair, there are only two stations that broadcast in HD in my area. Neither could really be considered "local" at their store location. Their transmitters are both about 50 miles away, and I had no expectation that the HD would work. I wasn’t disappointed in that prediction. There was no HD at all, although the Sony tuners seem to receive them most of the time.

The main reason I purchased it was to monitor the RDS feed on the local station - which I happen to own. As you mentioned, the RDS seemed very erratic, not just on my station, but on several other stations in the area. Does anyone know of a good portable radio that supports RDS?

Somebody else may answer this better, but it appears as though RDS is sensitive to multipath.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

 

[tomservo]

The main reason I purchased it was to monitor the RDS feed on the local station - which I happen to own. As you mentioned, the RDS seemed very erratic, not just on my station, but on several other stations in the area. Does anyone know of a good portable radio that supports RDS?

Strangely, the best RDS radio I've owned hasn't been a radio at all, but a (now deactivated) Sony Ericsson GSM cell phone. It only supports PS (station name) and AF (auto frequency) but could often pull a static PS decode out of nearly all static. The AF feature also worked well when programmed by stations.

I wanna say there's a Sony desktop table radio with good RDS but I can't remember for sure.

 

[Chuck]

I wanna say there's a Sony desktop table radio with good RDS but I can't remember for sure.

The (now discontinued) Sony HD table radio does RDS pretty well, although the LCD screen has burned out on the one I have, which renders it more or less useless. I was looking for a portable. So far, the only good ones seem to be in cars.

 

[DaveBayArea]

I used to have an old Grundig portable radio that did RDS. Alas, the PLL in it croaked and I couldn't find replacement parts. It's gone to the electronic recyclers and I forget the model. But you might look at Grundigs.

Dave B.

 

[RadioMan203]

While not garden variety cheap, I believe the Daysequerra tuners do this, at last judging by the M2 mod monitor which supposedly uses the same firmware as their HD tuners.

Of course I had an M2 serviced for a client and while they fixed one thing they screwed up another, mind you after waiting 2 months to get the unit back from them.