Why are people not tossing their old radios?

[Tom Wells]

So I bought an Accurian a few months back and played with it for a week or two but it is now buried in "stuff on the sidelines".
The deplorable AM performance gave me time to wonder just what ibiquity expected to happen here..

I see a problem with ibiquity's concept in that it only works if we change all our radios, and we're not about to do that.
Even if I decide to turn on an HD radio to hear HD, it's just one of my radios, and I like the performance/sound/etc of the others better,
so why would I use the Accurian for anything other than the special content? This leads to choosing not to use the Accurian
at all, thus reinforcing the habit of not listening to HD. I suspect many others also must feel a new radio can only supplant, not replace
their other radios. This may be why sales figures for HD radio are so closely held.

Basic problem- Not only does HD have to work, have compelling sound and content, but the HD RADIO I will use has to better than the ones I already have.
It has to be "more better everthing" before I'll start using it as a default radio.
Meaning sensitivity, selectivity, overall bandwidth response, sound and tone controls.
So the Accurian is sidelined here, HD or not, because it is a miserable AM radio.
Maybe the outboard power supply (blech) also has something to do with it.

 

[FM AM]

I will continue to stick to my Superadio 1 or 2...thank you....

 

[jras20]

I actually had better luck picking up Houston HD 84 miles with my Accurian than I did with analog on my super radio. I wasn't all that impressed with the super radio. I thought the Accurian was a great radio.

 

[pocket-radio]

My radio's work, and I suspect most of us feel the same way. On the AM/FM dial I can find just about every music format or news/talk information.

For HD to work, broadcasters will have to offer more than just another variaton of robotic music radio, because they've already been beat at their own game. And hearing better sounding news talk radio won't drive the masses to their local Best Buy to purchase new radio. Broadasters just don't know what to do with their HD signals. I feel sorry for them.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

I actually had better luck picking up Houston HD 84 miles with my Accurian than I did with analog on my super radio. I wasn't all that impressed with the super radio. I thought the Accurian was a great radio.

GE - SR3's later product have a tuning potentiometer issue and a noise floor issue. There are fixes for both, but they are time consuming and were enough to doom the product. Properly repaired, they are among the most sensitive portables (at least on AM) ever made. FM reception is good, but often requires alignment. Even the most modest "sparrow feed" FM component tuner usually outperforms them. Of course component tuners aren't portable.

I've heard very widely differing opinions of the Accuran on AM. I suspect a quality issue of some sort that affects AM reception on some - but not all of them.

 

[KB1OKL]

I have both a Super radio and a Super radio II and have also heard the quality deteriorated on the III version. The reason I don't toss out my old radios is because I've tried HD radios and find that my all original 1929 Majestic Model 72 Console way outperfroms HD radio, if something from 1929 works better I don't feel HD is progress in any way, shape or form.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

I have both a Super radio and a Super radio II and have also heard the quality deteriorated on the III version. The reason I don't toss out my old radios is because I've tried HD radios and find that my all original 1929 Majestic Model 72 Console way outperfroms HD radio, if something from 1929 works better I don't feel HD is progress in any way, shape or form.

AM from a station with a decent audio chain does sound better than HD-AM. What is really remarkable is C-Quam on a decent receiver from a station that has a good audio chain. The stereo AND fidelity. Many listeners at the time actually preferred the C-Quam sound to the FM stereo sound when a station simulcast. I have never heard of anybody that prefers HD AM over analog FM sound.

 

[Savage]

I've never heard of anyone who has actually heard HD-AM Radio who is not an employee of a radio station, group or consulting radio engineer, much less one who has made the comparison of HD-AM with analog FM.

On the other hand I have heard many complaints about reduced analog coverage and quality from stations operating IBOC. In fact I just came from a sales call on a client who is a fan of AM radio. His daughter is attending SUNY Oswego, about 80 miles from here. He complained he was having trouble receiving the local 50kw NDA station (running HD) there but WYSL's analog-only 20kw was making it in fine.

Then, of course, there is the unbelievable adjacent-channel skywave situation in the Northeast (and, I suspect, in almost any other populated region.) Basically the game is over for nighttime AM. The band is largely an unlistenable mess of mutually-assured destruction from adjacents.

Nice work, HD people. You've totally screwed yourselves, each other and everyone else.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

I've never heard of anyone who has actually heard HD-AM Radio who is not an employee of a radio station, group or consulting radio engineer, much less one who has made the comparison of HD-AM with analog FM.

Uh - me! I have heard HD-AM. WIERD what the compression scheme does. High frequency musical components shifted in pitch completely. VERY easy to get listener fatigue, although I have to admit I've listened for extended periods of time. But that was through outdoor speakers by my pool while I was weeding the flower beds and landscaping. NOT the most critical of listening scenarios.

HD-AM - not even close to analog FM quality. By a long shot. False claim.

HD sidebands - very destructive to first adjacent frequencies, they go a thousand miles or more in the daytime - one person reports HD light comes on IN AUSTRALIA from a US AM HD station. That's not a good thing - it implies to me the sidebands are WAY overpowered even though HD range generally sucks.

HD sidebands are intrusive, but manageable on second adjacent frequencies, the can be nulled and the desired station can be heard if the isn't coincident with the null.

I've NEVER had HD reception at night, not even from locals that leave their HD on. Impossible no matter how big - or how little - or how broadband (or narrowband) the antenna is. Doesn't work, no lock, on a radio that locks fine during the day. The system doesn't work at night. Maybe 10 miles is too far away and more distant stations destroy lock. The system is no good. Especially for the mayhem it causes across the country. If those darn sidebands go 1000 miles in the daytime, far beyond the reach of the analog or even carrier, I can only imagine the cacophony of noise all over the world in nighttime signal paths, or even partial nighttime signal paths. BAD NEWS when we spill our RF pollution all over the world.

 

[dxho]

I've also heard HD-AM.... on the F1HD Sony. The four local HD AMs work fine during the day, but all switch it off at night (or disappear to flea power levels). The Disney station plays in stereo consistently at 20 miles/25kw.

At night, I've gotten HD lock on 660 WFAN, 710 WOR, & 770 WABC New York at 300 miles (but not 880); WBZ at 470 miles; 1060 KYW and 1210 WPHT Philadelphia at 235 miles; and 1070 WNCT Greenville, NC at 135 miles (and 10kw) - at least as long as I listened - a time or two. But it's a rare occurrence, regardless how ferocious those sidebands are.

I haven't gotten any DC, Hampton Roads, or Baltimore AM stations to lock, though, at ~80 to 135 miles.

I'm using 150' long wire strung in the trees.

HD AM sound is fatiguing. the higher frequencies don't sound natural (and worse).

 

[almaniac27]

My Sony XDR-S3HD is actually a pretty decent AM radio. Being able to disable the HD feature would make the radio better. WLW HD comes in strong day and night, but when they have the HD off for some reason the sound quality is terrible. I do prefer listening to WLW on the HD radio only for the reason that the hissing is intolerable on all my analog radios. The Sony is pretty sensitive, using a Radioshack passive loop I can get good reception and have gotten HD signals to lock from WGY, WTAM, WCBS, KDKA and WBZ. Once I was listening to KDKA and the text information got all messed up and had a question mark and an equal sign and ended in -FM. Anyways, I agree that HD Radio was a horrible idea and will die in the next year or two, hopefully allowing me to listen to my old radios without hearing that constant hissing.

 

[FreddyE1977]

I see a problem with ibiquity's concept in that it only works if we change all our radios, and we're not about to do that.

Oh, contraire! They will just use the Congressmen that they have on retainer to make that choice for you.
(see the other thread on this board abour Mass. Rep. MAAAAkey's bill).

 

[Savage]

So will the Markey Radio Police State also mandate that retailers stock HD Radios which have so far sold about as well as nice hot s**t sandwiches (thank you, John Boehner) ??

Will the royal subjects of Nazichusetts also be required to listen to digital radio at gunpoint?

What about the 90 percent of broadcasters (including translators and LPFMs) which will never install HD Radio?

There is a limit, even to downward imposition of defective concepts from on high by Big Government.

Further legislation of this technical standard will only hasten the demise of radio as an industry. Even HD's most stubborn proponents are smart enough to realize there is only so far this thing can be pushed. NPR, one of HD's most vocal supporters so far, is edging away over the 10db digital issue. I haven't talked to a broadcaster in more than a year who supports HD, even among Alliance members.

And there are also the courts. Congress doesn't necessarily have final say. Even if there is political momentum to push Markeys' bill through, which appears doubtful.