WNYC FM HD Radio Power Tests

[davideduardo]

One of the few other dedicated sellers of high quality AM/FM radios in the USA is C. Crane but out of all the models they offer, not one of them includes HD Radio.

And I believe that none of them are made in the USA.

 

[Barry]

There are a handful of HD radios available for home/portable use, available online. Most carry the Sangean brand.

 

[kevtronics]

One of the few other dedicated sellers of high quality AM/FM radios in the USA is C. Crane but out of all the models they offer, not one of them includes HD Radio.

Their radios are manufactured by Korean-based company Sangean, who has offered models equipped with HD Radio, but not on those rebadged and sold by C.Crane.

 

[spiritof67]

I own two Sangean HD-16 portables, and really like them. One of the few drawbacks for me is the lack of an external antenna for either band. The sound quality is great for the size, they have record-out jacks (I use a Tascam DR-05 and an attenuator cable). Presets can be stored, including specific HD subchannels (newer models allow for more presets than the original). The AM section has the sensitivity of a Dan Fogelberg song, and the selectivity is really good too. HD on AM is reasonably good, considering how IBOC performs on that band. In the St. Louis area, KFUO AM uses it, and it is solid during the daytime. Strong signals on AM get tweaked--I think there is a DSP chip to improve the AM audio, and stations like WSM, WGN, WSCR, and CFZM have improved audio from it (note--not wideband sounding, but good). I have received brief HD decodes of KRLD at my location too.

The FM performs well for local stations, but really could use an external antenna input. Clipping a wire to an outside antenna is one work-around for this issue.

The radio also has an auxilary input to play audio from your phone/mp3 player.

When I go on the road, I take this with me to record local stations that interest me, and don't stream.

 

[davideduardo]

The AM section has the sensitivity of a Dan Fogelberg song...

🤠

 

[kevtronics]

Strong signals on AM get tweaked--I think there is a DSP chip to improve the AM audio, and stations like WSM, WGN, WSCR, and CFZM have improved audio from it (note--not wideband sounding, but good).

Many HD Radios will provide up to 8 kHz analog audio bandwidth on AM, but only at low modulation levels. At higher levels, anything above 5 kHz in the audio passband (including the station's own modulation!) is considered by the DSP chip to be adjacent-channel interference, and it responds by narrowing the bandwidth.

It was probably designed that way due to iBiquity lobbying the FCC to force all AM stations -- even those not using IBOC -- to narrow their audio bandwidth to 5 kHz. I'm glad that proposal died!