[BC] About this HD Radio receiver

[Rich Wood]

------ At 02:13 PM 12/13/2005, Robert Orban wrote: -------

>HD FM's big advantage in the Bay Area is that it kills multipath 
>distortion. I have my BA hooked up to the same outdoor antenna I use 
>to get digital television. I didn't even try the BA with the "wire 
>draped on the floor" FM antenna with which it shipped. It's 
>fortunate that it (like the Bose Wave Radio) has a 75 ohm FM antenna 
>input available. I can say for sure that I was less bothered by the 
>codec artifacts that by the multipath hash and grunge that plagues 
>FM reception in the Bay Area. One pleasant surprise was that KCSM, 
>our noncomm serious jazz station, was broadcasting in HD. It is 
>unlistenable due to multipath at my location, but cleaned up 
>perfectly when the radio switched to HD.

I programmed KFOG and KABL AM/FM about the time the Sutro tower went 
up. One from Boston and the other from Dallas. I remember many 
listener complaints about multipath. The KABL announcers also did my 
voice tracks at XTRA and I'd fly up to produce them. I'd be willing 
to bet San Francisco's reception problems are even worse than New York's.

As an aside, I can't really criticize voicetracking because I did it 
years before it became fashionable. XTRA-AM was totally automated 
from the transmitter site in Rosarito, Baja.

It doesn't surprise me that stations pay more attention to audio than 
they do in Boston or New York. Loudness is king back East.

>One odd thing I observed was that I heard excessive sibilance (which 
>I believed you complained about) on a few stations, but others were 
>just fine. The latest version of the Optimod 8400 HD software has an 
>"HD De-Ess" control, which I realized (to my minor chagrin) we had 
>neglected to add to the 8500. The next 8500 software release will 
>include this control, and will, of course, be a free download.

The station I notice it most on is Classical and is running a 
secondary. They were also having trouble with their exciter. Their 
analog is, by far, the best in the area.

I have far less of a problem with FM HD. It's the AM interference 
issue that really gets to me. It's alien to any acceptable 
engineering practice I'm used to.

Rich