Nashville HD, RDS and so forth. . .

[mattthepm]

This may be more suited for the HD Radio board, but:

I purchased one of those Best Buy 'Insignia' brand HD tuners the other day for $99 and have been tuning (or as the tuning knob on the front of the radio is labeled 'TUNNING') around the band a bit.

A couple of things I've noticed:

-Some HD channels are overcompressed and laden with artifacts, sometimes sounding worse than the primary analog audio (unfortunately, once the tuner receives an HD signal, it will lock into it and prevent one from switching back to the analog).

-The RDS on 101.1 The Beat shows 'KQDZ Rhythm And Blues' (loaner RDS unit, perhaps)?

Granted, it may be this tuner, but anyway.

For what it's worth, I previously had a JVC HDR-1 automobile radio that sounded relatively good on the HD channels, so this Insignia tuner may be a POS 2000. However, this was a few months ago, so things may have changed along the engineering front for these signals.

-M

 

[LouP]

Right now my Accurian HD radio has 101.1-HD2 tuned in with the proper information:

101.1-2 FM
WUBT
Boney James
Stop, Look, Listen

Perhaps there was a glitch of some sort with the programming aired over the weekend?

 

[w9wi]

-The RDS on 101.1 The Beat shows 'KQDZ Rhythm And Blues' (loaner RDS unit, perhaps)?

Looks like it's getting the call letters from the analog RDS. (not the digital PAD)

Analog RDS includes a "PI code" field, a four-digit hexadecimal number used to quickly and uniquely identify a station. For certain elements of RDS to work properly, the PI code must be unique within the market. (otherwise, the provisions for automatically tuning to a translator or other simulcasting transmitter when the one you're listening to fades wouldn't work) A formula exists for mapping call letters to a PI code.

Some receivers with RDS seem to be using this code to display the station's call letters.

However, many (most? all?) Clear Channel stations use the "wrong" PI code. From what I hear, they're involved in some kind of traffic data broadcasting scheme that doesn't work with standard PI codes.

The digital PAD doesn't seem to be involved in this data scheme (which IIRC predates HD Radio) so if the receiver was decoding the digital it would display the correct call letters.