Back in business
Followers of this blog, assuming there are any, will recall that my fantabulous HD radio dove a few days ago, although I’m more impressed with the radio itself, than the fact that it’s HD.
The HD radio would come on for a few seconds, tuned to the regular analog FM station, and then when it switched to HD it would go dead silent.
Morning-man at Dubya-Hex-Hex-Hi, the classical music station from Rochester we listen to, is ‘pyooter-savvy, so I e-mailed him that their HD service was dead, had been the entire previous day, and still was the following Monday morning.
So Morning-man responded that it was my antenna, that it wasn’t them. —He also allowed that he’d had similar problems with his HD antenna.
Well, I’ve had HD service dive before, but it came back eventually.
Be that as it may, I decided to experiment with my antenna, which was only a puny little three-foot wire dangling behind our bookshelf.
I stretched the wire up and held it vertical: HD radio!
I taped up the wire, and let go: nothing!
“Aha!” I thought. I used to have this happen long ago with crystal-sets. The radios (including the HD) were using me as an antenna.
Next move: I went down cellar and dragged out the large T-wire antenna that came with the HD radio; four-to-five feet horizontal across the top of the T, and about six-to-seven foot vertical drop.
I taped it up, connected it to the radio, let go, and HD radio.
Morning-man was right. I probably wouldna tried it except he said he had similar problems.
The HD radio would come on for a few seconds, tuned to the regular analog FM station, and then when it switched to HD it would go dead silent.
Morning-man at Dubya-Hex-Hex-Hi, the classical music station from Rochester we listen to, is ‘pyooter-savvy, so I e-mailed him that their HD service was dead, had been the entire previous day, and still was the following Monday morning.
So Morning-man responded that it was my antenna, that it wasn’t them. —He also allowed that he’d had similar problems with his HD antenna.
Well, I’ve had HD service dive before, but it came back eventually.
Be that as it may, I decided to experiment with my antenna, which was only a puny little three-foot wire dangling behind our bookshelf.
I stretched the wire up and held it vertical: HD radio!
I taped up the wire, and let go: nothing!
“Aha!” I thought. I used to have this happen long ago with crystal-sets. The radios (including the HD) were using me as an antenna.
Next move: I went down cellar and dragged out the large T-wire antenna that came with the HD radio; four-to-five feet horizontal across the top of the T, and about six-to-seven foot vertical drop.
I taped it up, connected it to the radio, let go, and HD radio.
Morning-man was right. I probably wouldna tried it except he said he had similar problems.
posted by BobbaLew at 5:48 AM
4 Comments:
HD Radio suffers from poor coverage, dropouts/silence on the HD2/HD3 channels, 5 to 10 second acquisition delays on the HD1 channels, interference, and bland HD channel programming as just clever reworks off the main analog channels. Consumers have returned these radios as "defective", and certainly won't go to the trouble of mounting external antennas - regress back to the 50s/60s, where most homes had rooftop antennas!
Okay; here we go:
—1) I’m doing fine with the T-antenna; don’t need a rooftop antenna.
—2) HD2 and HD3 were working, while HD1 wasn’t.
I don’t feel my HD-radio is “defective.” I’m impressed, but mainly with the sound; not that it’s HD.
I was interested in perhaps doing a satellite receiver, but with that no local radio.
“Is HD Radio Toast?”
“There are serious issues of coverage. Early adopters who bought HD radios report serious drop-outs, poor coverage, and interference. The engineers of Ibiquity may argue otherwise and defend the system, but the industry has a serious PR problem with the very people we need to get the word out on HD... In other words, everything you can find on the regular FM dial... The word has already gotten out about HD Radio. People who have already bought an HD Radio are telling others of their experience (mostly bad) and no amount of marketing will reverse this.”
http://www.fmqb.com/article.asp?id=487772
Many others would disagree with you - lousy, all-important, first-impressions have already been made. Consumers will not fiddle with T-antennas, in this day of portability. HD Radio is nothing but a farce:
http://hdradiofarce.blogspot.com
continuing.....
I ain’t about to return my HD radio. Works fine; although as far as I’m concerned, I’d be impressed with the sound even if it weren’t HD.
As far as I know, the Internet-stream to my computer from that station, is also digital — although I need education here.
I hardly ever stream the signal on my ‘pyooter because it would be a distraction.
The better solution, to me, is a digital feed of their signal over the cable. I don’t want/need all the HD channels.
HD is just a gimcrack; but I ain’t returning it.
Thank ya for reading this gibberish — so far you are the onliest unknown commentor.
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