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Don't forget FM had an uphill battle as well.
- Thread starter radioworld
- Start date
stacker said:
I learned about a few features in my old radio by reading the manual, but it was aftermarket. Turns out the EQ in it was only five bands, but those five bands could be any frequency you want. I didn't know that just by fooling with it. Completely unintuitive way to adjust it.
The automatic volume adjustment in my current car (OEM radio) involves holding down the Dolby NR button on the tape deck, but it only works with a CD or tape playing! So adjusting the AVL system for the radio involves pressing a completely unrelated button, which you wouldn't know if you didn't… RTFM!
Unless you're a fiddler like me, then you might find it by accident. It's how I found the radio's service mode, with a nifty signal meter and some other weird stuff I don't understand.
And your response speaks to my bigger gripe — that in car electronics shouldn't need to be studied for an hour before the operation is obvious. But if it is, RTFM before calling me.
Zach, I know it strains credulity, because most of us are technically oriented and we seek out performance features. Just yesterday I was in the studio with "a certain talk host" and somewhat startled him, by explaining how he could actually use his Droid-class phone to go onto the internet.
He had never opened the browser. Not once. Until then it was just another cell phone to him.
RTFM? Right. As soon as my sheepdog starts practicing the piano every day.
He had never opened the browser. Not once. Until then it was just another cell phone to him.
RTFM? Right. As soon as my sheepdog starts practicing the piano every day.
At least for some people (myself included) overly complicated car radios are not at all desirable. Ask anyone who rents cars on a frequent basis, and they will tell you that figuring out how to run everything on a strange vehicle can be quite an adventure. Having to drill down through a list of menus to make some simple change is downright dangerous if done while driving.
I'm sure you will respond that this should all be done before starting the car, and you'd be right. The problem is most of the irritants that need to be dealt with (like HD fluttering on and off) don't manifest themselves until you are on the road, usually in traffic. Some car radios have evolved into devices that are almost impossible to intuitively operate. Even simple things like turning down the volume or changing stations can be an interesting challenge....especially at 70 mph.
I'm sure you will respond that this should all be done before starting the car, and you'd be right. The problem is most of the irritants that need to be dealt with (like HD fluttering on and off) don't manifest themselves until you are on the road, usually in traffic. Some car radios have evolved into devices that are almost impossible to intuitively operate. Even simple things like turning down the volume or changing stations can be an interesting challenge....especially at 70 mph.
The FCC doesn't have to "shut down" HD, BigA. For all intents and purposes, it's already shut down. It's over except for the blame-laying and excuse-making. It's amusing in a bittersweet kind of way, watching our industry trying to ease away from this turkey, while trying mightily to look like they aren't.
The digital focus has shifted to the internet, which only makes sense. I said this three years ago about HD - "digital radio" will be analogous to getting TV via satellite and cable. The digital component will be on the web. HD Radio will struggle along for years to come as a kind of uberstupid low-functioning digital SCA, unloved by broadcasters and unknown to most of the general public. Just like it is now.
I renew my challenge: someone please name the callsigns of THREE radio stations which have newly installed/launched HD Radio in the past two years. THREE will do.
The digital focus has shifted to the internet, which only makes sense. I said this three years ago about HD - "digital radio" will be analogous to getting TV via satellite and cable. The digital component will be on the web. HD Radio will struggle along for years to come as a kind of uberstupid low-functioning digital SCA, unloved by broadcasters and unknown to most of the general public. Just like it is now.
I renew my challenge: someone please name the callsigns of THREE radio stations which have newly installed/launched HD Radio in the past two years. THREE will do.
WJBR is one, but their HD installation is faulty and doesn't decode on 3 HD radios (completely different brands) close to the transmitter.
Many stations haven't upgraded their HD power despite it being allowed last year, or play commercials on their HD2s despite that being allowed for 4 years.
iBiquity should let Apple put an HD radio in every iPod for free. That would exponentially increase the number of HD radios out there. They can make a cut of the ad revenue from the HD2 commercials. Then we would see more niche formats on the HD2s that are in demand in the market but can't command the ad rates of the regular formats.
Many stations haven't upgraded their HD power despite it being allowed last year, or play commercials on their HD2s despite that being allowed for 4 years.
iBiquity should let Apple put an HD radio in every iPod for free. That would exponentially increase the number of HD radios out there. They can make a cut of the ad revenue from the HD2 commercials. Then we would see more niche formats on the HD2s that are in demand in the market but can't command the ad rates of the regular formats.
TheBigA said:
Essentially, a hybrid HD station requires 400 KHz of bandwidth on FM, 25 KHz on AM. Bandwidth efficiency is expressed in bits/hz. For HD FM the additional occupied bandwidth is 100 KHz above the standard channel plus 100 KHz below. The total HD throughput is 96 Kb/sec. So HD efficiency is on the order of 1/2 bit-per-hz. Compare that to other transmission schemes which easily achieve 2 or 3 bits/hz and you can see that this design is not very efficient.
It's done this way to try to make the transmission more robust. But it really doesn't work very well, especially since the HD carriers occupy spectrum that is outside the assigned channel. I was driving through Sacramento yesterday listening to KVMR on 89.5. I drove within about 2 miles of the KQEI tower on 89.3, running HD. The interference was obvious, but I could still hear KVMR audio through the picket-fencing. So I switched my HD-equipped car radio down to 89.3 to see if I could get a lock on KQEI. Nope. No chance. This is on the North side of Sacramento - way closer to the tower than the actual market. I strongly suspect that there is not a single radio listener in the market that is able to receive KQEI's digital signal. Yet there it is, blasting away and degrading KVMR.
Just a thought. If the FCC allowed all FM stations to increase their ANALOG power by 14% - I.E. - 50,000 watts ERP to 57,000 watts - or broadcast the same amount of power in HD - I wonder what the choice at most stations would be. That might clean up the band a bit.
Dave B.
Nick said:
And most never will. It requires redoing the entire system in most cases and there's no return on the investment. And trust me, if Apple had any interest in HD they would have been on it years ago.
They dont play commercials on the HD-2 because there's no point. There are no listeners, so it's fruitless to try to sell advertising on those channels. Trying to sell a worthless product injures the credibility and effectiveness of your sales effort - to say nothing of the time wasted. You'd spend hours begging some skeptical prospect to try the HD-2 and have to essentially give it away anyway, and the client would call you in two weeks complaining that he's getting no response. That's ill will for your station. Thanks to HD Radio.
I'm not infuriated about HD, BigA. Actually my continued opposition to HD is to keep the downward pressure on the industry to make sure the uninformed don't fail to see the downside. It's like the Jews who never want the Nazis to be forgotten. A valuable side benefit is, my commentary annoys certain persons, one of which is apparently you. There's justice in that.
Thanks for reminding me that my message is getting through.
I'm not infuriated about HD, BigA. Actually my continued opposition to HD is to keep the downward pressure on the industry to make sure the uninformed don't fail to see the downside. It's like the Jews who never want the Nazis to be forgotten. A valuable side benefit is, my commentary annoys certain persons, one of which is apparently you. There's justice in that.
Thanks for reminding me that my message is getting through.
And if "certain broadcasters" are just keeping HD on to spite me - I seriously doubt that - they're just not very bright. They're interfering with themselves and others, inflicting telco-bandwidth audio on their revenue-producing listeners, perpetrating a fraud on their advertisers, blowing valuable resources on endless maintenance and problems, and presenting an image of cluelessness and geekdom to the few who know the truth about HD Radio (the rest couldn't care less.)
All that they're doing to themselves just to dork around some indy broadcaster in Rochester who opposes HD Radio? Pretty damned stupid.
But....actually....now that you've brought it up..... :
All that they're doing to themselves just to dork around some indy broadcaster in Rochester who opposes HD Radio? Pretty damned stupid.
But....actually....now that you've brought it up..... :
Nick said:
We have a station like that down here in Pensacola. It decodes on one radio but not my other. A software glitch in their exciter, or something. It's a shame, they have one of the best HD signals in the region, probably running higher power. So I either get no HD at all, or HD where even the main channel falls to silence during dropouts. Way to program your software, iBiquity!
Nick said:
The only commercials you're going to hear on subchannels is if they're relaying another commercial station. Clear Channel is pushing the HD-2 simulcast on FM of their puny 1 kW AM talker in Mobile; it certainly expands their coverage area by thousands of square miles (the parent FM is 73 kW @ over 1700' HAAT) but I'd be surprised if I'm not the only one listening. The low power HD signal, even at that great height, just isn't very robust. Sitting still I can get a steady lock on it from over 50 miles away with the Insignia portable, but moving? If you're in downtown Mobile with its two or three tall buildings and line of sight to the tower, fuggetaboutit. If they'd upgrade to the maximum power it'd make a world of difference and probably outperform the analog in some areas.
What bothers me is in the rush to get HD going on all these mega corp broadcast outlets, they didn't build them out anticipating a possible power hike allowance by the FCC. That's just short sighted. All these build outs happened when they were still flush with cash, they should have planned ahead. Then cranking power would be as simple as replacing a few components, not rebuilding the entire system from scratch.
Nick said:
I can't decide how Apple fanboys would react to that. Chaos over something Apple implements that doesn't work, or blindly accept it as "great" like they do Apple's other occasional goofs. It could go either way.
Savage said:
I've spoken several times with the service managers at the two BMW dealers I go to, one of which is the largest volume dealer in the state. Neither has been able to think of more than an isolated occurrence of a comment on HD. The dealer in Palm Springs has had questions about turning it off since no local station is in HD and it simplifies the visual dial to kill the feature. But to say that this is a frequent and recurring issue is exaggeration.
Oh, and it is really, really simple to turn it off. If you can turn on and off the rear seat separate or ganged AC vents via the iDrive, you can disable HD.
Zach said:
Hardly. Remember that broadcasters were assured that this system would work as planned from the get-go, with no techincal tweaks needed...take it out of the box, hook it up, pay your license fees and away you go. That's how HD was promoted by iBiquity to broadcasters, along with all the other empty superlatives and rock-solid promises that turned out to be something less than factual.
The "necessary" power increase was not foreseen by *either* iBiquity or broadcasters, and many have noted that for those stations that have implemented it, it hasn't really helped. I am constantly amazed that the major corporations still in iBiquity's tent...corporations that keep an eagle eye on their bottom lines...haven't yet figured out that this tech is going nowhere. They have spent millions of dollars on a system with no ROI, no measurable audience, no advertisers, but huge outlays in transmitting facilities and license fees. Companies of the size of CBS, Clear Channel, etc., are not normally so myopic.
DavidEduardo said:
Is this in Los Angeles? Could it be that your dealers haven't had any real issue with HD since LA is a very HD-friendly market? My experience with the lowly Insignia portable showed that it worked really well out there, except on a select few roads… namely PCH in Santa Monica/Malibu and I-5 through Burbank. Oh, and the canyons of Malibu, but I didn't much reliable anything there, RF-wise.
The story could be different in a troubled market like Birmingham or Pittsburgh or some other really hilly city.
Zach said:
So LA is not hilly?
The stations on Red Mtn. cover a lot better than most of the LA stations, as there is so much reflection, so many hills, canyons and mountains in LA.
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