[BC] About this HD Radio receiver

[Robert Orban]

At 10:00 PM 12/13/2005, you wrote:
>From: Rich Wood <richwood at pobox.com>
>Subject: Re: [BC] About this HD Radio receiver
>To: Broadcast Radio Mailing List <broadcast at radiolists.net>
>Message-ID: <7.0.0.16.2.20051213180223.073a3b68 at yahoo.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
>
>------ 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.

Having lived in both areas, I believe you're correct. Most of New York 
City's problems occur in Manhattan's manmade canyons because of reflections 
from skyscrapers. But the area around New York is pretty flat until you get 
about 25 miles west in New Jersey, where you start encountering hills about 
the size of the ones in the Bay Area.

But New York has nothing like San Francisco's infamous "280 corridor," 
which is about 10 miles of freeway shadowed from any of the major SF TX 
sites (San Bruno, Sutro, and Mt Beacon) and surrounded on both sides by 
hills. This was an important part of one of the routes used to test IBOC 
systems, in fact.

>Loudness is king back East.

....for what reasons I'll never understand. My ears didn't change when I 
moved to California from the New York area and my radio continued to have a 
volume control, which I adjusted to produce my preferred listening level, 
just like everyone else who owns a radio. Of course, my move was back in 
1968, when New York still had many good sounding, lightly processed FM 
stations including (IIRC) 3 commercial classical stations: WQXR, WNCN, and 
WRFM. I still remember WQXR's having the best top-of-the-hour 5-minute 
newscasts I have ever heard, courtesy of The New York Times. I have no idea 
if they are still doing this, but given the changes in the industry since 
then, I would have to guess that these newscasts disappeared long ago into 
broadcast history.

Bob Orban