-
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
To Mr HD radio hater news on KPFT
- Thread starter Mrtejano
- Start date
For starters, this is a stupid argument for or against HD Radio. Technical difficulties that affect the analog carrier could just as easily affect the HD carriers. And if you're trying to say that HD Radio is more reliable than analog, then you're absolutely wrong on that as well.
Second of all, not many people listen to KPFT. There is probably more people listening to one of the crummy translators from downtown than KPFT.
Third, their online stream never went down for either of their channels. There are (and always will be) more people with internet connected smartphones than HD Radios. Also, I don't think there is any manufacturer right now that is making portable HD Radios.
Second of all, not many people listen to KPFT. There is probably more people listening to one of the crummy translators from downtown than KPFT.
Third, their online stream never went down for either of their channels. There are (and always will be) more people with internet connected smartphones than HD Radios. Also, I don't think there is any manufacturer right now that is making portable HD Radios.
The issue is the power consumption of the DAC chip and circuit. This is similar to the reason why we essentially have no battery operated portable TVs... batteries would deplete in a few hours and rechargeables would last even less.
It's frightening to think that in a real power outage nobody can use TV for information as there are no power-line independent sets out there in any significant number. I just looked at what Amazon has to offer and they are rated at "up to 4 hours on a charge" which is not adequate in a hurricane, flood or similar disaster.
Maybe the Iboc is causing the issue to the main signal. They should probably just turn off the HD Iboc transmitter.
Sangean has three portable radio models with HD.
Remember that in some cases the IBOC transmitter is separate from the analog unit. The analog transmitter could be operating at reduced power while the IBOC is at normal strength. I recall a couple of outages on the main KUHF transmitter in which the HD IBOC continued to operate.
IIRC KPFT’s transmitter is a fairly recent Nautel model; would that have analog and digital combined in the same unit?
Yep, recent Nautels as well as GatesAir xmtrs have HD built in..easy to do at low level in solid state xmtrs...tube transmitters can do low level HD insertion if the PA is modified for Class AB instead of Class C biasing but efficiency and power output drops.
Portable, as in the size of a phone or a small ipod? Link?
The smallest is the Sangean HDR-14:
Sangean HDR-14
I'm very found of mine. I have the HDR-16, HDR-18 and HDT-20 as well. I guess I'm kind of a fan.
Also the Sangean SG-108 appears to be pretty much the same radio as the HDR-14, with a different cosmetic look.
Jesus, I haven't seen a media player with an external antenna since the 90s! Aesthetically, it looks like an outdated cassette player. Also, 1¼+ inch thick is not "portable" (much less one that requires an antenna). If it doesn't comfortably and stealthily fit in your pocket, then it's not portable (at least not by today's standards...maybe in the 90s where cassette players came with belt clips).
This Sangean is portable in the sense that you can move it with you around the house when doing chores. It's not portable like the Zune HD was, which could fit in your pockets comfortably and didn't need an extendable whip.
I'm just trying to imagine someone use this while jogging or during a bus ride. That antenna would have me 🤣 on the floor.
You are trying to turn the Sangean into something that it is not. It is a compact, performance oriented FM HD radio, not a smartphone or "media player". Nobody expects you to go jogging with this.
And laugh if you want at the antenna, but at the 3 meter wavelengths FM operates around, such an antenna is needed. The FM band is far lower in frequency than the bands used for cellular communications. Note that the smartphones that included FM had to use wired headsets as the antenna. With the switch to wireless earbuds, that antenna option for phones is gone, thus smartphone FM is going nowhere...stream instead.
You could try to cram the radio into a smartphone sized (or smaller) package but the performance would probably be horrible. If radio stations broadcast in the GHz range, then you'd be in business.
Electronic apples and oranges.
Well then it's not portable. It's just small.
My point still stands; OP can't claim HD Radio to be more reliable than analog radio when there isn't even a portable HD Radio on the market that isn't discontinued.
Not necessarily. With antenna innovation, I'm sure manufacturers could find a way to cram an FM antenna inside a smartphone. Low-band 4x4 MIMO was once thought of as impossible in mobile phones, but Sony is currently doing it. Sure a small interior antenna wouldn't perform like a Sangean, but it would be serviceable for emergency situations. And let's face it, that's about the only thing terrestrial radio still has on the "pro" column (unless you were part of the deep freeze a few weeks ago). Also, it wouldn't be extremely hard for manufacturers to use USB-C/Lightning headphones as an antenna.
So no, it's not Apple to Oranges comparison.
Cellphone and media player manufacturers aren't shying away from FM Radio because of design issues. They've started doing this before they killed the 3.5mm headphone jack. Apple has never given FM the time of day and Google never made it an option on their Pixel line. I think the decision to shy away from FM radio came down to a lack of consumer interest. It's technically still possible to do FM on a smartphone or MP3 player. But why would you?
Neither, data was not working and radio stations were playing music.
But it's mostly due to the desire to make money from use of cellular company services which charge for data; FM would be free.
Or was connectivity also down where you were running your car, as it was in much of the affected areas. That is why radio stations, with staff quarantined and working from home, could not broadcast information as they had no internet service.
That's a myth. If carriers are removing software for FM support, it isn't to increase data usage. It is done to promote bloatware that comes with the phone (TuneIn, iHeart, Spotify, Pandora, etc.). All three major carriers push unlimited data as their major selling point (and have done so for a while now). There is no longer any "overages" and carriers instead upsell features like "HD Video", Hotspot, less deprioritization, "5G" access, cloud storage, etc.
The only manufacturer that still allows carriers to "turn off" FM radio is Samsung. Apple never touched FM. Google never offered FM on any of their Pixel phones. LG offers FM on all of their carrier version phones (but they're on their way out of the industry). Motorola has always included FM on their unlocked budget phones and carriers have had no issues letting them on their network. Sprint and Verizon could have easily refused to whitelist Motorola Phones on their CDMA network. But they didn't because FM Radio isn't even on their radar.
- Status