Video clip of WOAI AM HD 60 miles

[jras20]

Here is my little Video clip I did of WOAI 60 miles with my simple loop antenna, as you can see its 3 bars, it goes in and out but it sounds good when its locked. At night I cant get HD but the day is ok. I would of made it longer if I had a better digital video recorder.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJyg5YUtybo

 

[Tom Wells]

Congrats. Your video is perfect witness.

I did note a lot of hiss-like noise that was program-related, not ambient.
It sounded a lot like weak FM analog fringe hiss/flutter.

I've never heard anything llike that before out of HD AM. I've only ever heard all or nothing reception, with chorus in HD.
You may need to couple in an outboard, tuneable loop to do better than the original loop, which is poor.

 

[LinoNYC]

Congrats. Your video is perfect witness.

I did note a lot of hiss-like noise that was program-related, not ambient.
It sounded a lot like weak FM analog fringe hiss/flutter.

I've never heard anything llike that before out of HD AM. I've only ever heard all or nothing reception, with chorus in HD.
You may need to couple in an outboard, tuneable loop to do better than the original loop, which is poor.

Tom, this sounds like quantization error that occurs when either too-low a bit depth is used in the recording or when the file is converted and re-compressed w/out proper dithering.

It's common with youtube video and wrecks alot of tracks.

Lino

 

[oldjohnny]

Hey jras, beat mine

WBAP 147 Miles away in my truck while running! Comes in everyday. I've been able to lock it in my truck almost 170 miles away.

I Kid Not. I'm no bluffer.

Here's a video, Sorry for the bad camera phone quality. As you can see in the background, I'm in the heart of the Texas A&M campus.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lqCFeSf6spI

 

[jras20]

Hey jras, beat mine

WBAP 147 Miles away in my truck while running! Comes in everyday. I've been able to lock it in my truck almost 170 miles away.

I Kid Not. I'm no bluffer.

Here's a video, Sorry for the bad camera phone quality. As you can see in the background, I'm in the heart of the Texas A&M campus.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lqCFeSf6spI

One of these nights I need to record it when I get a 170 mile FMHD skip from Brownsvill's B104 when that happens again I have been debating my self either to get a HDRadio for my truck or XM. The problem is with my drive its all in the fringe areas and I dont know how well that would work.

 

[clouseau]

Hey jras, beat mine

WBAP 147 Miles away in my truck while running! Comes in everyday. I've been able to lock it in my truck almost 170 miles away.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=lqCFeSf6spI

C'mon you're lying. I've read here dozens of times you need to be closer than that. My favorite was "On the ground grid of a 50KW station".

You're a shill.

Clouseau

 

[rbrucecarter5]

C'mon you're lying. I've read here dozens of times you need to be closer than that. My favorite was "On the ground grid of a 50KW station".

I think the video is pretty conclusive. I am puzzled as to the great disparity in results - I can't get 10 mile AM HD out of blowtorches - like WBAP - and others get many times that. I think the suburban location where I am located puts just enough background RF noise that it jams the first adjacent frequencies and down goes lock. In an isolated environment, far away from background RF noise like you find in typical suburbs, it might do better. I have an inverter, I'll rig up a headphone amp and see how the HDT-1x does away from the city. Of course the inverter might be noisy. Maybe I'll crack it open and directly feed DC into it the circuitry.

 

[clouseau]

I think the video is pretty conclusive. I am puzzled as to the great disparity in results - I can't get 10 mile AM HD out of blowtorches - like WBAP - and others get many times that. I think the suburban location where I am located puts just enough background RF noise that it jams the first adjacent frequencies and down goes lock. In an isolated environment, far away from background RF noise like you find in typical suburbs, it might do better.

I think you're probably right. I also think many people are a lot furthur from good quality signals than they think. I know I have been routinely surprised to see actual anticipated coverage areas. This was also true when checking for NCE service at locations in the last windows. Places that I would have thought had service did not. It's funny how your perceptionslowly shifts to create service when there is none based on DX.

[=quote]I have an inverter, I'll rig up a headphone amp and see how the HDT-1x does away from the city. Of course the inverter might be noisy. Maybe I'll crack it open and directly feed DC into it the circuitry.

[/quote]

That'll be an interesting test. I think it will also show how good of a radio the HDT-1X is in a mobile environment.

Clouseau

 

[Savage]

Well, Inspector, since you've taken the opportunity to take a Lino-style swipe at me here:

So WOAI's HD has been detected by two guys at 60 miles and 147 miles? And this proves, what? That this kind of HD reception is typical?

On the other hand - field reports of WLAC Nashville are of reliable HD decode of less than 15 miles. A contract engineer and regular RW advertiser reports similar conditions for a Minneapolis 50kw AM (and no, it's not the 9-tower 1130 whose TX site was wrecked by a tornado.) My experience with WHAM is similar - maybe a little more than 20 miles out but certainly no better. And a major northeast top-10 market CBS CE whose station is an IBOC-AM pioneer reports he can't get reliable decode on his own station, in his wood-frame home, on any of SIX HD-AM receivers in an interference-free field of 15 mv/m.

Obviously, WOAI is having a very good experience with their HD coverage. I have no explanation for the disparity in results, but would venture a guess that extremely flat and open terrain and lack of band congestion and noise would probably contribute.

So WOAI's HD coverage is terrific: good! Let's all watch their ratings and see how quickly HD "rescues" them from "aging demographics" and the necessity for what Lino calls "whoring" (I have no idea what he's actually talking about - ask him.)

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

I'd love to see the impedance curves across the 30-kHz bandpass ("Smith charts") for all these stations. I've been told that in order for AM-HD to work at all, the sideband response needs to be pretty much symetrical, which is much easier to achieve on non-directionals (i.e., WOAI and WBAP). I've seen Smith charts for some directionals that resemble a corkscrew.

 

[oldjohnny]

Hey jras, beat mine

WBAP 147 Miles away in my truck while running! Comes in everyday. I've been able to lock it in my truck almost 170 miles away.

I Kid Not. I'm no bluffer.

Here's a video, Sorry for the bad camera phone quality. As you can see in the background, I'm in the heart of the Texas A&M campus.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lqCFeSf6spI

One of these nights I need to record it when I get a 170 mile FMHD skip from Brownsvill's B104 when that happens again I have been debating my self either to get a HDRadio for my truck or XM. The problem is with my drive its all in the fringe areas and I dont know how well that would work.

My longest catch for FM HD is about 164 miles from KPWT. But for WBAP, thats an everyday catch while driving around. Of course, you get your usual dropouts from powerlines and traffic lights.

To DX, I use the JVC KD-HDR1 for my truck. It's better than the old stock radio I had. It gets rid of adjecent channels so I can hear Houston stations and local stations. The tuner is average, but as long as it can filter out adjecent channels, I'm happy. I was able to catch KQVT and KTXN in Houston before. Now that KROI is Digital, that is no longer the case. KTXN hasn't been coming in, I guess they are off the air for now.

On one special night, I was able to lock in KOA. I was amazed by the distance HD traveled.

 

[oldjohnny]

Hey jras, beat mine

WBAP 147 Miles away in my truck while running! Comes in everyday. I've been able to lock it in my truck almost 170 miles away.

I Kid Not. I'm no bluffer.

Here's a video, Sorry for the bad camera phone quality. As you can see in the background, I'm in the heart of the Texas A&M campus.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lqCFeSf6spI

One of these nights I need to record it when I get a 170 mile FMHD skip from Brownsvill's B104 when that happens again    I have been debating my self either to get a HDRadio for my truck or XM.  The problem is with my drive its all in the fringe areas and I dont know how well that would work.

Forgot to mention, FM HD will not work in fringe areas on a car/truck.

 

[Play Freebird]

Obviously, WOAI is having a very good experience with their HD coverage. I have no explanation for the disparity in results, but would venture a guess that extremely flat and open terrain and lack of band congestion and noise would probably contribute.

The ground conductivity in that part of Texas is also very good:
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/...s.gpo.gov/ecfr/graphics/pdfs/ec01mr91.075.pdf

Therefore, it appears that WOAI's predicted 2 mV/m contour may exceed 100 miles in some directions:
http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WOAI&service=AM&status=L&hours=U

This is why "mileage" reports don't really tell an accurate story. I live 40 miles west of 1210 WPHT (which is also a 50 kW non-directional) yet their measured field strength here is only 1.2 mV/m. In the daytime, WPHT HD coverage with an indoor antenna is intermittent -- and at night, fuggetaboutit.

 

[clouseau]

Well, Inspector, since you've taken the opportunity to take a Lino-style swipe at me here:

Bob...

To be honest, after you wrote this, I had to go back and search to see if it was you indeed who made the "Ground Screen" comment. I honestly thought it was someone else. Yet despite the fact that I did nothing but quote YOU, somehow I am taking a "Lino-style swipe" at you.

Gimme us a break. You can write that comical idiocy, but if it's attributed to you, then somehow YOU'VE been wronged by it?

Whatever...
Gotta Go. After all, I've got to get back to misleading and misdirecting people. That "end of the month" time sheet is due at Ibiquity on Thursday. And I wouldn't want to miss out on my check.

Clouseau

 

[Savage]

Clouseau, I was KIDDING with the ground-screen comment. K-i-d-d-i-n-g. It's called "exaggeration for effect" (which apparently worked.)

You guys installing HD Radio on the AM in your group any time soon? I would never suggest for a moment that iBiquity is cutting you a compensation check. That would NEVER happen. See, that's not the way that company works. They expect YOU to cut THEM a check.

Every month, without fail. Until the end of time.

 

[clouseau]

Clouseau, I was KIDDING with the ground-screen comment. K-i-d-d-i-n-g. It's called "exaggeration for effect" (which apparently worked.)

You guys installing HD Radio on the AM in your group any time soon? I would never suggest for a moment that iBiquity is cutting you a compensation check. That would NEVER happen. See, that's not the way that company works. They expect YOU to cut THEM a check.

Every month, without fail. Until the end of time.

That would be true, except we aren't an FM with Subchannels so it's just not correct.

Or are you kidding about this, too?


Clouseau

 

[Savage]

Last I knew iBiquity imposes an annual license fee for IBOC on any station, AM or FM. If you don't keep up your license fee payments, entering some kind of authorization code, your HD importer quits.

 

[raydofan]

Congrats. Your video is perfect witness.

I did note a lot of hiss-like noise that was program-related, not ambient.
It sounded a lot like weak FM analog fringe hiss/flutter.

I've never heard anything llike that before out of HD AM. I've only ever heard all or nothing reception, with chorus in HD.
You may need to couple in an outboard, tuneable loop to do better than the original loop, which is poor.

Tom, this sounds like quantization error that occurs when either too-low a bit depth is used in the recording or when the file is converted and re-compressed w/out proper dithering.

...which is solvable to a degree by encoding a high-bitrate flv instead of leaving the conversion to youtube.

 

[R.F. Burns]

Last I knew iBiquity imposes an annual license fee for IBOC on any station, AM or FM. If you don't keep up your license fee payments, entering some kind of authorization code, your HD importer quits.

No, the way IBOC works is the following. The owner of an AM facility buys a license which is good for the life of the encoder. There are no annual fees for AM or FM stand alone encoders. The onmly time additional fees occure are either when a facility is sold to a new owner (the new owner pays that lifetime license fee) or pn FM when multicasting occurs.

 

[4dude]

At night I cant get HD

Yes your finally seeing how good HD radio really is