Got a Insignia portable HD Radio

[tomservo]

I'm curious about the RDS functionality of this portable.

Does it just show PI (station name) or does it do anything else more interesting, like R-Text, AF (alt. frequency) or PTY (format)?

I need something to help me keep up with HD and RDS info for my website. Now that I'm no longer an XM subscriber local radio is getting (a teency bit) more of my attention. Unfortunately the amplified antenna for my stock car stereo is dead and I don't wanna drop the headliner to fix it. So a portable in-car solution, while really kinda ghetto, is a good solution. Right now I'm using my cell phone (which does RDS with PI & AF) and in-car reception is nearly as good as the car's radio was when it worked full bore. I just drape the cassette adapter's cable behind the mirror and it's not even in my line of sight.

 

[jras20]

I'm curious about the RDS functionality of this portable.

Does it just show PI (station name) or does it do anything else more interesting, like R-Text, AF (alt. frequency) or PTY (format)?

I need something to help me keep up with HD and RDS info for my website. Now that I'm no longer an XM subscriber local radio is getting (a teency bit) more of my attention. Unfortunately the amplified antenna for my stock car stereo is dead and I don't wanna drop the headliner to fix it. So a portable in-car solution, while really kinda ghetto, is a good solution. Right now I'm using my cell phone (which does RDS with PI & AF) and in-car reception is nearly as good as the car's radio was when it worked full bore. I just drape the cassette adapter's cable behind the mirror and it's not even in my line of sight.

Depends on how the RDS is coded. It will show the station, song name and info if its encoded, but you can't choose from one to the other what I can find out on it. The best part about the radio, if your 10 miles from a 100kw transmitter than it will not splatter on the other stations like my Sony radio did. If only it had AM and be able to force analog that would be great!

 

[tomservo]

Well I picked one up today. Why the heck not? ;D

Initial observations: flimsy build quality, poor quality color screen and no force to analog. But just toying with it in the car it was locking on to several HD feeds, a lot more than the HD car stereos in the Best Buy snagged. It does seem more prone to static in analog mode than my cell phone radio.

The worst thing is the tuning. It's glacially slow scanning the dial! Locking on to the RDS signal is also really slow but it seems fairly robust. No AF (alternate freq. support) so no following my public radio stations from channel to channel like the cell phone does. But scanning and setting presets is going to be a real PITA when traveling. My cell phone has 20 memories and can scan the entire FM dial in about 3½ seconds in auto save mode. Switching presets or seeking is literally milliseconds. Surely the HD people could speed this thing up some?

But for $40 it's a cheap way to dip a toe into HD. (Now I just have to move somewhere where there are local HD stations, lol.)

 

[JohnnyElectron]

Zach, that is the problem: "Now I just have to move somewhere where there are local HD stations, lol"

Unless you can see a 50KW - 100KW tower you not gonna get a decent HD lock. My local Class A 6KW stations, even in town, can't get this baby to lock into HD - but it can get the RDS, but not HD.

The other problem is the missing "AM" button (well, band) - HD was supposed to be the salvation of the AM band. Actually, I'd be even happier if they (Insignia or friends) added a decent AM section with CQuam analog stereo - even if it meant having the display to stay off and tune it 'blindly' - ie: display on only long enough to show frequency, then display off and an LED for 'tuned' and an LED for 'stereo'.

 

[calstymes]

JohnnyElectron repeated this presumed factoid:

HD was supposed to be the salvation of the AM band.

HD masqueraded as being the salvation of the AM band. But after several years of listening to the mutually destructive interference it causes and the horrible sounding artifacts on its supposedly high quality audio, I am now absolutely convinced that it was really invented to speed up the destruction of the AM band. Very sad.

Oh yes. IBOC was also invented because we needed a hybrid way to do analog and digital together as some folks keep reminding us. That's right. I forgot.

 

[tomservo]

Zach, that is the problem: "Now I just have to move somewhere where there are local HD stations, lol"

Unless you can see a 50KW - 100KW tower you not gonna get a decent HD lock. My local Class A 6KW stations, even in town, can't get this baby to lock into HD - but it can get the RDS, but not HD.

The other problem is the missing "AM" button (well, band) - HD was supposed to be the salvation of the AM band. Actually, I'd be even happier if they (Insignia or friends) added a decent AM section with CQuam analog stereo - even if it meant having the display to stay off and tune it 'blindly' - ie: display on only long enough to show frequency, then display off and an LED for 'tuned' and an LED for 'stereo'.

In my case, Johnny, there are no literally local stations broadcasting the HD signal. I will say, however, after some tinkering I was able to get two different public radio outlets to lock in HD, which was totally unexpected. One tower's 40 miles away and the other is 51. For a portable using the headphone cord as an antenna, that's not too shabby. It gives me hope for when I'm living in Alabama and I'll be within eyesight of several big class C's.

As for AM, I agree it would be more valuable with an AM section, especially one that could do C-QUAM. But there are no AM stations local to me, either. They're all either silent or so technically deficient as to be completely unintelligible. The only real signals come from Memphis, over 100 miles to the north. Somehow I doubt even the best AM HD section could lock on WREC's HD, being just 5 kW from that far away. I do hear the sidebands quite audibly though. *grumbles*

 

[dxer720]

I've been playing with my Insignia NS-HD01 HD radio for about a month. I'm very surprised by it.

I get many more HD stations than my Sony XDR-S10HDiP & more than my Zune HD. The Zune HD would be the better comparison, though.

I live in Lake Geneva, WI.

I can hear 88 stations on this radio, from Milwaukee, Chicago, Madison & Rockford markets
43 offer HD service. Mostly Chicago & Milwaukee.
I can get full HD (& subchannels) on 32 stations.

The Zune HD can hear the same 88 stations, but can only get sufficient signal to get full HD on 10 of them.

I've even DX'd with the Insignia. Just tonight, I heard full HD (HD-1, HD-2 & HD-3) solid from KSUI, Iowa City, 160 miles away.

I have used it while traveling. The sensitivity is superb. I've never found a radio of this type with such good selectivity, either.

I stood at the base of a 5KW station on 91.1 & was able to still receive 90.7, but not 90.7's HD. I could also faintly hear 91.5, but 91.5's signal level isn't as strong there as 90.7.

I do agree that the build quality isn't very good, & the stock earbuds have terrible sound. This radio makes up for these shortcomings with sheer performance. Best $40 radio I've ever found.

 

[Mike Sheridan]

I finally gave in and got a Insignia HD Radio. So far I like it. It picks up analog really good, HD is pretty decent. The sound is good, The only thing I wish it had was AM and the presets was numbered instead of just up and down. And I would of liked to have 2 different FM bands for presets. Other than that its a pretty good little radio.

Not enough room in this little radio for a good AM antenna, that's why no AM.

Cool little radio for the price. They could have made it a wrist radio.

 

[tomservo]

I stood at the base of a 5KW station on 91.1 & was able to still receive 90.7, but not 90.7's HD. I could also faintly hear 91.5, but 91.5's signal level isn't as strong there as 90.7.

That makes me wonder if something is wrong with my radio, then. It is very sensitive but incredibly prone to intermod.

There is a stretch of highway between Batesville and Oxford, Mississippi where this radio (and my cell phone radio, to be fair) completely lose it. There are six radio station towers all located with a few miles of each other and most have line of site to this highway. There's a full class C, two C2s, two As and a C3. The only signals that comes through unscathed are the C and C2s; the rest become a mish-mash of noise from all six stations. It's not just one small area that this radio struggles with, either, this happens over about 15 miles of the roadway and renders the class As all but unlistenable over 70% of their coverage area!

In my own town there's also a small spot near the top of a hill where this thing gets overwhelmed by our measly 27-watt translator that's just off the road. That's pathetic.

Out in the boonies, however, it's another story. Miles and miles from any FM stick, this thing snags stations that I never even heard with my car radio when it was in tip-top shape.

I am no longer holding out much hope that this radio will be of much use to me when I move down to the coast, where I'll likely be near line of site to a handful of full class C sticks, each running at or near 100 kw. It's gonna be a huge mess, methinkst.

 

[nd2023]

It doesn't overload when I'm near a tower with only one station, but it overloads when I'm near a tower with multiple stations. In fact, I could get a second adjacent station standing inside the transmitter building of a 100 watt station literally 2 feet from the transmitter, but 250 feet under the antenna.

 

[BRNout]

I've been playing with my Insignia NS-HD01 HD radio for about a month.  I'm very surprised by it.

I get many more HD stations than my Sony XDR-S10HDiP & more than my Zune HD.  The Zune HD would be the better comparison, though.

I live in Lake Geneva, WI.

I can hear 88 stations on this radio, from Milwaukee, Chicago, Madison & Rockford markets
43 offer HD service.  Mostly Chicago & Milwaukee.
I can get full HD (& subchannels) on 32 stations. 

The Zune HD can hear the same 88 stations, but can only get sufficient signal to get full HD on 10 of them.

I've even DX'd with the Insignia.  Just tonight, I heard full HD (HD-1, HD-2 & HD-3) solid from KSUI, Iowa City, 160 miles away. 

I have used it while traveling.  The sensitivity is superb.  I've never found a radio of this type with such good selectivity, either.

I stood at the base of a 5KW station on 91.1 & was able to still receive 90.7, but not 90.7's HD.  I could also faintly hear 91.5, but 91.5's signal level isn't as strong there as 90.7. 

I do agree that the build quality isn't very good, & the stock earbuds have terrible sound.  This radio makes up for these shortcomings with sheer performance.  Best $40 radio I've ever found.

You know, I read these sorts of raves and find that they are not representative of my experience with the Insignia.  I live less than half as far from Chicago as dxer 720 does and I have difficulty holding any station in HD as I walk around the house/yard.  Yes, I can get almost all of the big Chicago signals in HD - but I have to sit still because moving around too much results in HD lock being lost.  Only right in the city do I get superb reception of the HD signals.  In fact, from 25 mi NW of Chicago, I had no idea that Power 92.3 even broadcast in HD until I took my radio downtown with me. 

As far as the sensitivity being "superb", my experience has been that it's just "okay".  What is excellent is the selectivity.  So, it's able to pull adjacent channel signals out from the potential interference of local neighbors.  In this way, it's far better than your average Sony Walkman which lacks the selectivity to enable you to pull a Milwaukee first-adjacent from a Chicago local FM.  It's even more selective (but not more sensitive) than my Eton E5.  All that said, I have yet to find one signal that the Insignia pulled in which my Tecsun PL-310 or Grundig G8 could not.  Furthermore, in every case, the latter two radios were able to better receive weak signals than the Insignia - and often pulled in a few more extremely weak ones that the Insignia could not hear.  A staticy signal on the Insignia would be relatively clear on the PL-310 or G8. 

As overload goes, I get some here and there on vacant frequencies; but I don't fault the Insignia radio for that because we have a relatively short (in height) FM tx setup that's located about 3 miles from me which houses a 50 kw FM (106.7) as well as 2 class As on 92.7 and 103.1.  So, I get a little overload here and there at home, but that's an extreme case.  Even Comcast has bleed issues in our area thanks to this tower (why they located it here has me shaking my head). Only a DSP equipped radio avoids that overload in our neighborhood.  To be fair, under most circumstances the Insignia isn't particularly prone to overload. 

But when it comes to pulling in an HD signal via DX, I can't imagine doing it on this radio.  Despite tropo events that bring solid FM signals from Milwaukee into my area, the best it's ever done is to decode RDS - never did it detect the HD signals.  Could I have gotten a bad one?  Perhaps, but I don't think so.  It does okay.  But mine has never been the superperformer that dxer 720 describes.

 

[tomservo]

Despite tropo events that bring solid FM signals from Milwaukee into my area, the best it's ever done is to decode RDS - never did it detect the HD signals.

Unfortunately the RDS implementation isn't very good, either. When I get a weak signal with a partial decode, the radio loses the RDS lock and clears the screen. When the RDS comes back, it has to start from scratch instead of piecing the data together like a regular radio does. This makes decoding scrolling messages on the PS (program service) really awful and Radio Text almost impossible to use in fringe areas.

 

[nd2023]

I've heard HD DX last month on my Insignia radio from 120 miles away, coming in strong enough to be reliable when moving around, even with a station audible on both the adjacents. That was during an exceptional tropo opening. In normal conditions, it can detect the presence of an HD signal on stations 60 miles away if I'm standing in the right spot, but can't lock on to them.
In Princeton, NJ exactly halfway between NYC and Philly, I was able to decode HD from both cities, but it wasn't reliable when moving around. 3 miles southwest of there, I lost NYC HDs and 3 miles northeast of there, I lost Philly HDs.

 

[dxer720]

You could be right, Zach. I didn't test it with multiple nearby stations. The nearest other station, was a 25KW on 95.1 about 8 miles away. Should've gone there to see what would happen. I don't think it would've fare too well, there.

 

[BRNout]

I'll continue to take it here and there to check out its performance. Downtown, I get lots of HD signals and a few suburbanites. Here in the 'burbs, I get most big HD signals from Chicago; but they don't tend to hold for long. During past trips, I wasn't particularly impressed with it's long-range performance and was out performed by others. However, to be fair, I didn't spend much time testing it thoroughly and can see that the radio has potential.

I've got a few trips coming up in the next couple of months and will bring along my Insignia and my PL-310 to see who does what.

 

[kc1ih]

Since the battery is not replaceable, the radio will become useless in a few years and will need to be replaced if HD is still around at that time. I agree I would like for there to be a model that also has AM, even if it is a bit bigger.

 

[Mike Walker]

I get WMIT in Black Mountain (near Asheville) NC reliably at my home in Wilkes County, more than a hundred miles from their tower. It's solid as a rock on my Insignia. Too bad I'm not a fan of Christian Contemporary music, or the Spanish-language gospel they offer on HD2!

I get almost every HD signal in Charlotte, 80 miles to my south, rock-solid on the little Insignia. But I get only two stations in the "Triad", which I'm much closer too...WTQR Winston-Salem, and WFDD Winston-Salem. I have never heard a Greensboro or High Point FM in HD...not once...even with a very expensive, high-gain roof antenna.

That duplicates my experience with HDTV on the same antenna. Everything from Charlotte is solid but the Fox station (WCCB Channel 18, which sometimes works, sometimes doesn't), and the independent public station on Channel 42. But to the east, I get only WXII Channel 12, and the PBS station on Channel 26.

 

[nd2023]

You must have favorable terrain between your location and Charlotte.

 

[RadeoEngineer]

I get WMIT in Black Mountain (near Asheville) NC reliably at my home in Wilkes County, more than a hundred miles from their tower. It's solid as a rock on my Insignia. Too bad I'm not a fan of Christian Contemporary music, or the Spanish-language gospel they offer on HD2!

There's some of that compelling content that will drive listeners to HD.

 

[BRNout]

I took my Insignia and my PL-310 to Utah this week and did a little dxing (to the extent that you can do that in the Salt Lake area). There was not one example of my receiving a station on the Insignia which I could not receive on my PL-310. In each example, if I got it on the Insignia - it came in even better on the Tecsun. Plus, while in Cottonwood Heights (SE of SLC), I got weak signals on the PL-310 from the Logan/Tremonton/Preston, ID area on 104.9 and 107.3 and an unidentified smooth jazz fringe signal on 95.3 that the Insignia never picked up.

Different location: same result. The PL-310 was/is a much better receiver.

Now, comparing the Insignia with a standard Sony Walkman would be a different matter because none of the Sonys are all that selective. The Insignia would almost certainly perform better. But it's not as good as many here make it out to be.