Earlier today, I was tuning into 100.3 HD2 The Strip (one of my presets), and I've noticed that the broadcast is "no longer available", neither is The Indie-Verse on HD3, however their online streams still work. Does that have to do with last week's winter storm or something?
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KJKK HD2/HD3 Difficulties
- Thread starter texasstooge
- Start date
sounds like a computer needs to be rebooted :
HD radio... It ALMOST works. Lol! Reboot time! I'm pretty glad I'm not currently having to put up with caring for one them. Rebooting stuff in the audio chain is just no Bueno heh...
Same here...my favorite HD station and 3rd favorite of all (Hd & non HD).
Jay Walker, you have any insight to the issues? I mean, as the voice of the station and the head engineer for CBS, you might know what the word is, no?
Jay Walker, you have any insight to the issues? I mean, as the voice of the station and the head engineer for CBS, you might know what the word is, no?
Wow, sorry for the delay in responding. I have not stopped by in a while..
First, I'm not head of engineering for CBS Dallas, I'm one of the engineering "team" and Chief of 105.3. I just wanted to clear that up, but thanks for the promotion LOL.
Second, thanks for tossing the plug in for "The Strip". I enjoy doing the liners for the format and it is fun (for me) to hear my voice between Sinatra, Martin, and Sammy, instead of Whitesnake, and Def Leppard from my Imaging Director days at 97.1 "The Eagle".
Now on to HD Radio...
Usually the fault you saw indicated i.e. "No Service" etc is when a HD-2/3/4 importer for the secondary streams is off-line.
The HD transmitter is composed of the main channel HD-1 signal generator plus a "Importer" computer which is how the secondary services are steamed via TCP/IP to the HD transmitter. The HD-1 transmitter O/S is usually a variation of Red Hat Linux. The Importer O/S is Windows. As with all things Windows, they, the Importer will sometimes head south due to pretty much any Windows malady you can think of. When that happens the HD-2/3 services stop. The instances of an Importer failure are rare but as with all things electronic it only quits working when it quits..
Finally...
I'm glad you enjoy Indie-Verse, they work real hard to make it a unique listening experience. If you are looking for unique programming, including some of your former "FM" favorites HD is well worth the listen. Thanks again and my apologies for the long delay.
Jay Walker
First, I'm not head of engineering for CBS Dallas, I'm one of the engineering "team" and Chief of 105.3. I just wanted to clear that up, but thanks for the promotion LOL.
Second, thanks for tossing the plug in for "The Strip". I enjoy doing the liners for the format and it is fun (for me) to hear my voice between Sinatra, Martin, and Sammy, instead of Whitesnake, and Def Leppard from my Imaging Director days at 97.1 "The Eagle".
Now on to HD Radio...
Usually the fault you saw indicated i.e. "No Service" etc is when a HD-2/3/4 importer for the secondary streams is off-line.
The HD transmitter is composed of the main channel HD-1 signal generator plus a "Importer" computer which is how the secondary services are steamed via TCP/IP to the HD transmitter. The HD-1 transmitter O/S is usually a variation of Red Hat Linux. The Importer O/S is Windows. As with all things Windows, they, the Importer will sometimes head south due to pretty much any Windows malady you can think of. When that happens the HD-2/3 services stop. The instances of an Importer failure are rare but as with all things electronic it only quits working when it quits..
Finally...
I'm glad you enjoy Indie-Verse, they work real hard to make it a unique listening experience. If you are looking for unique programming, including some of your former "FM" favorites HD is well worth the listen. Thanks again and my apologies for the long delay.
Jay Walker
DToTheJ said:
HD is very interesting and exciting to me from a technical and programming point of view. Early in the HD roll out receivers were in my opinion, sub-standard with lightning bolt sensitivity at best. However at this point in time receivers have improved dramatically, and are much better reception wise. I live 70 miles from Cedar Hill and I enjoy solid reception using the typical thumb tacked to the wall dipole antenna.
I liken the current levels of HD penetration to the way FM penetration was in the early 70's. Back then an under dash convertor was needed to RF modulate into an AM receiver in Mono. However once FM Stereo receivers became a standard item in new cars during the mid 70's the FM set penetration exploded and FM ran away with the ratings on Top 40/Contemporary radio. That period was the beginning of the end of AM music radio. The exceptions were markets where terrain was an issue such as San Francisco. As "in-car" receiver penetration and set quality improved, the ratings in even San Francisco experienced the flip around 1978 or so.
I am as old-school as anyone out there having cut my baby DJ teeth on AM Top 40 in the early 70's and FM Top 40 from the mid 70's onward. That said, I am well aware that people are fickle and gadget oriented. The cool fact that a single FM/HD frequency will support three separate program streams (and more) allows stations to experiment with a wide variety of niche programming ideas. Ideas that may not be economical on a FM analog are viable on an HD sub-channel and add entertainment choices for the listener.
HD Radio while still in the growing stage, offers a wide variety of programs and is conveniently available on a pocket receiver all the way up through a $10,000 "wall of sound" entertainment system...for free.
I encourage everyone to give HD a listen in your local market.
Sales pitch over
Jay
It's too bad they don't put some of those interesting formats on conventional FM stations. If there was ever a market that has too many stations playing more or less the same crap, it would be Dallas. If I've counted correctly, there are 94 AM & FM channels available at my old zip code in Dallas, according to Radio-Locator http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/locate?select=city&city=75235&sid=&x=9&y=9
I have no idea why they think they need more channels, HD or not. It must be incredibly hard to sustain some of these stations. The advertising pie is only so big, and slicing it 90 odd ways, the portion size gets pretty small...
So why HD?
I have no idea why they think they need more channels, HD or not. It must be incredibly hard to sustain some of these stations. The advertising pie is only so big, and slicing it 90 odd ways, the portion size gets pretty small...
So why HD?
I would have thought that the local PBS radio here could find the extra music and other programming fare for an HD 2 & 3 channel... as PBS radio has and is doing in other markets smaller than DFW....
Also, I am amazed that WRR has not branched of into HD 2 & 3.
Surely there are some creative minds left out there, other than the minds that only feel comfort in the most "common" of whatever genre they are catering to...
Also, I am amazed that WRR has not branched of into HD 2 & 3.
Surely there are some creative minds left out there, other than the minds that only feel comfort in the most "common" of whatever genre they are catering to...
Regarding those old FM converters, they did work,but at the expense of cutting one's AM sensitivity in half.
Even with radio that HAS an antenna trimmer, it was then impossible to truly peak the RF tuning on AM.
Instead of a true peak there was a broad, mushy peak, and then the radio was only useful for 50 kw AMs.
They never did a proper job of maintaining the impedance through the pass circuit for AM.
When I did use one, I would go to the trouble of connnecting/disconnecting the coax to switch from AM/FM.
It wasn't too hard because in my old cars, the radio's right there at the bottom of the dash, and the coax
connector is near the bottom of the radio and easily reached while siting normally in the seat.
Now if they could just get the FM HD fuzz to stop intruding so loudly during multipath flutters.....
I'm only about 7 miles from downtown Chicago, and drive to work to a place about 25 miles out .
The amount of multipath noise I get now is about what it used to be like when I lived in NW Indiana,
about 45 miles out. But even then it wasn't as loud when multipathing occured.
I am comparing using the SAME car and radio that I had in 1979 to make this comparison.
And it has a proper whip antenna, (which did get changed 3 years ago).
Even with radio that HAS an antenna trimmer, it was then impossible to truly peak the RF tuning on AM.
Instead of a true peak there was a broad, mushy peak, and then the radio was only useful for 50 kw AMs.
They never did a proper job of maintaining the impedance through the pass circuit for AM.
When I did use one, I would go to the trouble of connnecting/disconnecting the coax to switch from AM/FM.
It wasn't too hard because in my old cars, the radio's right there at the bottom of the dash, and the coax
connector is near the bottom of the radio and easily reached while siting normally in the seat.
Now if they could just get the FM HD fuzz to stop intruding so loudly during multipath flutters.....
I'm only about 7 miles from downtown Chicago, and drive to work to a place about 25 miles out .
The amount of multipath noise I get now is about what it used to be like when I lived in NW Indiana,
about 45 miles out. But even then it wasn't as loud when multipathing occured.
I am comparing using the SAME car and radio that I had in 1979 to make this comparison.
And it has a proper whip antenna, (which did get changed 3 years ago).
TheRover said:
I'm not sure why KERA & KXT have not branched into HD, but I suspect that WRR adopted HD as an attempt to improve their audio quality. Adding a secondary HD channel would degrade the quality of the main signal which would defeat the purpose. They do have discerning listeners.
On the other-hand I wouldn’t mind if they switched on a HD-2 channel for those City Council broadcasts. They could switch it off when they are done.
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