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WQXI AM 790 in HD

B

BarryATL

I did not realize my aftermarket FM-HD radio in my Honda also will receive AM-HD. Today, I was scanning the AM dial to see what was being broadcast on Christmas Day. When I stopped on AM 790, suddenly about 3 seconds of audio repeated itself and the HD indicator came on.

I was not impressed with the AM-HD (IBOC) quality. I definitely was under impressed that the analog and HD audio chains are not synced like FM-HD. Which means if The AM-HD drops, then 3 seconds of audio is missed, and when AM-HD comes up again, then 3 seconds of audio is repeated. Annoying.
 
not to mention the co-channel waterfall. HD on AM is like trying to cram Hi-Def 720p on VHS.
It's just a bad idea.

What really make no sense is what WSTR is doing with their HD2 FM, it's the same program as their HD1. Why bother? Why not up the bitrate of your HD1, and move the low bit sports talk on HD3 to HD2?

My $79 JVC has a great FM AND AM front end, both on analog and digital. Not a bad sounding MOSFET on board amp.

FWIW I think the best sounding HD station is either B98.5 or Dave. I've notice some robotic artifacts on 97.1, not to mention both their analog and HD carrier is wrought with multipath making HD listening difficult in and around Cobb county.
 
MRFLASHPORT said:
What really make no sense is what WSTR is doing with their HD2 FM, it's the same program as their HD1. Why bother? Why not up the bitrate of your HD1, and move the low bit sports talk on HD3 to HD2?
Click to expand...

You would think so, but then again, Star 94 has never really been a smart station.

MRFLASHPORT said:
I think the best sounding HD station is either B98.5 or Dave. I've notice some robotic artifacts on 97.1, not to mention both their analog and HD carrier is wrought with multipath making HD listening difficult in and around Cobb county.
Click to expand...

Is Dave even doing HD2 anymore? I think the two best are AGH's 106.7 HD2 Smooth Jazz (if they can ever get it to work) and B98.5's Easy Listening, which should be adopted on 97.1. BTW, why did WSB-FM put their regular AC music on the river and not their HD2? And, at last check WSRV HD2 had not returned to its regular format of rock.
 
BarryATL said:
...suddenly about 3 seconds of audio repeated itself and the HD indicator came on.

I was not impressed with the AM-HD (IBOC) quality. I definitely was under impressed that the analog and HD audio chains are not synced like FM-HD.
Click to expand...

These issues are not at the fault of the technology, but rather of WQXI. Just as FM's who use IBOC have to sync the analog to compensate for the digital delay, AM's have to do the same. WQXI needs to adjust their diversity delay.

While the audio quality of AM IBOC leaves a lot to be desired for, it is capable of sounding much better than what WQXI sends out. I don't know what the issue is, but the feed sounds thin and horribly overdriven. I'm not a big fan of IBOC by any means, but to be Atlanta's only AM in HD, it is a very poor example.

If you want to hear the best sound of FM IBOC in Atlanta, listen to WNNX - they use the full bandwidth available for HD1, since they don't have any sub channels.
 
there are many threads about the failure of HD to gain mass market acceptance. Only recently have HD radios become standard in new cars, and HD enabled receivers are becoming affordable. Best Buy has been running ads heavily about HD Radio. Got me to come in and pick up a $79 JVC (which BTW, is an exceptional radio for my old 2005 Hyundai).

It COULD be a great thing IF it were done right. In this market, it's not as good as it could be.
As I write this, WSB-FM is completely gone. Guess something crashed (again). From reading around various engineering forums, the HD encoders and exciters are ridden with software bugs that are hard to fix, and the engineers themselves are often stumped as to what causes the failures.
 
the HD encoders and exciters are ridden with software bugs that are hard to fix, and the engineers themselves are often stumped as to what causes the failures.
[/quote]

Having dealt with a few of these, your statement is correct. Occasional reloads of the software are not out of the ordinary. The neat thing is, when the HD Radio generator starts developing hard drive issues, it can and will take you IBOC tx down....or it can make the IBOC tx do other entertaining stuff. Replacing the hard drive in your tx to get it back on, who woulda thunk? Solid state drives do remedy some of this issue, however.
 
I agree that there is a waste of space on WSTR HD2 where Star94 is delayed by one minute. Also where is the RDS on all of the Cox HD2's and WWWQ HD3? And when is that new antenna getting delivered to WYAY's transmitter down the road on GA-81 here in Loganville? Personally I miss the CHR on 95-5 HD2 and having an HD signal period on 95.5 FM. Does the JVC unit display RDS/CD player and an ipod jack? I might be interested in putting one of these in my car. I really enjoy my portable Insignia.
 
The JVC does NOT do RDS on analog (don't know why, but then it is an entry level radio). Sony and Pioneer have entry level on-board HD head units in the 119-130 range and I believe they do. Here is a link at Crutchfield who is selling the one I have for $79. It's back up to 119 at BB:

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_105KDHDR44/JVC-KD-HDR44.html?tp=5684

It does have both front and rear 1/8" line in jacks, an optional Bluetooth module (about $50 which adds hands free and A2DP capability), 2.5V dual pre-outs. Pretty decent sounding unit too. It does come with a remote, but the remote is the worst part of the radio. It's TINY, meant to be a key fob.

The radio did take some learning curve to get setup. But once you get the feel of it, it's pretty easy. The only thing I don't like is you cannot change the backlight color on the knob from that annoying blue. I would like to be able to set it to green to match my car's backlighting scheme. Other JVC radios in this line offer the feature but I guess they left it off. Hey, it's an $80 radio after all.

Front end is AMAZING on FM AND AM. It has 12dBf but I think it's lower. It also has pretty good selectivity. The AM tuner sounds really great, better than I've heard and better than the high end Eclipse radio it replaced.

It's worth every penny. I don't think it has I-Pod control, but you can at least pipe in the audio from the front (or rear) mounted 1/8" jack, or BT it with the optional BT unit. I'm thinking of adding the BT unit myself.
 
971 The Rivers Edge is back on HD2.

I agree, Star94's hd2 is a waste. At one time they had an 80's channel on HD2. That needs to come back!

We also need a comedy channel like 937 WFBC HD2 in Greenville has.

Also, speaking of 955 WSBB ......to Have HD does a station need to be in stereo????
 
Also, speaking of 955 WSBB ......to Have HD does a station need to be in stereo????
[/quote]

No, no stereo is needed for IBOC
 
I was riding around today and could not get WQXI in HD. I have not tried in a month or more. Have they turned off the HD or is there a problem?
 
It has been off at least for this week. Their analog sounds much, much better with the IBOC off.
 
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