More HD reception reports from Cincinnati

[Len14043]

As I mentioned yesterday, I purchased a JVC HD radio. Today, I took a ride south of Cincinnati to test the performance. WHAS (840) started to lock in to the D mode just north of Cincinnati, and the D signal was solid near Florence, Kentucky. The digital signal of WSAI (1360) started to fail about 10 miles south of Florence. I didn't drive far enough to lose the D signal of WLW. After looking at the coverage maps for WHAS and WSAI, it appears that the D signal is good out to about the 2.0 mv/m contour. AS expected, the Dayton D signals were solid to about northern Cincinnati, non-existant in Cincinnati proper, and briefly reappear in Kentucky as you pass the Ohio River and climb hills in that area. The Cincinnati D FM signals, of course, remained solid throughout the metropolitan area. Another observation I made was that multipath on FM doesn't cause the D signal to fail. Living in Cincinnati for a long time, I am quite familiar with the bad locations for FM signals such as between hills and near downtown buildings. I put the radio in the A only mode and drove to one of those locations until the signal sounded scratchy. I then placed the radio in the D mode and the audio was clear. Again, I'm not saying that HD radio is a panacea, but I am impressed at this point. More to come.