Boston's AM HD

[ThatGuyOnTheRadio]

All very good information, thank you everyone, for your input!!

 

[MarcB]

And WMKI did it (presumably) because, at the time, Radio Disney thought their strategy of music stations on cheap AM's was about to pay off big time.

In Hartford and Providence Radio Disney was in HD on AM too. Both stations have since gone silent and are up for sale. With WDZK silent, Hartford is down to one HD AM station - WTIC 1080. They turn it off during the SOX games. WLAT 910 used to have it, but GOIS shut it off. Not sure why, even tho on their website it has their logo as MEGA 910 HD.

 

[aaronread]

Hartford is down to one HD AM station - WTIC 1080. They turn it off during the SOX games.

No they don't. I listen to Sox games on WTIC and while it never makes the blend, I routinely see the little "HD" icon blinking and sometimes I'll get call letters on the display.

 

[jlehmann]

Hartford is down to one HD AM station - WTIC 1080. They turn it off during the SOX games.

No they don't. I listen to Sox games on WTIC and while it never makes the blend, I routinely see the little "HD" icon blinking and sometimes I'll get call letters on the display.

I've seen it fully decode during Sox games a few times here in MA. If they started turning it off during the games, it was very late in the season, this year.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

Is RadioOne going to install it on WILD when they are getting delisted? Nope!

RadioOne DID install it on WILD - briefly - a few years ago when they began airing their urban talk format. I remember hearing it in HD back then, but that only lasted for a few months.

When RadioOne all but gave up on WILD with the sale of the short-lived WILD-FM and the gutting of the local airstaff from the AM, the AM HD was turned off.

WRCA? WKOX? WROL? WEEI? WRKO? Why would they?

WRCA, WKOX and WUNR would face significant technical hurdles in trying to put HD carriers through a DA that complicated.

WKOX, 1430 AM, IS in HD.

Do you guys mean WXKS(AM) 1200, the former WKOX? That's not in HD.

 

[KB1OKL]

WCRN has never broadcast in HD thank God, it's only a few miles from my QTH and WBZ sounds like krap in HD irregardless of what any IBOC cheerleader has endlessly bleated here. I have a Sony XDR-F1HD Tuner and was only able to receive it in HD very intermittently during the late afternoon with a C Crane twin coil tunable, directional, ferrite antenna which cost more than the Sony tuner did, and it sounds like krap, very artificial and very sibilant, it sounds like a three way speaker with a blown midrange speaker. Incidentally I put that tuner away last year after realizing how really bad HD is. I would have returned it but figured it might be a a curiosity piece very soon.

 

[carmen]

a C Crane twin coil tunable, directional, ferrite antenna which cost more than the Sony tuner did, and it sounds like krap, very artificial and very sibilant, it sounds like a three way speaker with a blown midrange speaker. Incidentally I put that tuner away last year after realizing how really bad HD is.

wow, sounds like real work! i place my SONY ICF-7601 near a pizza-sized coil of wire resonant near 3.88 mhz true HD AM,and 0 effort

 

[beantownradio25]

AM HD was simply a fail. I can barely receive the local blowtorch in reliable HD at my home and I'm about 20/30 miles away. It could be my setup but still. AM is dying a slow and painful death and AM HD was a weak last attempt. Even the huge Clear Channels are beginning to be simulcast on FM signals in the same market to stay relevant. FM HD on the other hand, there can be a future. ONLY IF (as many other people have said on this website) compelling content that gives the consumer the reason to buy an HD Radio is put on a subchannel. People aren't gonna invest into HD Radios for automationland subchannels, they need to get live and local, possibly ressurect an old format.

One of the major pirates should go legit and rent out an HD subchannel and promote the heck outa it, everyone will have a reason to get an HD Radio. It would work if done right.

 

[necrat123]

RadioOne DID install it on WILD - briefly - a few years ago when they began airing their urban talk format. I remember hearing it in HD back then, but that only lasted for a few months.

When RadioOne all but gave up on WILD with the sale of the short-lived WILD-FM and the gutting of the local airstaff from the AM, the AM HD was turned off.

All the AM HD equipment from WILD was removed and moved to another Radio One station.

 

[Don Juannn]

WBZ sounds like krap in HD irregardless of what any IBOC cheerleader has endlessly bleated here.

AM HD sounds better than Analog AM.

If you can't hear that, you need to get your ears checked.

You first complain that you can't receive WBZ in HD...then you go on to critique how it sounds in HD.

No cheerleading...just reality.

 

[N1WVQ]

AM HD sounds better than Analog AM.

If you can't hear that, you need to get your ears checked.


[/quote]
Disagree. C-QUAM stereo sounds GREAT! Plus it doesn't trash adjacent frequencies like IBOC does.

As for digital radio, I prefer a new band like in the U.K. or Australia. Digital broadcasting should be allowed to flourish on its own band. Since Canada was using 1.452-1.492 GHz that should be where it goes. Right now it's military radar tho.

 

[Don Juannn]

AM HD sounds better than Analog AM.

If you can't hear that, you need to get your ears checked.

Disagree. C-QUAM stereo sounds GREAT!

OK...go buy a C-QUAM radio. Be my guest!

 

[N1WVQ]

Already have 4. Want MORE!

 

[carmen]

is there audible phase disortion and weirdness?

whats a good signal to try?

 

[Eli Polonsky]

is there audible phase disortion and weirdness?

whats a good signal to try?

There are no longer any local (Boston area) stations broadcasting in C-Quam, and I don't know of any still using C-Quam that skywave in around here at night either. I still have a number of C-Quam receivers, but no stations remaining to hear in that mode.

C-Quam sounded GREAT if you were getting a clean, strong signal and had a wideband AM stereo receiver. There was no phase distortion if you had a clean local (not nighttime skywave) signal, and you were not in the "null" of a directional antenna pattern.

When receiving C-Quam via nighttime skywave signals, there could be phase distortion, just as there may be in AM mono at night.

Former C-Quam AM stereo stations in the Boston area included 740 (was the last holdout), 1030, 1060, 1090, 1150, 1330, 1360, 1470, and 1510 (the only one that was also previously in the Kahn system). In Worcester/Central MA there was also 830, 1310 and 1440.

Of the three Boston area AM stations currently broadcasting in HD, I'd say that WBZ and WXKS sound quite good. WMKI sounds like they're sending a mono feed of Radio Disney to their HD signal. AM HD is capable for stereo.