HD Radio - Slow Growth

[kfbkfb]

http://www.current.org/2012/11/slow-growth-for-hd-radio/

Only about 2 percent of radio listeners are tuned to HD Radio
channels in their cars at any given time

Kirk Bayne

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Well, if Houston is any indication, the fastest way to get people interested in HD radio is to put all the formats that suck over the air, and save all the good formats for HD-2 only.

Unless HD radio solves it technical problems, it will not catch on with consumers. The HD-2 dropout to silence is unacceptable. There is no fix for it, the concept of HD-2 was fatally flawed out of the gate. There needed to be a graceful fallback to some sort of continuation of audio content from the HD-2, ANYTHING but dead silence.

 

[spunker88]

How many of those that answered HD Radio regularly listen to an HD station? I wouldn't be surprised if some of them saw the HD Radio logo on their car radio and answered HD when they should have answered regular AM/FM. These are the same people who buy an HDTV and assume all content viewed is HD.

 

[landtuna]

I wasn't asked but would have answered "all the time". HD-2 is the only place, currently, where I can get desired content in my car. I have yet to test an AM source so listening right now is between two FM's.

Yes, HD does drop out occasionally but no, not a big issue in my town.

 

[Kmagrill]

Well, people will listen to satellite, despite its dropouts, so they'll tolerate HD2/HD3 dropouts as well, provided they are no worse than satellite. The biggest HD flaw seems to be that it really is only reliable to about the 75dBu contour. This gives class B and C stations marginally effective coverage, but is almost useless for a class A, except in very compact markets.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Well, people will listen to satellite, despite its dropouts, so they'll tolerate HD2/HD3 dropouts as well, provided they are no worse than satellite. The biggest HD flaw seems to be that it really is only reliable to about the 75dBu contour. This gives class B and C stations marginally effective coverage, but is almost useless for a class A, except in very compact markets.

HD dropouts are much worse. And they are occurring with regularity on fully class C stations on 2000 foot towers less than 20 miles away. I don't know how many dBu that translates into, but those things peel paint in my part of town. The HD-2 stays silent for 5 to 10 seconds, too. Which is much longer than the occasional satellite dropout when you go under an overpass or something, satellite is back in less than a second when the line of sight is restored. The only real advantage HD-2 has over satellite is slightly better sound quality. But the fact it is on an HD-2 means it is already compressed and has artifacts. One of the Houston stations has full stereo music on HD-3, and that is really compressed almost to the point of satellite quality.

 

[Casey]

Well, people will listen to satellite, despite its dropouts, so they'll tolerate HD2/HD3 dropouts as well, provided they are no worse than satellite. The biggest HD flaw seems to be that it really is only reliable to about the 75dBu contour. This gives class B and C stations marginally effective coverage, but is almost useless for a class A, except in very compact markets.

HD dropouts are much worse. And they are occurring with regularity on fully class C stations on 2000 foot towers less than 20 miles away. I don't know how many dBu that translates into, but those things peel paint in my part of town. The HD-2 stays silent for 5 to 10 seconds, too. Which is much longer than the occasional satellite dropout when you go under an overpass or something, satellite is back in less than a second when the line of sight is restored. The only real advantage HD-2 has over satellite is slightly better sound quality. But the fact it is on an HD-2 means it is already compressed and has artifacts. One of the Houston stations has full stereo music on HD-3, and that is really compressed almost to the point of satellite quality.

To most people though audio quality is not an issue. Otherwise Sirius wouldn't have 23.4 million subscribers.

 

[nd2023]

2% of cars with HD radio is being generous

 

[Kmagrill]

Well, people will listen to satellite, despite its dropouts, so they'll tolerate HD2/HD3 dropouts as well, provided they are no worse than satellite. The biggest HD flaw seems to be that it really is only reliable to about the 75dBu contour. This gives class B and C stations marginally effective coverage, but is almost useless for a class A, except in very compact markets.

HD dropouts are much worse. And they are occurring with regularity on fully class C stations on 2000 foot towers less than 20 miles away. I don't know how many dBu that translates into, but those things peel paint in my part of town. The HD-2 stays silent for 5 to 10 seconds, too. Which is much longer than the occasional satellite dropout when you go under an overpass or something, satellite is back in less than a second when the line of sight is restored. The only real advantage HD-2 has over satellite is slightly better sound quality. But the fact it is on an HD-2 means it is already compressed and has artifacts. One of the Houston stations has full stereo music on HD-3, and that is really compressed almost to the point of satellite quality.

I don't think this is typical. It could be something local in your town causing multipath, or a receiver problem. In my town, the HD signals from the class C1 stations have almost zero dropout out to about 25 miles. Our C2 is good for about 15-20 miles. A class A was reliable for about 8 miles and that was all at -20db below carrier. Now that the rules specify -14dBc, I expect it would be better.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

I don't think this is typical. It could be something local in your town causing multipath, or a receiver problem. In my town, the HD signals from the class C1 stations have almost zero dropout out to about 25 miles. Our C2 is good for about 15-20 miles. A class A was reliable for about 8 miles and that was all at -20db below carrier. Now that the rules specify -14dBc, I expect it would be better.

It could be the aforementioned (in another topic) jamming from a station 10.4 MHz below the one I am listening to. I understand KSBJ dropouts, that is 50 miles. And KGLK dropouts, that is 55 miles. Whenever there is an unexplainable dropout, the analog reception is also compromised. With multi-bay transmit antennas, you are going to have nulls no matter how strong the transmitter or how clear the line of site. Moire patterns are inevitable from multiple bays. The receiver and antenna are as good as they get - a Pioneer DEH-9400 and a whip antenna on the fender, anything else is not going to be as good. Nothing wrong with the setup, Austin's KPBA 103.5 is as strong as a local at 170 miles away. The radio and antenna have got it where it counts, the problem is HD. The reliability just isn't good. Satellite reliability is much better.

 

[JH_Radio]

How about an Insignia™ NS-CLHD01?
has two alarms, blind so no idea if the display would work for you.

 

[KB1OKL]

Well, people will listen to satellite, despite its dropouts, so they'll tolerate HD2/HD3 dropouts as well, provided they are no worse than satellite. The biggest HD flaw seems to be that it really is only reliable to about the 75dBu contour. This gives class B and C stations marginally effective coverage, but is almost useless for a class A, except in very compact markets.

I don't know why people think that Satellite drops out all the time, I have it and actually know the few places it will drop out. I have driven hundreds of miles in one day with very few if any drop outs, the audio quality is not as good as good analog FM but in a car the difference is not that noticeable, but the programming difference is very noticeable. I have an FM AM radio in my 2nd car and I listen to all talk stations because I get really tired of the SOS ten songs played over and over again. I have never heard (or seen) a HD radio in a car so can't comment on drop outs except to compare it to my Sony tuner which has been gathering dust now for a couple of years, it dropped out in my own living room with the stock dipole so I can't imagine how bad car HD reception must be. The only way I got reliable HD FM reception with the Sony was to use the an FM Yagi on my roof. (It was already there) AM HD? Worthless.

 

[WJPYFM]

I had HD radio in my last car but got tired of calling Entercom Buffalo to fix their HD transmitters that were either out of sync, poor audio because there was HD2 now removed and bandwidth was no longer restored to HD1, or the HD had been off for a while. My new car does not have it and I don't really miss it. Technical issue aside, there is just no real content to listen to in Buffalo NY area. Here there are only 5 HD2s. 88.7 has Jazz which is ok, 94.5 has a repeat of 88.7 main channel, 98.5 has repeat of AM 550 WGR programming, 99.5 has Christian music, and 107.7 is too weak to cover the area well enough to keep HD2 for more than a few seconds in a moving car. But they do have a deep cuts "the lake" but no Ads so when it goes off does anyone care? No AM HD other than from Rochester which WHAM is not real strong at 45+ miles away. Content is king. Stations need to broadcast a good format, stream it, broadcast it, sell airtime, and monitor/maintain the HD. Stations that just send HD1 is nice for artist experience and some minor improved audio at 96k but not enough to sell HD to the public.