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WQXI "790 The Zone" now in AM-HD

W

wbz1030

Guest
For the first time I noticed that WQXI "790 The Zone" is operating in AM-HD mode while on their daytime power and pattern. I live within 2 miles of the Cheshire Bridge transmitter site so it is easily received on my HD radio. The "WQXI" call sign is sent out as text to ID the station. However, the audio is only in mono while the station is in AM-HD mode.

Is this new for the new year?

WQXI is probably the only significant station in Atlanta that broadcasts in AM-HD mode. WSB abandon it after a brief test period a couple years ago, and the 860 and 1100 stations in town seemed to have not been broadcasting in AM-HD for months.
 
wbz1030 said:
For the first time I noticed that WQXI "790 The Zone" is operating in AM-HD mode while on their daytime power and pattern. I live within 2 miles of the Cheshire Bridge transmitter site so it is easily received on my HD radio. The "WQXI" call sign is sent out as text to ID the station. However, the audio is only in mono while the station is in AM-HD mode.

Is this new for the new year?

WQXI is probably the only significant station in Atlanta that broadcasts in AM-HD mode. WSB abandon it after a brief test period a couple years ago, and the 860 and 1100 stations in town seemed to have not been broadcasting in AM-HD for months.
Click to expand...

And if a tree fell in the woods and no one was around.... would it make a sound?
 
jimbo722 said:
Doesn't WGST broadcast on one of WUBL's HD channels?
Click to expand...

Yes, and WSB-A is on WSRV (River) and WDUN is on WMJE (Majic 102.9).

There seem to be some predictable constants with HD programming choices:

1) AM stations get simuled on an HD channel on an FM sister.
2) AC stations get an even lighter, or even Beautiful Music, HD channel.
3) Country stations get a classic country or Americana HD channel.

The logical thing here would be for WSTR to simul WQXI on an HD channel (yes, I know of the issues with Big League LMAing WQXI); and while we're at it, Fish to simul WGKA and/or WNIV. Is Fish even broadcasting in HD?
 
wbz1030 said:
For the first time I noticed that WQXI "790 The Zone" is operating in AM-HD mode while on their daytime power and pattern. I live within 2 miles of the Cheshire Bridge transmitter site so it is easily received on my HD radio. The "WQXI" call sign is sent out as text to ID the station. However, the audio is only in mono while the station is in AM-HD mode.

Is this new for the new year?

WQXI is probably the only significant station in Atlanta that broadcasts in AM-HD mode. WSB abandon it after a brief test period a couple years ago, and the 860 and 1100 stations in town seemed to have not been broadcasting in AM-HD for months.
Click to expand...

I just checked with my Sangean HDT-1X tuner which has a stereo indicator and WQXI AM-HD is in stereo. Unfortunately, most talk shows and syndicated programming is in mono. If you ever hear any Stereo on WQXI AM in HD it will more likely be in local ads. I doubt that even their sweepers are currently in stereo.

Wonder how long it will be until they abandon HD like so many other AM stations already have?

At one time, 1160 was also in AM-HD back when they were WLMB with the "Music of Your Life" format.
 
jimbo722 said:
Doesn't WGST broadcast on one of WUBL's HD channels?
Click to expand...

Currently, WGST AM 640 is broadcast in HD on WUBL 94.9 HD-3 in mono.
WSB AM 750 is broadcast in HD on WSRV 97.1 HD-2 in stereo.
WAOK AM 1380 is broadcast in HD on WVEE 103.3 HD-3 in mono.
 
It seems that it is not clear to some. WQXI is broadcasting HD on it's AM signal. They are not simulcasting on an FM-HD.
 
After reading the original post, I turned on my car HD receiver to see what WQXI sounds like. It is the first HD AM station I have been able to receive since getting my receiver back in January 2008. The high frequencies are much brighter, but they sounded distorted to me, especially sibilants in speech. That may be the case of garbage-in garbage-out, for sibilants sounded distorted on their analog signal also. There is a time delay between the HD and analog signals. My receiver would not stay in the HD mode. It kept switching randomly between the two modes as the signal level varied, which was annoying because of the difference in high frequencies and the time delay.
 
DuckBlue said:
It kept switching randomly between the two modes as the signal level varied, which was annoying because of the difference in high frequencies and the time delay.
Click to expand...

That's not a bug, it's a "Feature".
 
DuckBlue said:
There is a time delay between the HD and analog signals.
Click to expand...

The time delay between analog AM and the HD signal is still there It seems the HD audio lags analog audio by about 0.25s or so. This should have been easy to correct in the initial set up of the system.

There is very limited stereo content when I listen to the station. I have heard other AM-HD stations before and a station should be capable of higher frequencies on the audio on the HD signal. Also, the analog audio seems to be band limited while in running HD mode. When the station switches off HD at sunset and changes back to pure analog, the analog audio seems much brighter.
 
It looks like this week WQXI has stopped broadcasting in AM-HD on 790kHz.

However, WQXI "790 The Zone" programming is now being carried on WSTR 94.1 signal on the HD-3 subchannel. WQXI programming was carred on WSTR's HD-3 subchannel in the past but was dropped over a year ago(?). It looks like it is back.
 
Is this why 790 sounds like my bass is all the way up with no treble?

And why Mike Bell and 790dawg sound like they lisp?
 
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