• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

KMLE is HD-free lately. Repairs or change of strategy?

bulwnkl

bulwnkl

My wife listens to country music some, so I noticed that KMLW's HD transmitter is off lately. Are they just repairing things, or did they decide to give up the HD-2 program and HD altogether? Just curious.

Afterthought: I suppose there could be a problem with the x-mitter such that only my radios can't see the transmission any more, but that'd be 2 vehicles plus home radios that all can't 'hear' it.
 
bulwnkl said:
My wife listens to country music some, so I noticed that KMLW's HD transmitter is off lately. Are they just repairing things, or did they decide to give up the HD-2 program and HD altogether? Just curious.

Afterthought: I suppose there could be a problem with the x-mitter such that only my radios can't see the transmission any more, but that'd be 2 vehicles plus home radios that all can't 'hear' it.
Click to expand...
It's likely that this is a temporary thing and that HD service will be restored on that station at some point. They could be doing repairs on their HD transmitter or perhaps they're upgrading something.
 
dx_sphere said:
It's likely that this is a temporary thing and that HD service will be restored on that station at some point. They could be doing repairs on their HD transmitter or perhaps they're upgrading something.
Click to expand...
The usual cause of HD channels being off in recent years is that the FM is at an auxiliary facility that does not have HD; this is usually due to the reallocation of TV channels causing major work on the antennae for TV that can displace FM services that share the tower.

I don't know that this is the case here, but Occam's Razor indicates this as likely if not probable.
 
DavidEduardo said:
The usual cause of HD channels being off in recent years is that the FM is at an auxiliary facility that does not have HD; this is usually due to the reallocation of TV channels causing major work on the antennae for TV that can displace FM services that share the tower.

I don't know that this is the case here, but Occam's Razor indicates this as likely if not probable.
Click to expand...
I've seen instances of Seattle HD stations being knocked off a few times only for them to be restored within a few days or so. Audacy (Entercom) and iHeart don't usually knock their FM HD signals off for good.
 
DavidEduardo said:
The usual cause of HD channels being off in recent years is that the FM is at an auxiliary facility that does not have HD; this is usually due to the reallocation of TV channels causing major work on the antennae for TV that can displace FM services that share the tower.

I don't know that this is the case here, but Occam's Razor indicates this as likely if not probable.
Click to expand...

I kinda doubt there'd be that sort of work now as Phoenix was very early on the repack calendar.

KMLE's tower is shared with KOOL-FM, KFLR-FM, K224CJ and KSAZ+KUTP. The only thing I see for any of those stations is that KFLR began broadcasting with HD Radio recently (November 10, 2020? It says 11-10-2021 but that might be because they filed the digital notification in March).
 
Thanks. I find HD’s absence highly noticeable and distinct when I’m so used to it. The programming I listen to by far the most is on an HD sub-channel, and there are a few HD subs (none are AM simulcasts) I listen to quite a bit. Plus, I always want to adjust an equalizer when HD isn’t there.
(-:

I know the TV freq shuffle happened rather early in the process here, but some stations still change freq here occasionally, as evidenced by the fact that our one television magically ‘loses’ channel sets sometimes. When a station changes freq, I have to have that TV re-scan the whole broadcast band in order for it to know what frequency that station is now on. The channel 7 group moved very recently (again, based on how the TV behaves).
 
Last edited:
bulwnkl said:
Thanks. I find HD’s absence highly noticeable and distinct when I’m so used to it. The programming I listen to by far the most is on an HD sub-channel, and there are a few HD subs (none are AM simulcasts) I listen to quite a bit. Plus, I always want to adjust an equalizer when HD isn’t there.
(-:

I know the TV freq shuffle happened rather early in the process here, but some stations still change freq here occasionally, as evidenced by the fact that our one television magically ‘loses’ channel sets sometimes. When a station changes freq, I have to have that TV re-scan the whole broadcast band in order for it to know what frequency that station is now on. The channel 7 group moved very recently (again, based on how the TV behaves).
Click to expand...

They're having a different problem at KAZT-CD: they have an antenna they can't work on because protected hawks are nesting on the tower.
 
Here's the real deal with KMLE's HD: a component in the combining scheme that merges the high power analog transmitter and the lower power HD transmitter has failed. Their engineer has ordered parts to repair, but they won't arrive for some time.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom