HD and "open access" SDARS receivers

[GreedMongers]

The DOJ has determined that Satrad does not exclude competing technologies, but the Commerce Committee (probably under heavy-lobbying by the NAB) wants "open access" to other technologies (HD, iPod connectivity, the Internet, etc) -

"DOJ Approves Sirius/XM Merger"

"The statement also dismisses claims by HD Radio that a merged Sirius and XM would exclude competing technology from car stereos and other equipment."

http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/03/24/doj.approves.sirius.xm/

The FCC has an uninforced mandate that there were supposed to be interoperable digital radios, to include all forms of digital radio, but I guess there is no market for such a device, and they would be very expensive, as Satrad has been working on one for years. Senator Dingell wants to let Satrad receiver manufacturers to be able to include these other devices, but there is no mandate to do so (seems like that would be hard to enforce and anti-competitive). Also, he wants Satrad to terminate all exclusive arrangements with auto manufacturers. iBiquity has to have HD legislated into devices, because no one wants their junk technology. So much for HD in portable Satrad devices, with that 2-hour battery life. Whether, or not, there is a mandate for Satrad manufacturers to include HD, will manufacturers be willing to foot the HD licensing and HD chipset fees, or would iBiquity have to pay ?

 

[KB1OKL]

Ed Markey of MA is one of the Congressmen who is in on this malarkey but does not answer my mail to him because I not in his district. I think he is woefully misinformed as is Dingwall. I'd like to help you son but you're too far from me to vote. Another case of uninformed (or bought off) politicians sticking their nose where they don't belong. Unfortunately they are both democrats and so am I, although much more of this krap and I will be rethinking my political persuasion.

 

[audiophile.]

Send me a PM, with your comments. They are in my district, so they have to answer me.

 

[GreedMongers]

"Sirius: If FCC conditions too harsh, we will not do it"

"Echoing Karmazin's sentiment, Sirius CFO David Frear said Tuesday that the company is prepared to reject conditions that federal regulators might impose if they are deemed too restrictive."

http://www.orbitcast.com/archives/karmazin-if-fcc-conditions-too-harsh-we-will-not-do-it.html

Strubie - this is your last chance to force your junk technology onto consumers!

 

[Savage]

Except it's been proven that "forcing" junk-technology on consumers only works in places like Soviet Russia, China, Cambodia and New York (mostly Upstate.)

Of COURSE Sirius-XM will only happen if the deal makes sense businesswise.

And again, for emphasis: HD Radio can't spin THIS one....they've lied to the industry at least once too often. The various governmental/judicial/regulatory decisions are NOT a mandate for satrad to include HD. The letter from Congressman Dingell only "strongly asked" Chairman Martin that his agency order the merged satcasters to employ designs that "must not exclude" other digital sources such as mp3, Wi-Fi, and HD.

As noted before, this requirement could be satisfied with an aux-in jack and a source switch. And in any case XM-Sirius won't do the deal if it's too expensive or just stupid.

 

[JohnnyElectron]

My XM radio has an AUX input for connection to a stand-alone "HD" radio - so, no problem and my XM doesn't add a 1 second analog delay like my HD radio AUX input does!

 

[Tom Wells]

My XM radio has an AUX input for connection to a stand-alone "HD" radio - so, no problem and my XM doesn't add a 1 second analog delay like my HD radio AUX input does!

I don't trust them if they're delaying the analog. The Accurian has a quarter-second delay on AM, and it just seems so wrong
in a receiver. On the other hand .25 sec-1 sec delay is plenty of time to subliminally encode information, if you
believe in such things.

Real radios have no discernable delay.

And I notice the Accurian takes 3-4 seconds to come on, too.
I thought only tube radios needed to warm up. What the heck is this thinking about instead of just playing?
I have tube radios with direct heated filaments that come on faster than the Accurian.
The more I try to use the Accurian, I come to regard it as a radio emulator.
The delay makes critically positioning the loop difficult.

I hooked it up to the 1925 tuned loop- loose-coupler and found the delay also made it very difficult
to critically reasonate the outer loop, further complicated by the relative lack of high-frequency information to help
you HEAR your tuning. If you sweep by reasonance quickly you hear a "blop", but if you try to creep in on reasonance of the
chosen frequency, it's almost like you can't hear the loop tuning changing, even as you pass through reasonance slowly, overshooting
every time because it's doesn't act anything like a radio. Once again, the AVC/AGC action is so weird that it
seems somehow backward acting.

And there's no signal strength shown for analog signals to help line up your loop so's to have a chance at getting the HD to work easier.
I know what side of the loop to aim where, most will not.
If you get the HD to lock THEN you get a signal bar-graph. How ignorant is this feature?

I can see with dsp for all RF resulting in delay for radio but it's inexcusable for the aux jack .