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Tampa AM Station Buys Transmitter to Go All-Digital
- Thread starter rbc
- Start date
K
Kevin
Guest
The product has to be on the store selves in order for people to purchase them, and not everyone shops online. So these HD radios have to be accessible to everyone.
I think they are counting on the in-car base of installed HD radios. The idea that anyone buys home radios today is rather disingenuous.
I don't think it's accurate to say nobody buys home radios. The market isn't anywhere near the size of the smart phone market, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. How come they are still manufactured? Here's one of the tabletop radio reviews for 2021:
Best Tabletop Radios of 2021
HD radio is largely missing from these reviews unfortunately. Maybe after 2023 they will really show up.
K
Kevin
Guest
Many retailers in my area sell radios off the selves Wal-Mart, Target, Meijers, Family Dollar and even CVS and Rite Aid sell radios just to name a few, so people are obviously buying radios from stores or they wouldn’t be on the shelves. So there’s no reason why HD Radio shouldn’t be on store shelves. When that patent runs out, any manufacture can come out with a product that will cost less to the consumer because the licensing fees will be gone. The car base is fine but you have to get the home listener as well as people who don’t own vehicles. This talk that no one buys radios from a store anymore is not true.
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Ask an employee how many they sell... it's very few. But since it is a higher price item, they only need to move a couple to justify the shelf space. And compare available radios today with what used to be offered at places like Best Buy and Circuit City... just one or a couple in the whole place now.
Of course, people still buy they for camping, the beach, and emergency purposes. We have several nice compact radios in drawers with a bag of those "10 year" batteries for our next earthquake or natural disaster. And that is the only time this family with combined 100 years in the business will actually listen to terrestrial radio.
Does an all digital HD AM station qualify for an FM translator (after beginning digital AM broadcasting)?
I listen to the radio daily (home and car), talk on AM, music on FM (I rarely use streaming with my AT&T Fiber internet).
I recently bought a $20 Magnavox/Craig AM/FM/CD player so I can listen to CDs without switching on my entire home A/V system, the AM and FM stereo performance are good for such an inexpensive unit.
Kirk Bayne
I listen to the radio daily (home and car), talk on AM, music on FM (I rarely use streaming with my AT&T Fiber internet).
I recently bought a $20 Magnavox/Craig AM/FM/CD player so I can listen to CDs without switching on my entire home A/V system, the AM and FM stereo performance are good for such an inexpensive unit.
Kirk Bayne
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There is nothing in the rules that prevents this, as far as I can see.
If I owned an AM station, there's no way I'd take it full-digital without an analog FM translator that had been established for at least several months. To do otherwise would be suicidal. Anyone who tuned to the new all-digital 1570 on a standard radio and heard digital hash wouldn't know what to do.
An all-digital AM station might sound good enough to be used as an STL between the studio and the FM translator.
I can not hear the hash on adjacent channels. I have a 1450 on one side and 1490 on the other. There is, of course, hash on the 1470 prior to the digital lock which only takes about one second.
The same towers are used on 1150 and the same location, but the pattern and power are quite different. 1470 is aimed North as 1150 is aimed South.
Once the signal locks in digital, it is tighter, especially under overpasses on the Interstate. the digital lock only came in when I was in North Palmetto prior to the skyway toll. South of that, it is invisible, in keeping with the pattern.
They may still be in a testing mode with peaking and tweaking, so, I'll be seeing if there is improvement over the next several days.
Is it too little too late? Only time will tell and 5-10 years is about what it takes for car radios to catch up with technology and the original iBOC MA1 can not decode the MA3, which is being used with WMGG.
Remember, it was only when FM was part of the standard equipment in the cheaper new cars that FM overtook AM.
I am considered somewhat of an anomaly in as much as I have installed not just one, but 2 HD radios, in my car.
Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
It may, but WFLA tried something similar with WXTB-2 many years ago.
I remember listening to AMTB one morning and Bubba's morning show, at that time on 98Rock, was on the 970 frequency as the receiver lost its lock overnight. When that happened, the audio defaulted to the analogue signal, which also had the HD-1. It then had to be manually retuned to the HD-2 or another studio feed at the AM transmitter.
There is about a 38 second delay from 970 and 97.9-2 and I assume the idea was to bring it more in line for button pushing.
It turns out that 14.8 miles was a little too far at the time.
Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
Yesterday (Sunday, the 10th of Jan 2021) I was in two locations, the closest about 45 miles north of the Egypt Lake?Tampa towers of 1470; with my Sangean HDR-16, the HD logo was flashing but never locked in place; there was no programming that I could detect. Will try the same radio from south Tampa and downtown St. Pete later this week. I have never heard HD on the AM band before and am very curious; I have been in Northern Virginia (Harrisonburg) and Richmond,VA, but could not get an HD lock on either WCBS-880 or WLS-890 in those locations.
A lock is determined by the receiver. If it can see the proper digital signal well enough, it will lock for as long as the signal stays.
There are two hurdles to overcome.
One is distance.
If we assume the receiver is hearing a strong "hash", it will decode.
If,
Two is mode.
I have two radios, one will decode it, the other will just keep blinking "HD".
I have been unable to tell which radios will and which will not decode the MA3 mode without actually testing against a station, such as WWFD or, now, WMGG which is broadcasting in MA3.
Sometime in 2006, the encoding changed from MA1 to MA3.
Those radios released before 2006, will only blink.
Those released after 2006, may do both.
Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
K
Kevin
Guest
“Ask an employee how many they sell” I have asked employees of Best Buy stores where they have their HD Radio’s and they say you mean Satellite radio don’t you. The point is how would these employees know how many HD Radio’s they sell when they don’t even know what it is, let alone any kind of radio. Now ask them where the smart speakers, Bluetooth devices and anything smartphone related is and they will tell you exactly where in the store it is.
I think Sangean is taking the right path with the introduction of the SG-114 clock radio. It's not a special radio with HD, like the HDR and HDT radios. It's just a radio that happens to have HD. I hope they continue adding HD to all their radios. If the other manufactures take this path, it won't matter if the sales people know which radios are HD.
Thanks Jeff, I’m not technical, so I don’t know the type of decoding on the Sanger’s HD radio I have.
The Sangean PDR-16 came out in either 2015 or 2016; I bought mine in either Dec2016 or Jan2017; on the FM, it locks fine (after flashing briefly) for the HD2, HD3 and HD4 stations; I’m assuming it will lock on AM, if I ever have a strong enough signal; the times I’ve been out of Florida to more northern latitudes to try the AM HD have been from late June through early September and there was the Cuban interference, even at those northern latitudes. (880 and 890) I guess I’ve been luck as far as Best Buy goes; I have purchased their Insignia HD Radios (FM only) in both their Wesley Chapel, Fl store and St. Petersburg store and both had the HD radio prominently displayed along side other radios and the associates at those Best Buy stores both knew what HD was; in fact, one said he had one of the Insignia HD radios and enjoyed receiving the extra stations.
There is no way to know which decoding a particular receiver has by looking. If it continues to blink HD, then, it is assumed to be pre-2006.
I pestered a couple of those at Visteon for an answer following my October trip through D.C.
The JVC is assumed to be a post-2006, since it is able to decode WMGG in MA3.
The first day I heard them, the Visteon was decoding WMGG. I believe the exciter defaulted to that MA1 mode so that when the engineers started making changes in the exciter, one of those changes was to place it in the MA3 mode. The Visteon has blinked HD since.
Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
There are some peculiarities I am seeing with the decoding and when I was there, it seemed as though the modulation was low.
Those peculiarities seem to be with my Visteon Jump and JVC rather than with WMGG, although the digital transmission is making those visible. Whether the low modulation was affecting my reception is unknown and I am patient since they only turned it on a week ago.
The display started indicating "Caliente" yesterday, which is their 96.1, prior to that they were promoting the "La Luz" of 101.9. That could be another of their "peaking and tweaking" for marketing and sales purposes.
I did not get into those types of conversations in the short period of time I was at the site.
Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
Leaving Clearwater today in my 2018 Mitsubishi Outlander I headed north on the border between Clearwater & Safety Harbor/Oldsmar. The station came in loud and clear until I got to the northern East Lake area, when it began dropping out and popping back in. Then when I arrived in Pasco County, it was instantly gone. No static at all from the myriad of power lines present everywhere in this area.
One thing I am not sure about.. did I just hear a format change or does 96.1 have a split format? When I left Clearwater I checked 1470 and 96.1. The AM was playing Latino Hits/re currents and 96.1 was playing Regional Mexican. I checked the stream and the broadcast of 96.1 later and they were promoting that 96.1, 101.9 and 1470 all had Latino Hits. I looked for a website and it shows "this account has been suspended". Well, thanks to my 36 presets for SiriusXM and Tune Mix, I recognized most of the songs.
One thing I am not sure about.. did I just hear a format change or does 96.1 have a split format? When I left Clearwater I checked 1470 and 96.1. The AM was playing Latino Hits/re currents and 96.1 was playing Regional Mexican. I checked the stream and the broadcast of 96.1 later and they were promoting that 96.1, 101.9 and 1470 all had Latino Hits. I looked for a website and it shows "this account has been suspended". Well, thanks to my 36 presets for SiriusXM and Tune Mix, I recognized most of the songs.
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