Yup, the digital artifacts drive me nuts with HD radio. I'll take regular, analog AM any day.
The big HD AM near me, KDKA, is back to just an analog signal, I do believe... Not sure if any other Pittsburgh AMs were ever HD.
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How many AM stations still actively use HD Radio (AM-HD)? Are there any in your area?
- Thread starter Wolfie770
- Start date
The big HD AM near me, KDKA, is back to just an analog signal, I do believe... Not sure if any other Pittsburgh AMs were ever HD.
Detroit still has at least three:
560 WRDT
910 WFDF
1200 WMUZ
I had all of them lock on my car radio yesterday afternoon while driving along US-23
Yes, they have stopped I think. I don't see any HD in my car radio which permits HD both on AM and FM. WDGY was good while it lasted.
740 WDGY is HD, IDK why it's not listed. They do a terrible job running a website.
Yeah, 1130 and 1440 must've been turned off long ago.
Oh rly, it's gone? My Radios AM stopped entirely, HD or AM. I guess if they're all gone, replacing it doesn't matter.
I'm about 350 miles due east of the Twin Cities and I was once able to decode WFDF HD at night on a barefoot HDR-16.
The hash some nights was terrible, strong stations would wipe everything out on either side, sounded like jammers. The thing is that the digital hash could travel hundreds of miles at night but the digital signal was lucky to be heard 30-40 miles from the transmitters, really bad system. I'm in Mass and used to get jammed up and down the band at night from the East coast stations, especially the NY stations. Everyone knew it was going nowhere.
HD didn't last long on 1020 KDKA and 1030 WBZ because of the mutual interference they were causing each other at night.
formerradio
Banned
We installed HD on 1310. Nautel ND5 transmitters were modified for HD. Lynn managed to build and squeeze in a rotation network in that tiny transmitter building. It worked about better than most of the thirty something HD signals we put on the air. But in the end it was just a giant waste of money. Today it appears the site is not much more than a place to dump stolen cars and for homeless people to hang out.
In the waning days of San Francisco's KPIG on 1510 AM there was a real problem receiving it because of KFBK's 1530 HD signal. When KFBK shut that down I was able to listen to 1510 all the way up in here Grass Valley (daytime only). Admittedly, that was on a good radio (an old GE Superadio) but it was clean.
Dave B.
There must be at least one on 1250 as while I was driving around listening to my local talk station on that frequency the other night the display showed "Need You Now" by Lady A. Interesting that this could pop thru as I could not really hear another station in the background.
HD data/sidebands/signal encompasses mroe than JUST the frequency dead on, so you were picking up a talk station in analog but the data is off to the side so thats how two things at once can happen... but you didnt mention where you are, so its hard to figure out what you heard.
I was 1 1/2 mile from a 250 watt fm translator at 94.5 on a taller tower but had a 110 mile distant HD 2 signal lock on regularly.. and I also had a 1000 mile distant HD2 signal lock on.. again, because what i was hearing was smack dab dead on 94.5 liek the analog was
HD Radio tuners are computers and they're known to do odd things like cache data from the previous HD or RDS station you tuned in and then display it even after you've switched to a station that is not transmitting HD or RDS.
If it was actually detecting a digital carrier on 1250 kHz (no stations on that frequency are currently transmitting HD), then you'd see the HD logo appear long before it got a solid enough lock on the data stream to display the station's call letters or other program info.
When tuning in an AM HD signal on my VW's car radio the process was as follows:
1. tune in signal, hear analog audio
2. HD logo appears (dimly) when it detects the digital carrier
3. Station's call letters appear on display
4. After a delay while it builds up the buffer, the HD logo turns brighter and digital audio begins playing
5. Station's additional program data appears on the display
If it was actually detecting a digital carrier on 1250 kHz (no stations on that frequency are currently transmitting HD), then you'd see the HD logo appear long before it got a solid enough lock on the data stream to display the station's call letters or other program info.
When tuning in an AM HD signal on my VW's car radio the process was as follows:
1. tune in signal, hear analog audio
2. HD logo appears (dimly) when it detects the digital carrier
3. Station's call letters appear on display
4. After a delay while it builds up the buffer, the HD logo turns brighter and digital audio begins playing
5. Station's additional program data appears on the display
Actually, they are less like computers and more like a DAC chip that has some defects such as you describe.
Sounds like the system stores last used data until it is refreshed. Likely some programmer thought this is desirable.
My Sangean HDT-1X tuner still thinks it can pick up an HD-2 channel at 105.3. That was fine in Oakland; in Denver, that isn't going to work. But, even after I had the tuner in storage for more than a year, it started "thinking" that again right after I plugged it in. I had to re-do the presets and reset the clock, but it was determined to find something at 105.3. Likewise for 97.3 HD-2, but that is valid in Denver.
My VW's radio did that. My presets for WCBS (now WHSQ) and WINS still displayed their call letters and the HD logo long after they both switched off HD Radio, until a few seconds after tuning them in when it realized the absence of the HD carrier.
It also cached FM RDS data in the presets, including the 8-character field that is normally scrolled to display artist/title info. My favorite was the preset for 107.1 WWZY, which popped up "Long Joe" every time I pushed it -- which came from them playing the long version of Joe Walsh's "Life's Been Good" when I saved the preset.
They have far more then just a DAC chip. The HD Modules actually contain a CPU and ram. In radios the HD module is separate.
The defects are probably just firmware bugs and not clearing things that they should.
In my market we have four AMs that have been off for almost six months and my Kia car radio still displays their logos on those particular frequencies. It also displays a FM in Maryland, the Bay, on 97.7 when we have a country LPFM on that frequency serving some of our rural areas. It must think it matches to that particular call letter.
Or it's an efficiency play with caching, i.e., avoiding doing the same work over and over again.
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