I finally bought this HD Radio from Radio Shack. First off, I had to look for it myself, since the salesperson didn't know what an HD radio was. Then I found it buried with the iPod accessories, there were 6 in stock. Price was $20 as I expected. The salesperson asked if I wanted the 1 year extended warranty for an extra $3. That's a rip off, since for it to break even for me, there would need to be a 15% chance of the item breaking in a year. I'm sure they get a commission from every sucker that gets the extended warranty (hopefully management doesn't require a quota of a certain extended warranty sales per day).
So I open it and plug it in. I need to download the HD Radio app. First problem, it requires iOS 4+ and I had iOS 3.1. I need to upgrade my firmware. That takes over 2 hours since I jailbreaked my iPhone. Most normal users would not even update their firmware and return the HD radio.
The reception is great for a $20 radio. I'm in Bordentown, NJ. First station I tune to is 92.3 Now, and the call letters pop up immediately and there's no static. That's a good sign. While tuning around, I notice the Philly HDs come in, but aren't reliable as on my Insignia. No New York HDs at all. The RDS is better than the Insignia, but it shows the wrong call letters for many stations (for example, it shows KEGY instead of WIOQ). Bummer, I was hoping to use that feature for e-skip. It's not as sensitive as the Insignia and definitely not as sensitive as my Sony XDRF1HD. There was slight tropo. On my Sony with the antenna pointed south, I could get Hot 100.5 and 94.9 The Point from Norfolk, VA with a little bit of static. On my Insignia, I could get those stations with a lot of static but the audio was still discernable. Complete static on my Gigaware no matter where I position the headphone cord antenna, even while I was still listening to those stations on the speakers attached to the Sony. The selectivity is great, I can hear Harold Camping tell us when the world is ending on WFME 94.7 without any splatter from 94.5 PST (WPST splatters on to 94.7 on every non DSP radio I have, including my car radio). No overload either, but I don't live close to any transmitters.
Haven't tested it while moving, that part of my review will be tomorrow. But so far, looks like I might still carry my Insignia around since this radio kills my iPhone battery life.
I like that I can post what I'm listening to on Facebook and tell all my 1750 friends that I am special because I have an HD radio on my iPhone.
Some features I'd like to see:
Search for radio stations based on current location
Internet stream link for the current station, and possibly automatically switching to the stream when the signal is weak so I could continue listening if I travel out of range.
Field strength reading in dBu instead of arbitrary bars (I think all wireless signal strength meters should display strength with a number, not with bars)
The AM and shortwave bands
Attach an external antenna
Record radio stations, including RDS/HD text so I can record a frequency during e-skip
Direct frequency entry
See what's playing on other preset stations
A button to call the radio station I'm listening to
Map of the station's coverage area and my current location
Show what stations my friends are listening to, that is, if I have any friends that have this HD radio
Pause and rewind live radio
Update DXworld.com with a press of a button to share what I'm DXing "[Tr, Es] [frequency] [call letters] [COL] [distance] // [personal signature]"
Automatically generate a DX log
Run in the background and alert me if a signal is detected on a blank frequency (or several blank frequencies) I specify, so I know immediately if there's e-skip
Alert the FCC to a pirate station
