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WBAP 820 HD-1

My Boston Acoustics HD Receptor radio is very deaf on AM and WBAP and KFLC are the only HD signals that I can get on AM. None of the other ones work for me here in Burleson. Since I don't speak spanish KFLC is out. I understand that radio went for $500 when it first came out. FM is a little better but it's still deaf. Are all "HD" radios as bad as the Boston model was?
 
I get WBAP with a strong HD signal in NW Dallas. No HD at night of course.

Don't know about the Receptor, but I do know my Sangean HDT-1 is very sensitive to signal quality and strength in the HD mode.
 
WBAP is clearly wrongheaded in this foolish boondoggle. Moving into digital. Hooey. Clearly what they should be doing is running daytime only, signing off at sunset, and airing fifteen minute serials. THAT is moving forward if you ask me.
 
Boston Acoustics HD radios are deaf. They all require a power antenna unless you are within 10 miles of Cedar Hill.
In answer to your second question, no most HD radios have much much better reception.
 
"....my Sangean HDT-1 is very sensitive to signal quality and strength in the HD mode". Maybe I should restate that better... my Sangean needs a strong clean signal for good HD reception. A TV on in another room will cause the AM HD sig strength to drop from "17" to "10", it will go into AM HD-mono mode below "13" on the meter, 9 or less it goes into Analog mode.

I have noticed some distortion on 820 now. I hear some sibilance distortion that wasn't there before. Maybe an artifact of the high freq cut-off?
 
Megapsycle said:
They did it. Just noticed it today.

There goes their huge range - and their audio quality. I hope that this defective system meets its inevitable demise soon.
 
Wonder if they've been tweaking on it ... 820's HD signal is much stronger today. Even gets over the RF noise from the TV and still shows 17 in the sig meter. Limbaugh is sounding crystal clear for what it's worth. Not so good on an analog radio though which is probably 99% of the listeners out there!
 
What's the point of putting HD on to run a codec-garbled program like Limbaugh anyway?

Couldn't they just let pre-garbled stuff run as is and we'd all get to hear it the same?

Or is it important to cascade the audio through multiple codecs, just for gee whiz's sake?

I'll still take the hissy, muffled once-through-the-digital-grinder analog AM, please.

What does Limbaugh sound like after 2 data grinds?
 
It would likely be more than just 2 - if he is in FL then he would 1) ISDN it back to NY where they mix the show and then 2) send it to Premiere where it is 3) sent to the bird to be 4)decoded by WBAP, etc...
 
DAYRADIO said:
It would likely be more than just 2 - if he is in FL then he would 1) ISDN it back to NY where they mix the show and then 2) send it to Premiere where it is 3) sent to the bird to be 4)decoded by WBAP, etc...

Depends on where he is...could be T1 from FL to NY to LA to the uplink...THEN its encoded for the StarGuideIII receivers and sent....but the worse section will be the HD's encoding
 
Rush actually sounds pretty good, clear and clean audio, and the bumper music sounds good too but it's in mono. At least the local commercials and jingles are in stereo (like it was before in C-Quam stereo). Can't help but wonder though why even bother with HD on a AM talker and sacrifice analog audio quality when there are so few HD radios out there. And the recent AM IBOC at night was apparently a failure so that makes it even less desirable. ???
 
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