Is HD radio here to stay?

HD is going well for our station hear in Vacaville. We're an LPFM grade school radio station, so of course, we have our own small built-in audience. That helps.

Most new cars have HD capability that automatically kicks in when the radio detects the digital signal. Our listeners say our sub-channels are discovered when the options show up on the radio display. This is a real positive step in offering increased student content and community support.

We broadcast HD1, HD2, HD3, and HD4.

KVCB-LP

So, your station's HD is what… one or three watts? I can't imagine the range is enough that anyone off campus could even hear the HD without breakups.

DavidEduardo said:

You can't equate digital power with analog power.

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True, but at some point surely the physics of it come into play. There's just not much that 1 watt can do when it's just 39 feet off the ground.

With the power increase rules, it made it worth the try for us. We went on with 4 watts. It helped out our FM main channel significantly, in that our analog service can suffer from multi-path interference. The HD signal seems to react differently -- filling those annoying dead spots associated with LPFM in cars. This feature doesn't apply to the other channels. Ours is particularly interesting in that local codes restrict our antenna hight.

We could actually go as high as 10 watts, but our transmitter doesn't have the extra TPO headroom and it's not practical to increase our antenna gain (we're using JLCP 2-bay). So, for now, it is what it is. We're happy

I have to say, our Nautel vs300 is real workhorse with stereo analog; extended hybrid digital; and an analog 67khz SCA channel. Oh my!!

Vincent said:

Hi, I'm new here.

I'm thinking about upgrading my Sangean WR-11 and am considering one of Sangean's HD radios. I live in the Philadelphia area and should have access to plenty of HD stations. My question is whether HD radio is here to stay and worth limiting myself to the few radios that have HD reception. If HD radio's future isn't a good bet, there are so many other radios I can buy (like the C.Crane CC Radio-2E Enhanced, or something with a second separate speaker).

Thanks!

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You must be new here, haha! even if you're talking about FM IBOC, the future does not look bright, I wonder what the percentage of radio listeners are listening to FM IBOC? Low I bet. IBOC has slowly fizzled out over the past 5 or 6 years. Buying a new HD radio in my opinion would be a waste of money. Get a good used Drake R8 if you want a good performing radio, they can be had for less than 500 bucks for the most part nowadays,

I have long commented on the utter stupidity of the rollout and implementation of HD Radio. I had trouble getting anyone in an electronics store to show me a good demo of the technology. It was hard to figure out whether it was good enough to be worth the extra money the radio would cost. It then became hard to find them in any store and it seemed like a failed technology.

However, in the past couple of years I finally bought a Sparc SHD-TX2 portable AM/FM HD radio. It works a lot better than I thought it would. I have rented several cars in the past few years and about half of them have HD radios that also seem to work a lot better than I expected.

Since I bought my HD radio, I have found more options appearing on the dial. Our local Smooth Jazz station moved from a weak FM HD2 signal to a strong one that serves the whole market well. They tweaked that format and promoted the daylights out of it online. I has live DJs now and does promotions and concert series.

I would say that looking at the health of HD radio based on these factors, it looks like it is slowly growing in popularity. I still don't think most listeners know about it. I think the overall health of radio as a medium is in doubt due to streaming, though the station owners are certainly trying to make sure they have a large piece of that business.

I have seen some start to wisely promote HD radio as a way to get high quality digital music without using cellular data. This is a smart way to promote the technology. If they keep that up and actually put some money into promoting HD again, it has a chance of sticking around.

tested said:

If they keep that up and actually put some money into promoting HD again, it has a chance of sticking around.

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Keep in mind that HD Radio is a copyrighted technology that isn't owned by the radio companies. The original owner, iBiquity, made a major mistake by demanding license fees up front, rather than simply allowing electronics manufacturers to use it for free. No one wanted to pay extra for something they could get for free. Now that HD is being installed in cars as standard equipment, it's starting to gain traction. But I agree that the rollout was screwed up by iBiquity. The real success is being achieved by attaching an HD station to a translator. Then listeners can hear the station without buying an HD radio.

KB1OKL said:

if you're talking about FM IBOC, the future does not look bright, I wonder what the percentage of radio listeners are listening to FM IBOC? Low I bet.

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Well in unscientific terms; 50% of the new cars being delivered all come with HD radio. So I guess you could take the total number of new cars sold over the past two years, divide that in half, and there is a fairly safe round number of potential HD radio listeners currently using radio.

KB1OKL said:

IBOC has slowly fizzled out over the past 5 or 6 years. Buying a new HD radio in my opinion would be a waste of money. Get a good used Drake R8 if you want a good performing radio, they can be had for less than 500 bucks for the most part nowadays,

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Yeah, and AM is considered 'high fidelity', only good cars were being built in the 70's, and your stock in Nash Rambler is still good.
And that buggy whip? Still works fine!

KB1OKL said:

Get a good used Drake R8 if you want a good performing radio, they can be had for less than 500 bucks for the most part nowadays,

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Are you kidding? Who, other than hams, would have any use for a Drake R8 or any other communications receiver, new or used? Who, other than hams, would even know how to properly use it even if they bought one?

The consumer shortwave market has been dead since the Berlin Wall came down, and it was never all that large to begin with. You and I may have a use for one, but the average person does not, and never has. There is a reason why Drake got out of the ham/SWL market, and most of the other classic manufacturers are long out of business.

IBOC has slowly fizzled out over the past 5 or 6 years.

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I don't know about other cities, but it's doing just fine in Phoenix. I just bought a FM digital radio (yes, a real portable AM/FM/HD radio!), and I love it. Remember, it took FM radio 30 years to reach a parity with Ancient Modulation, through the post-war band shift, early stations shutting down due to a lack of audience & advertisers, or to make room on the tower for TV, stereo not taking off as fast as expected, and so forth. Digital FM looks like it's here to stay in one form or another, but it won't overtake analog FM for quite some time, even if the majority of Americans owns a digital receiver at sometime in the next few years. IBOC on AM seems to be on its last legs, however, but that's a different animal.

There are plenty of shortwave radios still on the market, you just have to know where to look. China has taken over the low to mid-price ranges with affordable and high performing units that often outperform the "old guard" models that cost many times as much. DSP and other trickery has done wonders for "big performance in a small package". Sangean, Grundig, Kaito/Degen and CountyComm all make decent receivers and a variety of price points for the developing world.

In fact, I would argue that there are more shortwave choices available today than consumer HD radios! (Although there are certainly more HD radio listeners now than shortwave listeners in the US and Canada.)

With the proliferation of SDRs (software defined radios), that's a third rail of choice for us dwindling shortwave enthusiasts. And SDRs can decode DRM with a free add on piece of software for any PC. I have five portable shortwave radios of various provenance and they all gather dust because the SDR does all the work these days. The only radio-radio I really use anymore is the Insignia HD portable.

KeithE4 said:

IBOC on AM seems to be on its last legs, however, but that's a different animal.

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Primarily because most AM stations can get the same fidelity by getting an FM translator. Those that can't are looking at FM simulcasts. In any case, AM as a usable band is continuing is long slow decline.