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Hd Radio on the train: winners and losers

O

Ozman

On Tuesday Feb 5th I took my Sangen Hdt-1 Radio tuner on the train. with it I had my Terk Fm-50 antenna with it and I connected it all to my Ibook G4. the experement took place Between Amherst MA and Meriden CT in the busness class of the Vermonter train. I was getting off to transfer to metro North in New Haven.

Winner In CT was 96.5 WTIC from Mass all the way to Meriden Ct I could Get their HD-2 Channel which was WTIC-AM.
Winner in MA was 89.5 MPR ( mass public radio ) and WLZX 99.3 FM their HD channel sounded really Awesome!

some that did ok in and out were
WKSS kiss 95.7, country 92.5 hot 93.7

106.9 WCCC I was shocked! I could only get there HD channel a little bit near hartford train station. Their HD channel however was a Horible 7 second delay from the primary channel which made it almost unlistenable. I would of thought that WCCC would kick some ass through the Hartford area.

WPLR, 102.1, 104.1 No HD available in my time I checked.

I probably missed one let me know
 
Give Hartford radio some credit for having HD-2 stations. In some outlying areas (I'm out lying in one of 'em), WTIC-AM 1080 has skywave distortion and serious adjacent channel interference from WBAL 1090 at night and even a bit of static during the day just 30 miles away. WTIC-FM HD-2 usually comes in quite well on my HD radio. Of course, how these things become more portable and affordable will determine whether or not HD goes the way of AM stereo in the mass market. Another thing that will help is having these stations more widely available. Even some established HD stations are not there from time to time, such as 104.1 and 95.7... the way regular FM was in the sixties.

WWYZ's Classic Country, WDRC's "Big D" Oldies, WRCH's Smooth Jazz, WCCC's Beethoven Radio, WZMX's Reggaeton and WHCN's Forgotten Favorites all have a place. WFAN is about the only AM that can be heard in digital, inland around here. It does sound good. For the price, every terrestrial station has to eventually be in the game and these manufacturers have to get it below $100.
 
106.9's transmitter is far west of Hartford, while 92.5/93.7/95.7/102.9/104.1/105.9 are all from Meriden itself. Those stations overload all over that town, and it's hard to hear even KC101.3 on a portable radio there.
 
GlennO said:
WWYZ's Classic Country, WDRC's "Big D" Oldies, WRCH's Smooth Jazz, WCCC's Beethoven Radio, WZMX's Reggaeton and WHCN's Forgotten Favorites all have a place. WFAN is about the only AM that can be heard in digital, inland around here. It does sound good. For the price, every terrestrial station has to eventually be in the game and these manufacturers have to get it below $100.
Click to expand...

Radios below $100 might be an easier expectation to fulfill than getting every terrestrial station into the game. Who knows what will happen to the HD-2 streams on Clear Channel's Hartford cluster if those stations are sold? What if CBS Radio's bean counters decide, with the deteriorating advertising market, that HD will never make money and put the axe to it?

I, too, enjoy Big D, Classic Country and Forgotten Favorites and would be sad to see them go, even though I also have XM. None of XM's channels have quite the same music mix as any of those HD-2 streams. For instance, I find Big D an easier long-term listen than a "decade" channel that plays just '50s or just '60s.

A couple of months back, I managed to snag WEBE's HD signal from here in Meriden and noticed that it was running some sports network on HD-2 and Spanish talk on HD-3. I heard the signal again today and only the main HD signal is there, no secondary and tertiary streams at all. Are they still running the talk programming?
 
WEBE isn't too far away from Meriden, and I could hear its IBOC hash there. Its analog signal comes in fine in Meriden (except when the radio is overloaded) It's amazing that you had to struggle to get it in HD.
 
Nick, you might need to buy a new map.

WCCC is closer to Hartford than any of the Meriden FMs are. WCCC is roughly a mile north of the WTIC-FM/WWUH site up on the top of Avon Mt. WCCC is exactly 6 miles, pure line of sight, to the Hartford COL FCC center coordinates. I'd hardly consider that to be "Far-west" by any shot.

WEBE is the famous "smokestack" antenna all the way down in Bridgeport Harbor near the baseball stadium. Their signal does get out very well and it's just a matter of geography that it just booms up the valley, well into Springfield. (Not IN HD. The HD cuts out down near Windsor).
 
On WEBE HD 2 and HD 3 we have been doing some testing with ESPN and there equipment.
 
Ed B said:
On WEBE HD 2 and HD 3 we have been doing some testing with ESPN and there equipment.
Click to expand...

That explains it, I guess -- you only activate the HD-2 and HD-3 streams when testing. Any idea what's going to be on those streams when they're running full time? I can get a usable HD signal from WEBE most of the time, but the display just reads "HD" rather than call letters or song/artist, and there's no designation of HD-1 for the main stream.
 
I dobut this means anything, but last night at 9 PM when 96.5 TIC does their battle of two new songs, the "HD1" portion of the ID was left out for some reason. Any ideas?
 
Currently at WEBE we have no plans at this time for HD 2 or 3.
But ESPN will be doing more testing soon. I had removed the call letters from the pad info so you would just see on your radio HD 1 2 3 with no call letters. Sometime down the road we will post song title and artist on HD 1.
 
GLENN O
You have hit the nail on why WTIC-AM is on 96.5HD2. While it may seem like overlap, it is not.

HD2 is a consistent service with less [digital] signal 'fragility' than its AM counterpart. and its not 'AM'. period.

With increases in HD powers likely in the not too distant future which will have a profound effect on this service, if the market evolves as the industry is hoping- the expensive and involved 1080 programming via HD2 may be relied upon by a growing number in problem reception areas particularly at night/evenings.
 
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