BRNout said:
I beg to differ about getting HD lock so solidly. I don't know what kind of super-duper HD equipment you've got, but I have a great deal of difficulty getting HD-2's from Chicago stations that are only 20 to 25 air miles from me. These stations are quite strong in analog - nothing marginal about them. Yet, after noodling around with the antenna for 15 minutes, the best I can do in HD is to pick up HD lock on less than half of them. And even those bounce in and out on occasion.
Yeah, you live in Texas with super, mega powered 100 kw blowtorches that broadcast from 1,000 foot tall towers over relatively level ground. That's what is known as a "best case scenario." Where I live is probably very typical. A midwestern suburb that's 20 to 30 miles from the transmitter site where analog reception is strong and plentiful, yet HD is problematic.
And, hilly areas like Pittsburgh or smaller markets are more like a "worst case scenario."
Where I respectfully disagree with you is that somehow it's only people in marginal "east coast" markets who have issues. Nonsense. I'd answer that with a comment that the only people I hear from who get consistent 60+ mile FM lock are in Texas, near Houston or DFW. My results, sadly for HD, are typical. I'd venture that yours are not.
However, I do agree with you that HD is no panacea for anyone's reception issues.
Equipment is an off the shelf Sangean HDT-1X. Antenna was a dipole one meter off the ground, and stretched out properly. More recently added a Sony XDR-F1HD. I think in spite of you thinking that analog reception is great at your location, if you really analyzed it carefully you would have signal strength weaker than you think, possibly multipath. Things that are barely audible on an analog tuner but cause HD drop out. Since it is all or nothing for HD, deficient signals are much more apparent in HD.
Granted, those same tuners are capable of, and routinely do 200 mile analog reception with a dipole, and 300+ miles with an outdoor antenna. I don't have a number for HD with an outdoor antenna, but it may be well over 100 miles if not 150. It is nobody's fault if someone happens to live in a hilly area, in an area with too many stations packed together with lower towers and ERP. Certainly those conditions do not justify the destruction of the FM band the way the AM band has been destroyed - with an ill-advised 10 dB increase in power. All that will do is raise the noise floor without appreciably increasing the range. Fades and weak signals are in the range of several decades, not just one decade.
In spite of what you think with full class-C and 2000 foot towers, listeners in the approach path of airports in Houston and Dallas cannot get HD only a few miles from the towers in Dallas and about 20 in Houston. Why? Because the signal variations when a plane go overhead can be six decades in power. Given long lock times, a mere one decade of power increase would be useless in that scenario.
A similar scenario exists in cars - when you are in the fringes signal variations are several decades, from clear to completely gone in seconds. Given HD lock times, a mere one decade power increase is useless for car reception as well.
In offices, I've personally measured 10 dB signal loss every 6 to 7 feet from the window. So a 10 dB power increase is less than one shell of office cubicles. Useless.
The only possible instance where a power increase on FM might do some good is a home environment, but I can do 10 dB increase in received signal just by using the dipole properly, or moving it a few feet one side or the other. Power increase? Only compensating for fools that crumple up the dipole on the floor? PLEASE! Give me (and the FM band) a break. USELESS destruction of the band just so you don't have to instruct people how to receive FM correctly and so some iBiquity folks don't lose their shirts when their stock tanks.
The destruction of the AM band is hardly an issue. But FM is the money maker. Screw it up, and you drive even more people to streaming, iPods, and other forms of entertainment. We need better, clearer analog reception on both bands. Not white noise generators for 99.9% of listeners without HD radios.
