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HD Radio - no one talks about it - here's my take

The WNWV-HD3 feed is indeed WKSU Classical (HD3), though I can't tell what kind of time shifting or delay there is on the WNWV side, how they're getting it from WKSU to WNWV, and why the data seems to be "stuck" on WNWV-HD3.

I'm also not getting any HD on 106.5.

I'm getting it out of all the other big signals out of the antenna farm (CC, CBS). Got it on 107.9, don't remember if I did on 93.1 (though if it's putting out HD, I should, it's more powerful here than 107.9).

Managed to get 92.3 to decode HD once, as it's squeezed next to 92.5/Alliance here.

Easy pickup of 98.1 in HD, which will become even stronger whenever they make it to Bellaire Lane. 106.9's HD I got by the second floor window, with no problem once I was there.

91.3 (WAPS/Akron "The Summit") has HD, though I've had varying luck getting that to light up the calls, even, at least inside the house.

And the final mystery before I go to bed tonight - 96.5 is pushing out an HD3 with no audio. Hmm. Is this the HD landing spot for, say, a WTAM simulcast? (Much like 106.9 puts WHLO/640 on HD2, though there's no real signal problem reasoning for 'TAM on HD FM like there is for the hobbled WHLO night signal.)
 
No hint of 96.5 HD3 here, the HD2 would have a plus mark on the Insignia portable as HD2+ if an HD3 was available, just says HD2, and when I try to "go up one", it scans up to 98.5.

Does 106.9 HD2 still play Blues? I read they did, but unfortunately can't get that one here. 98.1 analog is coming in solid here, but no HD or RDS, I only got them once before, and much weaker than now, they must have amped their power in the meantime?

I should have figured WNWV's HD3 RDS was stuck, just like half of the other stations.

I read somewhere that WZAK has/had an HD signal, but I never found it. No WAPS here even in analog. Does 98.1 have an HD2/HD3? If they still need to make the transmitter move closer to me, I might get lucky with that one.
 
OMW is correct, WKSU is simulcasting HD-3 classical to WNWV 107.3 HD3. Due to the nature of the inter-site link, encoding, decoding and then the subsequent HD radio importer/encoding process, the timing is different from our HD-3 on our 5 primary sites. It's generally pretty close, but sometimes a bit drifty.

Across the 5 primary WKSU sites, you'll always find HD-1 to be the same as analog (obviously.) HD-2 is currently always Folk Alley, and HD-3 is our classical stream. HD-3 is continually classical, where the HD-1/analog go to news and other programming from time to time. At times, HD-3 will be identical to HD-1/analog... but listeners looking for pure classical music will never hear news on HD-3.

Hope this info is helpful, couldn't resist jumping in the thread.
 
Thanks, Dan!

Yeah, I guess it makes sense that the encoding/reencoding could drift the WNWV-HD3 simulcast a bit.

I also didn't know that HD3 can simulcast HD1 if it's in classical on the main channel.

Re: WAKS-HD3 - I've seen it come and go over the past few days, so I can't say it is anything more than a radio glitch. There is never any programming on it, and the display lights up as if there is no data from the station (it just says "WAKS-FM/HD-3").

Later in the same day at a similar location, it goes away.
 
Digital Skip? It's now almost 7:30pm.

I'm getting a lot of stations from Canada this evening, even on my Insignia HD portable - that's the only HD radio I have. Seems like Canadian FM does not have HD radio yet? I'm getting a 3 to 4 bar signal on many (4 bars is the highest on this radio), enough to usually trigger HD, and a solid 4 bars on 93.9 The River from Windsor, and RDS only. Also getting a couple Detroit/Toledo stations, but only 1 to 2 bars so far, and unstable, not enough to trigger HD on this radio. I'm also getting DTV 2.1 and 2.2 from Detroit with some break-ups and pixelation, which seem both to be airing the same TMZ program, but no other skip channels.
 
As of 9:40 this evening, I'm now getting a new HD1 signal on WZAK 93.1, no HD2 or HD3. Still nothing as far as HD on 106.5. No elusive 96.5 HD3 yet, and the skip seems to be fading, so no luck there, but still getting 93.9 analog from Windsor in pretty strong.
 
dannykewl said:
Digital Skip? It's now almost 7:30pm.

I'm getting a lot of stations from Canada this evening, even on my Insignia HD portable - that's the only HD radio I have. Seems like Canadian FM does not have HD radio yet?
Click to expand...

Canada isn't really doing IBOC yet.. I beleive some stations have "tested" it ... but it's not been widely accepted there yet (most in the industry up that way say it will likely with the fact it's the standard the US went with)
 
dannykewl, the atmospheric conditions have been quite active across the Lake Erie corridor in the past few weeks. 93.9 has been a regular visitor to my radio most afternoons, and I'm far from the lake. 88.7 (alt-rock "89X") has shown up a lot. Both stations are in CHUM Radio Group's Windsor cluster, both are 100 kW and both very much also target Detroit.

One day, I even got 93.5 London ONT, the CBC Radio One outlet there, enough to listen to "As It Happens" all the way into Summit County.

The other day, the CBC Radio Two station in Windsor, 89.9, could be heard in Streetsboro. Yes, that's 89.9, first adjacent to local WKSU! And in an "A/B" test in my car, the Insignia HD received 89.9 as if it was a local, with no "hiss"...even next to WKSU. I could also get it on the car radio, but with constant hiss.
 
There is nothing intrinsically wrong with IBOC FM HD radio (AM's a whole different conversation!), the basic problems are perception and lack of good marketing. Here are some of the issues.... Nobody understands "HD" in the radio context. HD on TV means a markedly better picture. What does HD mean for radio listeners? An HD FM feed will sound only marginally better than an analog feed. Most listeners will be hard pressed to tell the difference. The only advantage here is multiple channels. The industry should have marketed it as something different than HD.... maybe just "digital." The next problem is signal. I live relatively close to the transmitters and I still have problems with the digital signals cutting in and out. This needs to be fixed. Next, whre are the receivers? I think Best Buy had one in the back. I had to buy mine online. We're several years into this technology but (for all intents and purposes) you can't get an HD car radio when you buy a car.... at any price. The satellite folks have done a decent job getting the receivers into the cars. What have "we" done? Not much. Another think hampering HD radio is those confusing channel numbers. Find me at one-oh-one-point-seven-dot-three? Huh??? Tongue twisters for the imaging guys and the jingle singers. Just plain hard to remember, hard to recommend to friends, for listeners. We should have gone with channel numbers like the satellite people did. Well, there are so few receivers and listeners out there we probably could start over and hardly anyone would notice. How about calling the HD-1 channel of 88.1 channel 100, its HD-2 channel 200, HD-3 would be 300. 88.3 would be 101, 201, 301.... etc. Wouldn't that be easier to remember and promote? Yes, we'll need some compelling content too.... but like the early days of FM if you offer something that they can't get elsewhere on the dial, they will come.
 
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