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Looking around for a table-type HD radio (Hybrid Digital radio)

I've found you can really extend the life of the batteries on HD radios if you disable the emergency alert feature.

Sangean HDR-16 is great as a smallish boom-box. Sangean HDR-14 is good as a travel/pocket radio. Great reception for both AM and FM and FM-hd.

One odd negative is that if you still listen to anything on AM. When there is a thunderstorm nearby, Sangean briefly desensitizes AM. You won't hear much of the lightening static, but the audio will basically drop out for a moment.
 
CentralFL said:
I've found you can really extend the life of the batteries on HD radios if you disable the emergency alert feature.

Sangean HDR-16 is great as a smallish boom-box. Sangean HDR-14 is good as a travel/pocket radio. Great reception for both AM and FM and FM-hd.

One odd negative is that if you still listen to anything on AM. When there is a thunderstorm nearby, Sangean briefly desensitizes AM. You won't hear much of the lightening static, but the audio will basically drop out for a moment.
Click to expand...
I'm wondering if that is actually the receiver's front end being temporarily overloaded, the same way it might react to "blanketing interference" from being in the immediate vicinity of a super strong signal at the lower end of the dial?
 
TomásEstefan said:
I'm wondering if that is actually the receiver's front end being temporarily overloaded, the same way it might react to "blanketing interference" from being in the immediate vicinity of a super strong signal at the lower end of the dial?
Click to expand...
I wonder if some noise blanking is built-in.

Last night, when I was still in Fredericksburg, Texas, I was picking up 1080 KRLD from Dallas. I could clearly hear the HD side bands at 1070 and 1090. There was enough of a lock for the HDR-14 to show the KRLD call letters. But I wasn’t able to lock onto the signal to get digital audio. I suspect routine atmospheric noise had something to do with it. I bring this up because it would be logical for a radio capable of digital reception to try to reduce or eliminate noise that could obliterate that reception.
 
Mark Roberts said:
This is also true for the SG-108 model; the only difference between it and the HDR-14 is that the SG-108’s case is white. If you use the menu option to see the SG-108’s firmware version, it will even tell you it’s an HDR-14.
Click to expand...

Can anyone explain why Sangean didn't use the same nomenclature for the SG-108 model as it uses for the rest of its HD Radio lineup? Its other models use HDR as the prefix for HD Radios and HDT for HD Radio tuners.
 
fybush said:
Again, technology improves over time and what you might have known to be true 20 years ago doesn't apply today.

The Sangean HDR-14 portable is my go-to for my own travel use and as a recommendation to clients. I can easily get 8-10 solid hours from it on 3 rechargeable AA batteries.
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That is a radio; I was talking about TVs that can pick up OTA signals and run the screen nicely and pick up a usable signal. Half of what I mentioned went beyond the battery drain; the digital portables just don't do well in fringe areas, such as driving from one market to another. Between the battery, the more dim HD screen and the signal problems, it made using a portable TV of vastly less value and I think that applies to TV stations serving viewers in the event of emergencies.

I have yet to find a TV that has batteries that will last that long. Even an iPad will start to go before 8 hours, as I learned on many a trip back and forth to LA when I'd forget a charger. Now our cars have those built in. but the manual cautions about using the chargers too long if the motor is not charging the car battery.
 
Transitioning to digital is the worst thing that happened to OTA TV.

Sure, the picture's better and we can have subchannels. So what?

I used to be able to watch my portable TV everywhere years ago and never had any trouble in places with reception, but now, the signal has to be relatively strong, and most receivers seem to be more sensitive to interference. Plus one has to scan for available signals before they can be watched, although I do have a TV that allows direct tuning to digital RF channels.

Back in 2018 or so, I thought I'd give digital in the car a try, so I took an antenna, an RCA converter box that I converted to run on batteries, a portable color TV and the cords to hook it all together, and it actually worked. I don't remember if it worked well, but it worked.

That might be a compromise? Since the converter box uses less power due to not having a display, perhaps if combined with an old analog TV, it would last longer in an emergency?

A clever person could probably devise a way to rig up a converter box with a little Part 15 TV sender unit that broadcasts on a VHF channel to nearby TVs (they do exist) so the analog TV doesn't need to be connected to the box, an important consideration since not all portable TVs have provisions for an external antenna hookup. It might use a bit more power, but I would think that it'd be negligible compared to the power draw of the converter.

c
 
cc333 said:
Transitioning to digital is the worst thing that happened to OTA TV.

Sure, the picture's better and we can have subchannels. So what?

I used to be able to watch my portable TV everywhere years ago and never had any trouble in places with reception, but now, the signal has to be relatively strong, and most receivers seem to be more sensitive to interference. Plus one has to scan for available signals before they can be watched, although I do have a TV that allows direct tuning to digital RF channels.

Back in 2018 or so, I thought I'd give digital in the car a try, so I took an antenna, an RCA converter box that I converted to run on batteries, a portable color TV and the cords to hook it all together, and it actually worked. I don't remember if it worked well, but it worked.

That might be a compromise? Since the converter box uses less power due to not having a display, perhaps if combined with an old analog TV, it would last longer in an emergency?

A clever person could probably devise a way to rig up a converter box with a little Part 15 TV sender unit that broadcasts on a VHF channel to nearby TVs (they do exist) so the analog TV doesn't need to be connected to the box, an important consideration since not all portable TVs have provisions for an external antenna hookup. It might use a bit more power, but I would think that it'd be negligible compared to the power draw of the converter.

c
Click to expand...
Prior to the digital transition, OTA broadcast TV was almost dead. Nationally, OTA viewing was perhaps 10% of households, with the rest watching their local stations via cable or satellite. Most people didn't even think to bother with installing a decent antenna, so the perception of OTA by viewers was a snowy, ghost-ridden picture.

Then digital and HDTV happened. In areas with a really crappy analog picture, you often got nothing at all with digital TV. But in many other areas, an analog picture that was mediocre was replaced with a digital picture that was nearly perfect. And, slowly, OTA viewing started to increase again. Cable/satellite penetration rates actually started dropping *before* streaming became big, because the digital picture was that much better. It was a gradual drop, but it was enough to be significant.

So digital wasn't the worst thing that happened to OTA television, because it actually was helping. In recent years, I'd say that streaming is the worst thing to happen to all linear television services -- OTA, cable, and satellite -- but that's a different discussion. But I will note that if OTA had to compete with streaming in an environment where OTA was the old analog service, broadcasters would be out of business.
 
And one of the real-world advantages I've noticed since getting 3.0 in my traveling kit (I use a Zapperbox M1) is that the signals really are much more robust in 3.0 than in 1.0, especially on VHF. Antenna placement tends to be less critical, and mobile reception is possible.

As with HD Radio, what was problematic, technology-wise, a decade or two ago isn't necessarily still a problem now.
 
CentralFL said:
I've found you can really extend the life of the batteries on HD radios if you disable the emergency alert feature.

Sangean HDR-16 is great as a smallish boom-box. Sangean HDR-14 is good as a travel/pocket radio. Great reception for both AM and FM and FM-hd.

One odd negative is that if you still listen to anything on AM. When there is a thunderstorm nearby, Sangean briefly desensitizes AM. You won't hear much of the lightening static, but the audio will basically drop out for a moment.
Click to expand...
I have had a Sangean HDR-16 for nearly 10 years now, Sounds great and really good on batteries. My only beef is that the display panel light won't go out if I use AC power. If I use batteries the light goes out after 30 seconds. Quite sensitive also on both AM and FM.
 
TexasTom said:
Prior to the digital transition, OTA broadcast TV was almost dead. Nationally, OTA viewing was perhaps 10% of households, with the rest watching their local stations via cable or satellite. Most people didn't even think to bother with installing a decent antenna, so the perception of OTA by viewers was a snowy, ghost-ridden picture.
Click to expand...
That is not quite true. A large group of minority households, particularly Hispanic, did not have cable or satellite.

Much of the reason for not having paid services was the cost. But for Spanish dominant or Spanish dependent Hispanics, it was also the fact that there was very little Spanish language content to be gained by subscribing to paid services. So OTA was more than adequate.

The internal figure I had in the year 2000 was that about 24% to 30% of households still used OTA only.
 
I'd like to see the popular and rather inexpensive "TEF6686" portable radios be made available with the HD capable TEF6688 chip. If one were to do that, you'd get a tabletop/portable that would have the ability to display images, metadata, traffic maps... all of that you see on modern HD car radios. Plus the sensitivity and selectivity of the currently available TEF6686.

From my understanding, licensing to Xperi to implement HD capability in those radios tends to be what is keeping that from happening so far.
 
nitroengine said:
From my understanding, licensing to Xperi to implement HD capability in those radios tends to be what is keeping that from happening so far.
Click to expand...

I suspect the answer is simpler. The Chinese manufacturers of high-performance radios are looking for the broadest market possible at the lowest production cost possible. The broadest market is global. But HD is limited mostly to North America. it’s not an inconsiderable market, but perhaps the manufacturers have calculated that whatever extra cost there would be for HD is not worth it. They can easily support multiple markets for AM channel spacing and FM de-emphasis, but HD is not something that’s supported without adding cost.

Sangean’s an exception to this, but they also seem more willing to accommodate the peculiarities of any particular market compared to, say, Tecsun or Kaito or Qodosen.
 
Mark Roberts said:
I suspect the answer is simpler. The Chinese manufacturers of high-performance radios are looking for the broadest market possible at the lowest production cost possible. The broadest market is global. But HD is limited mostly to North America. it’s not an inconsiderable market, but perhaps the manufacturers have calculated that whatever extra cost there would be for HD is not worth it. They can easily support multiple markets for AM channel spacing and FM de-emphasis, but HD is not something that’s supported without adding cost.
Click to expand...

I'm sure that's also a factor.

The HD capable TEF6688 chip also supports DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) so it should still be relevant to the global market. Not sure what DRM costs to license. The TEF6686 and TEF6688 chips are designed for car stereos, so unlike car stereos that are factory configured to be used in a particular region, I'd assume all HD capable TEF6688 portable radios sold would have to carry licenses for both HD and DRM. An additional digital radio processing chip is required. So there's that extra cost alone. Individual processor chips for HD, DRM, or DAB. There is one "premium" chip listed, SAF3606EL, that can to do HD, DRM, and DAB.

By "TEF6686 radio" I mean those listed here:
www.ebay.com

Tef6686 for sale | eBay

Get the best deals for Tef6686 at eBay.com. We have a great online selection at the lowest prices with Fast & Free shipping on many items!
www.ebay.com
They are sold in various form factors by various brands, but often have the same display layout and user interface.
 
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I am glad to see this brought up. I have not and will not buy a TEF6686 radio because it lacks HD but would if it did. I only listen to classical music and classical music is mostly only available on HD2 channels where I live so not having HD means I can't hear the only stations I listen to on the radio. Plus HD radio sounds better.
 


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