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HD Station mix up.................

R

Rick_E

Did anyone ever get an HD station in with the RDS call letters and song/title information with the sub channels but with another station’s audio being heard on the primary channel?

I was playing with my new Sony HD Clock Radio last night and notice the thing was picking up the New York City stations along with Atlantic City/Cape May, and stations in between. (I am located in Northern Chester County Pa. about 40 miles northwest of Philly.)

For 101.1 The display showed a full HD signal for WCBS-FM with the song title & artist but I noticed the song being played did not match what was being shown and it turned out the station being heard was B101 from Philly. I was unable to get the secondary channel to come in, it was just displaying WCBS-FM 101.1, but the third channel came in clear and it was 880 WCBS AM along with the displayed scrolling information for the station.

I though it was very strange and funny to get all the HD stuff for WCBS-FM but was hearing B101 on the first channel, hearing nothing on the second channel, and then hearing 880 WCBS AM on the third channel. (note. B101 has their HD turned off)

Anyone else ever have this happen?
 
It is possible for a receiver to lock on to the HD title info while recieving the analog of another station. That's because the HD info is transmitted on the first adjacent channels and because B101 has HD turned off, you get WCBS title info.
 
Rick_E said:
Did anyone ever get an HD station in with the RDS call letters and song/title information with the sub channels but with another station’s audio being heard on the primary channel?

I was playing with my new Sony HD Clock Radio last night and notice the thing was picking up the New York City stations along with Atlantic City/Cape May, and stations in between. (I am located in Northern Chester County Pa. about 40 miles northwest of Philly.)

For 101.1 The display showed a full HD signal for WCBS-FM with the song title & artist but I noticed the song being played did not match what was being shown and it turned out the station being heard was B101 from Philly. I was unable to get the secondary channel to come in, it was just displaying WCBS-FM 101.1, but the third channel came in clear and it was 880 WCBS AM along with the displayed scrolling information for the station.

I though it was very strange and funny to get all the HD stuff for WCBS-FM but was hearing B101 on the first channel, hearing nothing on the second channel, and then hearing 880 WCBS AM on the third channel. (note. B101 has their HD turned off)

Anyone else ever have this happen?
Click to expand...

Imagine what will happen if B101 decides to turn their HD radio signal back on, and WCBS-FM and B101 both get a 10x HD digital power increase. What a mess.
 
audiophile. said:
It is possible for a receiver to lock on to the HD title info while recieving the analog of another station. That's because the HD info is transmitted on the first adjacent channels and because B101 has HD turned off, you get WCBS title info.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I should have checked out 100.3 to see if the same thing was happening. Philly's 100.3 The Beat is not in HD and I believe Z100 from NYC is. Hopefully tonight the NYC stations are received well enough to check this out.

Does anyone in the NJ overlap areas of Philly/NYC 100.3/101.1 see this on a regular basis?
 
One time - I got an HD indicator off of WOR, it acted like it wanted to lock. The interesting thing is, I'm in Houston! There is no chance of ever hearing WOR analog here, because of several closer 710s. But HD sidebands are so strong, they go a lot farther than the analog signal. I know it is WOR, the sidebands go away when I throw a null at New York.
 
I'm also based in northern Chester County and have observed similar problems during tropo openings. And a couple of years ago, I tuned to 88.1 on the JVC HD radio in my truck (the local station is non-HD "Word FM" WZZD in Warwick, PA) but it locked on to the digital signal of co-channel WUSF in Pensacola, Florida, coming in via E-skip.

Let me try to get an "official" explanation for the HD shutdown at WBEB. You're probably correct; Jerry took a chance on it for a couple of years but may have concluded it's a waste of resources and energy. WHAT in Philadelphia apparently reached the same conclusion, along with the "Word FM" station in Harrisburg.
 
If this "HD" system is so advanced, where is the Error Correction? With RDS/RBDS, the audio can differ from the RDS data too (but we could expect that in analog)
 
Play Freebird wrote
Let me try to get an "official" explanation for the HD shutdown at WBEB. You're probably correct; Jerry took a chance on it for a couple of years but may have concluded it's a waste of resources and energy. WHAT in Philadelphia apparently reached the same conclusion, along with the "Word FM" station in Harrisburg.
Click to expand...
I'm eager to see how they're going to finesse that "official version," Freebird. Remember, B101 is, or at least was, a member of the "HD Alliance" -- the only stand-alone station in the Alliance, and by far the most successful stand-alone in the business today. Jerry Lee's departure has to be embarrassing for "iNiquity"!
 
[EDIT-quote removed]
Click to expand...

Actually, it's not too late to back out. This is an example of what's known in economics as the sunk cost fallacy, i.e. Don’t throw good money after bad. Read more about it here:

http://messymatters.com/2009/06/23/sunk/

In many FM stations where high-level or split-level combined is used, the digital transmitter could be rebiased for Class C amplification and used as a backup rig. This would reduce the electric bill, lessen the load on HVAC, and offer greater reliability, thus making better use of the money already invested. And, in the increasingly unlikely event that HD Radio turns out to be a success, the equipment could be reconfigured as it was.

But unfortunately, the money paid to iBiquity for the broadcaster license fee is gone for good.
 
There is a countervailing accounting principle: depreciation. Under depreciation schedules broadcast equipment is usually "written down" over a period of three years or five years (without getting pedantic, the concept is that stuff you bought last year is now worth less than you paid for it, so the loss in value is claimed as an expense against earnings for tax purposes.)

HD equipment in the case of first-adopters - most of the Alliance FMs would start to qualify here - is nearing the end of the depreciation cycle. I predict that in the case of many stations, once the dumb HD stuff is fully depreciated and the iBiquity license is due for renewal, it will be: Lights Out For The Decepticon.

The cost-benefit curves are starting to cross. As HD looks increasingly like a long shot, and the time line on the digital power increase lengthens due to interference controversies, eroding revenues and the estimated 40% increase in engineering man-hours demanded by the typical HD installation will start to press management to "just turn it off." The rationale will be "let's wait and see how things work out for HD." The door to reactivate "once problems get worked out" will be left open just a crack as a face-saver.
 
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