Who would have thunk it? AUTOMAKERS GET HD COMPLAINTS.

[KB1OKL]

Is there anyone here besides me who thinks that those shiny new HD radios being forced on people buying new cars are going to end up as obsolete as 8 track players in 68 Plymouths in two years?

From Radio World:

"But even when HD stations do implement HD Radio or put a multicast channel on the air, they’re not always able to pay attention to the alignment of the analog and digital signal. That’s a problem, because complaints about audio quality are starting to arrive at dealerships. IBiquity Senior Vice President of Broadcast Programs & Advanced Services Joe D’Angelo ticked off several: Customers say the HD often echoes as if two signals are being received slightly out of time or the audio sounds as if the station is skipping. Other complaints include the radio doesn’t pick up HD stations, ever. Or the HD goes in and out. Owners have been slow to embrace the advanced data features that can make a radio display look like its competitors, such as satellite radio or Pandora, in the dash. Only some 400 stations have so far and that’s a problem, according to HD proponents; they believe that if stations don’t step it up, automakers will move radio down the center stack of priorities in the dash, so to speak."

AND

"Not everyone is onboard the digital train.

Cherry Creek Radio CEO Joe Schwartz is afraid radio will be split among those stations that can and those that cannot afford to spend thousands of dollars on new technology.

“It would cost my company in excess of $10 million to go to an HD platform. That is not going to happen.” He knows other small broadcasters “who probably feel the same way.” "


*also includes some new hooey from Boob Struble*


Read more at

http://www.radioworld.com/article/radio-eyes-all-forms-of-‘digital’/216113

 

[JohnnyElectron]

Interesting name I recognized from the past: Joe D’Angelo; if I'm not mistaken, he was a really decent helpful guy that worked with Harris AM Stereo - it's a shame he working for the anti-analog-AM-stereo: iBiquity - if it is indeed the same gentleman?

 

[tomservo]

So basically this article is saying that HD radios ARE getting into the hands of the general public, and not just "radio nerds". So that busts one of the points people often make on this board. Second, people ARE listening but the dropouts and sync issues are a problem. Those are STATION PROBLEMS. They either need to commit resources to fix these issues or DROP HD. The only iBiquity issue I see here is the incredibly outrageous licensing fees they charge that keeps small broadcasters out. They need to kill that goose right now and let it be low or no cost to implement from a license standpoint.

Here in my market (Mobile, AL) Clear Channel has dropped HD from two of its four HD stations due to issues, Cumulus has dropped it off one of their stations and locally owned ADX hasn't run HD since it was brand new years ago.

Thanks to some shuffling, I only lost one format that I couldn't find elsewhere (CC's News/talk was rebroadcasting on an HD-2 to expand the reach of their Cuban-battered 1kW AM'er at night) but if they aren't going to do it right, why run it? Even now, CC has one country station that's several seconds out of sync and a rock station whose HD-2 sounds like it's being run through a telephone first. Turn it off if you're not going to do it right, or do it right.

You guys will never agree with me, but the truth is the radios are getting out there so now the ball's in the station's court to make this pile of poo work.

 

[scanman1]

I'd still rather have the 8-track tape player. At least, when you put the tape in, it will play continuously without shifting audio modes or dropping out to silence constantly.

 

[Tom Wells]

I'd still rather have the 8-track tape player. At least, when you put the tape in, it will play continuously without shifting audio modes or dropping out to silence constantly.

The existance and use of an 8-track doesn't add hiss to the sound systems of others, either.

 

[mmnassour]

Second, people ARE listening but the dropouts and sync issues are a problem. Those are STATION PROBLEMS. They either need to commit resources to fix these issues or DROP HD.

In that case....you drop HD.

The reason being that HD simply requires man-hours that are simply not available in this day and time when one overworked engineer is running back and forth between eight transmitters in two more markets. Whatever radio system we have has to be maintainable by the personnel we have. If it isn't, shut it down.

It would not surprise me in the least that at least half of those now purchasing cars with HD radio...who listen to the radio at all...will be complaining to the dealership. Those warranty claims will quickly get back up the chain of command because the manufacturers are paying dealerships money to diagnose radio complaints that are, let's face it, either station or system based. That's the best way I know of to get any feature pulled from a car...make it cost the manufacturer money.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

So basically this article is saying that HD radios ARE getting into the hands of the general public, and not just "radio nerds". So that busts one of the points people often make on this board. Second, people ARE listening but the dropouts and sync issues are a problem. Those are STATION PROBLEMS. They either need to commit resources to fix these issues or DROP HD. The only iBiquity issue I see here is the incredibly outrageous licensing fees they charge that keeps small broadcasters out. They need to kill that goose right now and let it be low or no cost to implement from a license standpoint.

You guys will never agree with me, but the truth is the radios are getting out there so now the ball's in the station's court to make this pile of poo work.

I would think that putting radios into the hands of the general public is the last thing HD radio needs right now. The system is broken when it takes several seconds to lock onto a station, the consumer will never accept that. They will think of HD radio as defective / it didn't work / it has problems / it drops out all the time, etc. The word of mouth and blogs will be awful, and it already is. The system was deployed defective, and the moment a consumer gets 5 seconds of dead silence on an HD-2, it is "game over" with that consumer. They can and will look elsewhere for their entertainment needs.

A massive HD power increase that few stations are willing or able to deploy is often touted as the solution. I still think a power increase isn't going to address the root cause of the problems. I still remember that test I did on Dallas stations, getting perfect HD lock on every station 70 miles from the towers, in the middle of a pasture with cows all around. Why in the name of sanity would anybody say a system that works 70 miles away from the towers, covering an entire metro area, doesn't have enough power?

It is too bad the sidebands can't be moved closer to the carrier. Apparently RDS, SCA, etc. are sacred cows nobody is willing to sacrifice in order to make some room for HD sidebands. That would have given the system a real shot at working with no power increase. Oh well - bad engineering, it would seem, has a political constituency and criticizing decisions made by the designers of the system steps on toes. I've never had much of a love for politics - engineers make mistakes, and science is a self-correcting system. Just because somebody parades around with credentials and degrees and accomplishments doesn't mean they can't make a huge blunder on the very next project. And there are very few engineering disasters as big as HD radio. The Tacoma Narrows bridge comes to mind - a fundamental law of Physics wasn't known or taken into account, and the bridge went down. In the case of HD radio, the gain / bandwidth product was ignored - with the result that the system is not working.

So the system is in the hands of consumers, and this is supposed to generate demand. I remember the new coke debacle. It was in the hands of consumers, consumers balked. Just because you get something before the public - you have not guaranteed success. Whether it is new coke, Apple Newton, PC Junior, Microsoft Bob, cue cat, or whatever - history is littered with tech innovations that didn't catch on. Smart companies pull the product and cut losses before it is too late. Sometimes, an idea doesn't catch on because its time hasn't come - quadraphonic had to wait for home theater demand to come back as "surround sound". Sometimes an idea is too late - AM stereo was introduced when consumers had moved on to FM, and AM was a black hole filled with talk which doesn't need stereo, or bandwidth. I'd classify HD radio the same way, too late. The FM of the 00's is satellite, streaming, and iPods. That is where consumers are, those technologies are mature and reliable, HD is not.

This coming from someone who doesn't hate the system, I own 3 HD radios, suffer through dropouts because without HD, radio where I live sucks. But even I get tired of the 5 second delay and usually end up listening to satellite which has no delay locking.

 

[Savage]

There is a reason why, when new restaurants open, they typically do a "soft" opening. The location isn't advertised and friends and relatives of the staff are invited to come in and dine, often at a steep discount. The reason: the restaurant operators wisely don't want to invite the general public in before the place is "ready for prime time." If they come in and have a lousy experience, not only will they never come back - they'll tell everyone they know that the new place sucks.

This is just one flavor of insanity associated with HD Radio. It doesn't work well, it's too expensive, it doesn't offer a meaningful improvement over analog, nobody wants it - yet the industry keeps trying to force it on the marketplace.

I have sounded this warning before. If the radio industry doesn't wise up and stop trying to flog life into this deader-than-dead concept, radio listenership overall is going to take a hit. Nobody is going to accept the permanent performance level of HD Radio, and its negative impact on the analog primary signals (the only ones with actual listeners) is going to start being felt. We don't need some dopey "innovation" which convinces technically non-savvy "typical listeners" that radio is just some noisy, cranky antique medium.

 

[mmnassour]

So we've had what now, a 10-year soft opening for HD? ;D

 

[KB1OKL]

So basically this article is saying that HD radios ARE getting into the hands of the general public, and not just "radio nerds". So that busts one of the points people often make on this board. Second, people ARE listening but the dropouts and sync issues are a problem. Those are STATION PROBLEMS. They either need to commit resources to fix these issues or DROP HD. The only iBiquity issue I see here is the incredibly outrageous licensing fees they charge that keeps small broadcasters out. They need to kill that goose right now and let it be low or no cost to implement from a license standpoint.

Here in my market (Mobile, AL) Clear Channel has dropped HD from two of its four HD stations due to issues, Cumulus has dropped it off one of their stations and locally owned ADX hasn't run HD since it was brand new years ago.

Thanks to some shuffling, I only lost one format that I couldn't find elsewhere (CC's News/talk was rebroadcasting on an HD-2 to expand the reach of their Cuban-battered 1kW AM'er at night) but if they aren't going to do it right, why run it? Even now, CC has one country station that's several seconds out of sync and a rock station whose HD-2 sounds like it's being run through a telephone first. Turn it off if you're not going to do it right, or do it right.

You guys will never agree with me, but the truth is the radios are getting out there so now the ball's in the station's court to make this pile of poo work.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

I have sounded this warning before. If the radio industry doesn't wise up and stop trying to flog life into this deader-than-dead concept, radio listenership overall is going to take a hit. Nobody is going to accept the permanent performance level of HD Radio, and its negative impact on the analog primary signals (the only ones with actual listeners) is going to start being felt. We don't need some dopey "innovation" which convinces technically non-savvy "typical listeners" that radio is just some noisy, cranky antique medium.

Correct me if I am wrong, but HD radio now has the distinction of being the longest running consumer product flop in history. How much longer will people keep pouring money into keeping this patient on life support? I'd sure miss the HD-2 formats available here, since they are the ONLY over the air formats I would listen to - but only a DX'er like me would put up with the dropouts, and the expensive equipment and antennas required to make it work. Marginally. Yet - the iBiqinazis made sure DX'ers were painted as outmoded useless neanderthal throwbacks from the start. Hate to break it to them, but they are about the only people besides industry types that even own HD radios or can make them work.

 

[KB1OKL]

So basically this article is saying that HD radios ARE getting into the hands of the general public, and not just "radio nerds". So that busts one of the points people often make on this board. Second, people ARE listening but the dropouts and sync issues are a problem.

They are getting into the hands of the general public mostly because they are bundled with items that people want such as GPS units etc, and people are listening mostly because they have no choice unless they can defeat HD. If people were given a choice between ordering a stand alone analog radio and a stand alone HD radio, I wonder how many would be sold?

 

[Carmine5]

Sure, HD Radio is a flop but something must be done to improve the listener experience for AM. A few weeks ago, Commissioner Ajit Pai spoke about an AM Revitalization Initiative which primarily would re-examine current regulations as well as possibly authorize an across-the-board power increase for AM. But I wouldn't rule out all digital AM. Current ideas and solutions do not, of itself, help the AM band. Putting AM stations on the VHF band necessitate new radios and an FM translator is not going to help an AM station replicate its entire coverage. An overall power increase would help the noise problem but at what cost to the station owner and to stations on adjacent channels?

Apparently, digital AM can achieve the same coverage at much lower power levels. This is not unlike DTV where a 2 kW digital signal can duplicate the coverage of a 40 kW analog signal. Sure, digital has its reception problems and these will have to be worked out. And Ibiquity's license scheme is a dance with the devil. It would be great if the license was built into the cost of the equipment and on a one-time basis, as in the case with digital television equipment.

But there might be a future for digital radio as a long-term solution for AM. And as the FCC contemplates channel-sharing for DTV, it would surprise me if they consider something similar to relieving congestion on the FM band as well as opening up the door for new entrants into the market.

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

Those are STATION PROBLEMS.

Wrong. Those are DESIGN PROBLEMS. The reasons have been enumerated elsewhere on this thread, but the Cliff's Notes are: The system is *not* going to work competently as designed, and since it's a proprietary system, only the owner of the patents and copyrights...i.e., iBiquity...can fix it.

 

[Savage]

The problem, Carmine, is that all-digital HD won't help AM. It isn't robust enough. And the problem you identify, namely the requirement for listeners to buy new radios, is still present with all-digital HD AM. Maybe people would buy new TVs to get HDTV, because the improvement was so dramatic. They won't buy new radios to get "improved AM" with its current featured fare of religion, ethnic, infomercials and country.

You can't prescribe one pill to help all sick people. Trying to find a single cure for all of AM's ills is like trying to find a single cause for all the fatal car crashes last year in Arizona. AM needs (a) better receivers, (b) better programming, (c) operators who are sincerely interested in bettering the band, (d) non-doomsday technical improvement concepts which don't throw out the baby with the bath water, pardon the cliche'. With a commitment to the foregoing, you would start to see AM turn around.

Lower on the list of priorities, yet still important, would be a tax credit system to encourage marginal facilities to exit the band - for starters, an end to daytime operation. Also real Part 15 enforcement to stop interference and noise.

 

[Carmine5]

The problem, Carmine, is that all-digital HD won't help AM. It isn't robust enough. And the problem you identify, namely the requirement for listeners to buy new radios, is still present with all-digital HD AM. Maybe people would buy new TVs to get HDTV, because the improvement was so dramatic. They won't buy new radios to get "improved AM" with its current featured fare of religion, ethnic, infomercials and country.

You can't prescribe one pill to help all sick people. Trying to find a single cure for all of AM's ills is like trying to find a single cause for all the fatal car crashes last year in Arizona. AM needs (a) better receivers, (b) better programming, (c) operators who are sincerely interested in bettering the band, (d) non-doomsday technical improvement concepts which don't throw out the baby with the bath water, pardon the cliche'. With a commitment to the foregoing, you would start to see AM turn around.

Lower on the list of priorities, yet still important, would be a tax credit system to encourage marginal facilities to exit the band - for starters, an end to daytime operation. Also real Part 15 enforcement to stop interference and noise.

All these points, Bob, are certainly good ones. And don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of HD Radio. But if HD Radio is indeed becoming the de facto standard in all new cars and a good deal of AM listening is done in the car it would seem that having AM in digital would level the playing field (excuse the use of another cliche) with smart phones and even analog FM. Of course, there is a considerable amount of listening done on the job (today a painting contractor next door had Rush Limbaugh blaring from his portable) and more then likely these people won't be buying portable HD Radios (I don't even think they can buy a portable HD Radio anymore).

The ideas you've outlined have never really been tried except by a few dedicated owners like yourself and the late Bill Norman, and if the FCC is actually serious about an AM improvement initiative, the technical points you mention need to be there. As I said, I'm no fan of HD Radio but I am a fan of AM and would love to see improvements carried out within the band itself and not by putting AM stations somewhere else in the radio spectrum.

 

[Radio-X]

I think we can all agree that HD was probably the worst digital standard of all that were available in the late 90's when the FCC approved it. They were looking for "hybrid" broadcasts to begin with so analog could have a graceful exit and digital has the opportunity to grow without maintaining a separate xmitter/STL/etc like DAB in Europe. Also, I think the normal DAB band is/was occupied here in the States, which would have required that technology to be implimented at another bandwith with unknown real-world results.

That being said, we are now stuck with this hunk of crap that does NOT work. However, it doesn't take an engineer to realize that it could work if implimented properly.

Let me point this out to all my DXer friends: You will not see this technology disappear. Ever. Too much money is tied up on many ends: iBiquity with their lobbying to appease the Feds, station owners with several thousand dollars extra invested on a hybrid transmission system, and manufacturers who have configured manufacturing for massive amounts of these radios (though nobody really wants them). The big reason why HD will be here 20+ years from now is simple: the HD2 translator. This allows companies to place what is basically a class A analog FM by rebroadcasting HD2 not counting against station limits. The Clear Channels of the world will fight tooth-and-nail to ensure these cheap translators are running years in the future. It adds value to their cluster! And it has a case to supposedly "serve the public interest" by placing another format out there

Unfortunately, the only consumers vocally complaining outside of new car owners who can't bypass HD signals without help are DXers who are the equivalent of train geeks to the railroad industry...they have no lobbying voice nor do most of the companies really care about them. Sorry guys, as a radio nerd myself I have to understand that the industry doesn't give a crap about the 1/10th of 1% who are constantly scanning the dials.

So, the only ways I can see HD radio being some sort of saving grace to this industry are:

- Get rid of the iBiquity monthly licensing fees. Sorry, ridiculous and personally I consider it a wee-bit socialist. The FCC should not set a standard that involves monthly royalties for only one company til kingdom come.
- HD on FM should be permitted for up to 25% of analog power.
- Analog FM should have a "sunset" date of around 2025, with AM's sunset being around 2020 for all-digital operation. SCA's will be required to be "bumped" to a HD sub-channel no later than this point.
-A minimum of two (one AM, one FM) and a maximum of 1/4 of the market should be allowed to remain ANALOG with hybrid operations as a contingency. Translators are optional and would not count against the totals (may be operated all-digital, hybrid, or analog only)

Radio-X

 

[diymedia]

Is HD really "becoming the de facto standard in all new cars"? Because only BMW, Mini, Scion, and Volvo include it as standard on all vehicles and some manufacturers (like Honda) don't include it at all, or (like Chrysler and GM) are putting it in very select models/packages.

 

[tomservo]

I would think that putting radios into the hands of the general public is the last thing HD radio needs right now. The system is broken when it takes several seconds to lock onto a station, the consumer will never accept that. They will think of HD radio as defective / it didn't work / it has problems / it drops out all the time, etc. The word of mouth and blogs will be awful, and it already is. The system was deployed defective, and the moment a consumer gets 5 seconds of dead silence on an HD-2, it is "game over" with that consumer. They can and will look elsewhere for their entertainment needs.

What bothers me about this… and you have a good point, is that in my experience (and the experience of many others I've talked to) that streaming has the same problem. It drops out when the network loses connection or gets congested. Satellite drops out almost as bad as IBOC if you're not in a city with repeaters. Yet these two "gee whiz" technologies by and large get a pass for their poor performance because they're new tech. And I hate that.

Yes, I am sure someone on here will chime in with "but my Sirius never drops out, and I can stream Pandora from LA to Dallas without a single dropout." You're the 0.00001% who can, then. Visit Vicksburg, Mississippi, or Jackson, or Mobile, or Savannah or any other mid size city without satellite repeaters and with spotty 3g and little or no 4g service and then get back to me on that "flawless new technology" line of B.S.

So in a way part of my frustration with people is that they seem to tolerate dropouts with streaming and satellite but somehow they're not expected to with HD? I think if the content was compelling enough, people who tolerate the dropouts just as they do now with alternative services.

I mean, really. The only thing keeping me from going 100% streaming for live content is my carrier's piss poor 3g and the fact that, come renewal time, I'm being bumped to a limited plan (or will jump ship to another carrier with limited plans). I tolerated the dropouts I got daily on XM, and only cancelled when Uncle Mel shat upon my beloved channels and favourite announcers.

A massive HD power increase that few stations are willing or able to deploy is often touted as the solution. I still think a power increase isn't going to address the root cause of the problems. I still remember that test I did on Dallas stations, getting perfect HD lock on every station 70 miles from the towers, in the middle of a pasture with cows all around. Why in the name of sanity would anybody say a system that works 70 miles away from the towers, covering an entire metro area, doesn't have enough power?

I disagree, wholeheartedly. I can stand out in a cow pasture at 50-60 miles with my little Insignia and get reception of our stations, too. (The few left that still do HD.) Now go move 6 feet. Did it drop out? If so, that's what the power increase is there to fix. Not the absolute maximum range, it's to fix the weak spots. And a boost to whatever the max is now will help, tremendously.

For evidence of that, I can compare the reception characteristics of my market's class C (98 kW @ 1555' HAAT) urban station running 1% versus the class C (100 kW @ 617') pubcaster in the next state running 6%. The pubcaster's coverage isn't any bigger; the height advantage of the urban station's antenna gives it a good edge. But it's choppy, especially in the target cities (each about 20 miles away) while the pubcaster's signal, once it reaches that knife edge cliff, is solid from one end to the other and very comparable to the analog, even at 20-30 miles out. And this is on a portable. I image a factory fitted OEM would do even better.

It is too bad the sidebands can't be moved closer to the carrier. Apparently RDS, SCA, etc. are sacred cows nobody is willing to sacrifice in order to make some room for HD sidebands.

I'm pretty sure HD can use the space that RDS and SCAs go now if they are not needed. It doesn't make a difference in sidebands, it's just more bits available for digital use.

Is HD really "becoming the de facto standard in all new cars"? Because only BMW, Mini, Scion, and Volvo include it as standard on all vehicles and some manufacturers (like Honda) don't include it at all, or (like Chrysler and GM) are putting it in very select models/packages.

What other digital terrestrial modes are available in car radios… scratch that. ANY radios at'all in this country?

Earlier I said fix it or turn it off. And turning it all off would be the ideal solution for now. I'm thinking the right idea for HD might be a hybrid (ha) plan. Keep pushing the radios, set them to default to analog only. Get them out there. Give this a long-term outlook. Plan to have 50% radio penetration in 10 years. In cars of all kinds, aftermarket units, portables, boom boxes, clock radios, home stereos. Anywhere and everywhere, but dormant.

Then when there's a "saturation" point, begin a new wave of rollouts by focusing on rebuilding existing plants to maximize the digital. Max power, better antennas, etc. Every station should run at least one subchannel with at least some format that isn't already available in analog. You get 10 years of getting the radios out there, ready to go and 10 years for stations to build up savings to pay for the power boost.

But then, when does anyone in corporate radio think ahead beyond the next quarterly report?

 

[rbrucecarter5]

What bothers me about this… and you have a good point, is that in my experience (and the experience of many others I've talked to) that streaming has the same problem. It drops out when the network loses connection or gets congested. Satellite drops out almost as bad as IBOC if you're not in a city with repeaters. Yet these two "gee whiz" technologies by and large get a pass for their poor performance because they're new tech. And I hate that.

Yes, I am sure someone on here will chime in with "but my Sirius never drops out, and I can stream Pandora from LA to Dallas without a single dropout." You're the 0.00001% who can, then. Visit Vicksburg, Mississippi, or Jackson, or Mobile, or Savannah or any other mid size city without satellite repeaters and with spotty 3g and little or no 4g service and then get back to me on that "flawless new technology" line of B.S.

So in a way part of my frustration with people is that they seem to tolerate dropouts with streaming and satellite but somehow they're not expected to with HD? I think if the content was compelling enough, people who tolerate the dropouts just as they do now with alternative services.

I mean, really. The only thing keeping me from going 100% streaming for live content is my carrier's piss poor 3g and the fact that, come renewal time, I'm being bumped to a limited plan (or will jump ship to another carrier with limited plans). I tolerated the dropouts I got daily on XM, and only cancelled when Uncle Mel shat upon my beloved channels and favourite announcers.

In order of reliability ---

(1) OTA analog
(2) Satellite
(3) Streaming
(4) HD

OTA analog and HD are closely linked. The same places I have dropouts with analog are the places HD drops out.

Satellite does have occasional dropouts. If I get stuck under a bridge. If I am in a tunnel (over the air and streaming also drop out completely). I suspect this is another big city tall building problem. But that would account for a small, but vocal minority of listeners. Area wise, the shadows of tall buildings are pretty small. There happens to be a high population density in downtown areas, but percentage of US population affected is still small. Satellite radio reception is the least of resident's worries in those congested areas.

Streaming - pick your carrier. If ATT sucks where you live, get Verizon. If Verizon sucks, get ATT. I've personally found that GSM systems like ATT and T-Mobile sound better and have more robust coverage. At least in Dallas, Houston, and LA. Verizon audio quality sucks, I can't understand the person on the other end. Same with Sprint - both are CDMA. Verizon in LA was a disaster. My daughter was missing auditions, call backs, and call times - something a professional actress cannot do. ATT, no problems. ATT streaming, no problems for me. There is a rural stretch of road where coverage is poor, but ATT fixed it with a new cell tower. Now coverage is solid. The only problem I have is that incoming calls make streams drop, setting them up is too complex to do while driving. Streaming is not ready for prime time yet, but if the incoming call problem could be solved, and the switching stations problem could be solved, then it might get popular.

I disagree, wholeheartedly. I can stand out in a cow pasture at 50-60 miles with my little Insignia and get reception of our stations, too. (The few left that still do HD.) Now go move 6 feet. Did it drop out? If so, that's what the power increase is there to fix. Not the absolute maximum range, it's to fix the weak spots. And a boost to whatever the max is now will help, tremendously.

For evidence of that, I can compare the reception characteristics of my market's class C (98 kW @ 1555' HAAT) urban station running 1% versus the class C (100 kW @ 617') pubcaster in the next state running 6%. The pubcaster's coverage isn't any bigger; the height advantage of the urban station's antenna gives it a good edge. But it's choppy, especially in the target cities (each about 20 miles away) while the pubcaster's signal, once it reaches that knife edge cliff, is solid from one end to the other and very comparable to the analog, even at 20-30 miles out. And this is on a portable. I image a factory fitted OEM would do even better.

[/quote]

I did move that six feet to see if there were dead zones. There were not. Every single DFW station, including some from locations other than Cedar Hill array, were solid. I couldn't get them to drop.

A friend who lives on the approach path to DFW has the exact opposite experience with HD. Less than ten miles from the airport, HD is useless to him, because every plane causes HD to lose lock. The signal dropouts are several orders of magnitude. A paltry 10 dB increase will do NOTHING to reduce dropouts of 60 dB - given the lock time of the HD system. And this is where the analog and HD dropouts are related. I am less than 20 miles from full class C, 100 kW stations running off of 2000 foot towers. I can see the towers. I still get HD dropouts, and that is with a Pioneer Supertuner 3D car radio, and a 31 inch whip. No problem with the radio - analog reception of Bob-FM from Austin, 170 miles away, is so solid I have it on my presets. But I still get HD dropouts on local stations with a car system considerably better than what Detroit would put into a car. You are lucky to get an antenna at all these days, 31 inch whips being phased out years ago for cosmetic reasons. 10 dB would not help. In the location where HD drops out, the analog signal is also weak, blending to mono. That is probably close to a 60 dB null, probably caused by moire patterns from the antenna bays / other towers / other antennas in the farm. The nulls are in the same places every day. A power increase on the HD sidebands would not help. Not nulls that deep. I suspect the same in just about every HD dropout situation. That moire pattern from the bays. A building. A water tower. A bridge. An airplane. 60 dB nulls. 10 dB will not help. Nothing will help. It is an inherent weakness with the HD system, and there is probably no solution, and more than there has ever been one for nulls.

As for AM - let the FCC do the job the FRC was supposed to do - get back to limiting interference and the number of stations on the dial. Tax breaks to take stations dark is an excellent idea. But lets face it, we need to get rid of 90% of the stations on the band, intelligently allocate the rest, and allow the remainder to blast power. I still think quarantining all HD AM to one portion of the dial is the way to go. You want to run HD or even pure digital on AM - fine - but you are limited to a small range of frequencies probably on the upper part of the band. Allow super power analog only regionals on the rest of the band, but spread out intelligently with ground conductivity taken into account. And - get some teeth into FCC type excepted equipment laws. Fight interference producing items like CFL's, badly designed switching supplies, light dimmers, etc. at every turn so no station has to worry about indoor reception in their city of license.

I still do not see HD-2 as the "killer application". The five second or longer lock time seems like an eternity to me, and I am more tolerant as a DX'er and person who knows how the system works. There are very few consumers who will put up with a five second lock time. Station owners know well they can never allow dead air, because even one second invites listeners to punch the preset of the next station. This is the Achilles Heel of HD - the lock time. iBiquity needs to FIX IT - NO EXCUSES!!!! Or the HD-2 advantage HD radio has will be meaningless.

As for DX'ers being a tiny portion of the population - check again. Only 80% of the population lives in cities, that leaves 60 million rural Americans. They may not know the term "DX", but they know they are living in the boonies and radio reception is hard. Don't talk about streaming, because broadband hasn't penetrated those areas yet. They can get satellite, if they can afford it, but they are relying on long range reception even if they never heard of a QSL card. I know, because I've been a semi-rural person myself. DX is alive and well among the 20% of the population - you would be surprised how creative people can get, and people talk to each other in small towns. What works for one person soon gets copied all over town. Drive outside your urban areas and see the big TV antennas and satellite dishes all over houses. You can be sure they are also doing something creative with radios.