Well not to impressed with the reception I got in my truck on HD Radio. It kept dropping out even 30 miles south of Austin. I can get better reception on my home radio than I could with the car. I had tried the JumpHD Radio. The sensitivity was fair, but I think my Factory AM/FM radio does a better job.
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
HD Radio in the Car reception
- Thread starter jras20
- Start date
You lucky guys get to have 100KW FM stations, while we're locked at 50KW near the border, and most FM stations here are 6-18KW, so the HD is putrid, especially from the 7KW rimshot. HD2 is on 3 of 7, and it is a basic duplicate of the HD1, so nothing worth listening to there.
The HD-AM's here are a strange pair. The 5KW directional array has a hard time with HD-AM at night, which is surprising as it passed C-Quam stereo audio with no problem; however, the 1KW graveyard channel with one onmi tower has better night-time coverage than the 5KW.
It is weird how the audio totally mutes when the AM-HD analog delay is out of sync with the digital delay when you briefly lose HD RF you get nothing instead of the out of sync audio.
The HD-AM's here are a strange pair. The 5KW directional array has a hard time with HD-AM at night, which is surprising as it passed C-Quam stereo audio with no problem; however, the 1KW graveyard channel with one onmi tower has better night-time coverage than the 5KW.
It is weird how the audio totally mutes when the AM-HD analog delay is out of sync with the digital delay when you briefly lose HD RF you get nothing instead of the out of sync audio.
Today's helpful HD listening tip: "IN THE CAR LISTENING"
To listen in pristine digital IBOC while on your way to work, to the market or to pick up the kids:
"Just be sure the car is parked at all times when listening, or, if in motion, shut off the engine"
Added benefits from HD car listening: far better mileage! Save tons of time from that formerly wasted commuting to the office! And utmost safety while navigating the Byzantine procedures necessary to get from an HD-2 sub on Station A to HD-2 or HD-3 on station B - no distracted driving, because you're not even actually.....DRIVING!!
Can HD get ANY more bizarre?? :
To listen in pristine digital IBOC while on your way to work, to the market or to pick up the kids:
"Just be sure the car is parked at all times when listening, or, if in motion, shut off the engine"
Added benefits from HD car listening: far better mileage! Save tons of time from that formerly wasted commuting to the office! And utmost safety while navigating the Byzantine procedures necessary to get from an HD-2 sub on Station A to HD-2 or HD-3 on station B - no distracted driving, because you're not even actually.....DRIVING!!
Can HD get ANY more bizarre?? :
In some cases I don't even think HD will go out 15 miles from the transmitter in the car. 105.9 is not even listen able if your 20 miles from the transmitter. Analog it comes in fine 30-40 miles out. They stumped on that deal. Home radios service pretty well. But in the car I havn't had much luck.
I think it shows what happens when you ask computer oriented people to understand radio..
with apologies to "computer" people who truly understand both and the technology between.
Seems ibiquity is fighting an uphill battle on every front.
It works that way when the fundamental concept of something is weak or unreliable.
with apologies to "computer" people who truly understand both and the technology between.
Seems ibiquity is fighting an uphill battle on every front.
It works that way when the fundamental concept of something is weak or unreliable.
And to top it off on my ride down to my place in Lavaca county, the stations are not in HD most of the time. Its a Fringe/Distant area where I drive over. Its pretty decent FM analog and AM analog. Good enough. But HD very spotty. I know a few people who travel that road to work daily and listen to the radio.
R
rbrucecarter5
Guest
jras20 said:
So is this an add-on HD adapter with a conventional analog head unit, or a complete replacement for the OEM radio?
If it is just an adapter, the problem could be all antenna and not the fault of the HD stations. I've heard reports of FM HD in the car out to 80 miles, but I am suspicious. I've also seen confirmed reception of AM HD at 160 miles.
What I would really like to see is Pioneer doing HD in a car radio - they know how to do sensitive receivers. That would be an indication of what is possible. I've tried in vain to activate HD on my car radio that uses the chipset - evidently Pioneer is impressed with adaptive IF. Not so much with HD or they don't want to pay the license fee.
Well I wanted to edit in my last post but waited to long, I was going to say that I am still pretty impressed at what a dipole antenna inside can pull in. I can pull in San antonio analog great 60 miles. I can also pull in Houston 84 miles out great. HD out in Lavaca county is spotty with a dipole but it is possible.
R
rbrucecarter5
Guest
jras20 said:
OK - that explains it. I cannot see any way an add-on adapter could have a decent internal antenna. A car makes a poor Faraday cage, but it does attenuate signals inside. You might want to experiment with positioning the unit as close as possible to the windshield and see if more signal gets into whatever antenna it has. If you want to do some hardware hacking, you could always try to hook it to a dipole - mismatched impedance but a lot better antenna. If you already have a CB antenna you could try to route it to the unit, or add a CB antenna. Not the right electrical length, but you can get magnetic mounts that don't hurt a car.
rbrucecarter5 said:
Pioneer were on the ones who who were adamant about not putting IBOC into their receivers and also were adamant about it not going into Satellite receivers, I wouldn't count on them getting into IBOC any time soon. Nice to see a company with integrity which is the complete opposite of ibiquity.
http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/05/2...-decided-by-open-market-not-forced-inclusion/
The plug-n-play HD radio I had (#3) came with an "antenna input" cable and 'antenna output' cable (break your existing car radio antenna connection and put the adapter inline), so it was using the external FM/AM rod antenna for reception.
When I used the factory CD player, the HD radio would drop "out of lock" everytime too.
FM 'selectivity' was wonderful, everything else wasn't.
When I used the factory CD player, the HD radio would drop "out of lock" everytime too.
FM 'selectivity' was wonderful, everything else wasn't.
R
rbrucecarter5
Guest
JohnnyElectron said:
Yes, but the very best scenario would use a splitter for the two radios, and splitters always have at least a 3 dB loss (half power). Halving the input signal power to an HD receiver evidently is a show stopper. A good thing to remember in multiple receiver home environments hooked to an outdoor antenna.
- Status