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How does Houston HD Work?

J

jras20

Is Houston's HD Radio all on one antenna the same as the analog's are on? tower that the "main" city grade stations out at Missouri City are on? I seem to be able of found the "sweet" spot in my house out in Lavaca county for the dipole antenna It pulls it in most of the time. I seem to have better luck with Houston than San antonio. I've been listening to KKHH HD-2 a lot now. ;)
 
milton77 said:
(snip)
So, they always use the same antenna as their analog signal
Click to expand...

Not true. While many station use the same antenna for both signals, at this time it is not required by the FCC. For instance in Houston 92.9, 93.7, 94.5, 95.7, 96.5, 97.9, 99.1, 101.1, 102.1, & 104.1 all use the same antenna for both. 88.7, KUHF, does not. They have a seperate digital antenna on the Channel 13 tower but their analog signal is combined with 93.7 & 102.1 into a master antenna on the same tower.

Dr. Bob
 
Dr. Bob said:
milton77 said:
(snip)
So, they always use the same antenna as their analog signal
Click to expand...

Not true. While many station use the same antenna for both signals, at this time it is not required by the FCC. For instance in Houston 92.9, 93.7, 94.5, 95.7, 96.5, 97.9, 99.1, 101.1, 102.1, & 104.1 all use the same antenna for both. 88.7, KUHF, does not. They have a seperate digital antenna on the Channel 13 tower but their analog signal is combined with 93.7 & 102.1 into a master antenna on the same tower.

Dr. Bob
Click to expand...

Dr.,

How is the coverage area affected by the 2 different configurations? Also, on both of my Accurian radios (one at home in Katy and one at the office on the 15th floor downtown), when it locks in on KHPT-HD then it blends back to analog, the audio goes completely away. I can step down to 106.7 then back to 106.9 and it will do it all over again. It does not do it on any other station. Ideas?
 
Austin and San antonio FM's must have diffrent antennas for HD because I have a hard time pulling Austin in 30 miles and San antonio about 60. I can get stereo from San antonio but no HD. Wonder when they will require to have it on the same antenna? I got a video I'm going to upload onto Youtube of my DX HD To Houston. Because of that I just ordered a Sony HD Radio system for my main system.
 
StevenNOLA said:
Dr. Bob said:
milton77 said:
(snip)
So, they always use the same antenna as their analog signal
Click to expand...

Not true. While many station use the same antenna for both signals, at this time it is not required by the FCC. For instance in Houston 92.9, 93.7, 94.5, 95.7, 96.5, 97.9, 99.1, 101.1, 102.1, & 104.1 all use the same antenna for both. 88.7, KUHF, does not. They have a seperate digital antenna on the Channel 13 tower but their analog signal is combined with 93.7 & 102.1 into a master antenna on the same tower.

Dr. Bob
Click to expand...

Dr.,

How is the coverage area affected by the 2 different configurations? Also, on both of my Accurian radios (one at home in Katy and one at the office on the 15th floor downtown), when it locks in on KHPT-HD then it blends back to analog, the audio goes completely away. I can step down to 106.7 then back to 106.9 and it will do it all over again. It does not do it on any other station. Ideas?
Click to expand...


The coverage is affected more in the separate antenna case as all non-panel, non-directional, FM broadcast antennas are distorted by the mounting structure. Even mounting the same number of bays of the same manufacturer's antenna for HD at a different location on the tower could, due to the differing pattern distortions, cause the HD to analog in certain areas to have more or less than the optimum 20 dB difference. If the ratio of HD to analog is less, the analog may "overpower" the HD and the HD will not be received. If the location is in a null of the analog antenna but not the HD then the HD signal may interfere with analog reception. One way to reduce these problems is with interleaved antennas where one bay is analog only and the next is HD only alternating. This seems to be more favored in the northeast where the max FM analog ERP is 50 kW. In all locations, the most popular method of realizing HD is the 10 dB injector where both signals are combined after the transmitters. The analog transmitter must increase power by 10% of it's original power and the digital transmitter must be sized to deliver 10% of the analog power due to combiner losses. The analog transmitter loses 10% of its power in the combiner and the digital loses 90%. While inefficient, this method requires no additional line(s) or antenna on the tower. 93.7 & 102.1 use this method for HD. I'll bet most Austin & San Antonio stations use the 10 dB combiner method.

On the HD problem with 106.9, I think they may have their blend feature in their HD generator turned off. This tells the receiver to blend to HD or cut to it. I did not have this issue with the JVC receiver in my vehicle on 106.9 but I did with 97.1. I'm guessing that your receiver has a strong enough signal on 106.9 to acquire but when it tries to cut to the digital, the receiver doesn't have enough signal to lock reliability. I'll send the guys at Cox and email and let them know they may have a problem.

Dr. Bob
 
Dr. Bob,

Thanks for the great explanation and the email to Cox.

I have emailed Dain Craig a few times when the HD is completely off or the HD-2 has been down. He has been very good about responding in a timely manner and having the problem fixed within an hour or two.

The CC stations seem to have the most reliable HD signals. I am curious about the future of KTRH on HD-2 since KLOL is going to CBS. It's the only way I can listen to KTRH in my office (my employer disables online streaming).
 
Sorry Steven, I don't know anything at this time about the future of KTRH on KLOL HD2. An educated guess would be that it be relocated to another CC HD station.

Dr. Bob
 
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