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HD -radio in the “far away” suburbs, anyone?
We live out here in the boondocks.
My crank-radio (the one which they give to the troops) picks up two lousy FM stations. Even the high-quality Radio-Shack DX-398 (SANGEAN) world-receiver struggles.
Does anyone have real life experience if an HD-Radio would make this situation worse (I mean, no “radio” at all), or does HD technology improve reception in a weak signal situation?
Also, can anyone comment from the perspective of a radio-ham who understands the technology?
Thanks a lot!
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Note, we have an “alternative” now, which is listening on-line and re-broadcasting with a $19.- Wall-Mart FM transmitter. This, so that every radio in the house can tune in to the “program” running on the PC. A pain, everytime you change the station, you spend a few minutes resetting the PC.
@WIRES, thanks for pointing this out. That is exactly my issue “full fidelity” or “nothing”.
When cell phones went digital from analog, the transmitter power could be significantly reduced. With that my hope, since HD is a composite signal, the transmitter field strength must stay the same (for the old radios to be compatible). Ergo, I get enough ‘juice’ to make it over the threshold..
“External antennas”, my wife objects to any more wires
@ All: let’s call this off!
Sorry to have wasted everybody’s time.
Contrary to my assumption, the digital signal is only 1/100th of the analog power.
Also, present receivers have downgraded (!) the analog tuner quality.
See “Criticism” in:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_radio
2 Responses on HD -radio in the “far away” suburbs, anyone?
HD radio, just like HDTV, is a different freq. than regular radio or over the air TV. You have to get a special antenna. As far as better reception, I don’t think so.
The thing with HD radio is that it is all or nothing. When the radio can decode the digital signal, you hear full fidelity. When it loses enough signal that it can’t error correct, you hear nothing. Not all areas of the country have HD radio available, and unlike tv, there is no time limit for radio to convert to HD.
The better way may be to put up an external antenna. If any of your radios have an external antenna connector, this is probably a better solution.
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