HD Callsigns

[Mark Casey]

The rules don't seem to say that a station has to identify whether its' 
digital signal is on AM, FM or both.

So, if WINS's broadcast was available in 3 places:
An analog signal on 1010, a digital signal on 1010, and was carried on 
(102.7FM) WWFS-HD2, would an ID of "WINS, New York and WINS digital" or 
WINS, New York and WINS HD" suffice for any combination of the AM & FM 
digital similcasts?

Or, would the ID have to be "WINS, New York, WINS HD(WINS Digital), and 
WWFS-HD(or WWFS-HD2, or WWFS Digital, or WWFS-Digital 2) if WINS was on all 
3. The rules could use a bit of clarification.

Do any of the Boston area FM's have an AM station on their digital channels 
yet, or are there any plans?

Haven't heard any stations using "Digital" in their ID instead of "HD", and 
I don't expect to, but it looks like the rules permit that choice.

Any comments on available HD car radios? Circuit City had one for $99 a 
couple weeks ago. I'd rather keep the factory radio or upgrade to factory 
HD. In Sept., Ford announced the 2008 models will have HD available and for 
retrofit down to 2005. I asked the local Ford Dealer out here and he said 
that they don't have any info on it yet. One source on the internet quoted a 
customer saying it was about $300 for the conversion on a 2005+ Ford factory 
radio.

Mark Casey
K1MAP
Western Mass.


When the rules for the Digital Radio Service became effective on
September 14th, HD Radio's experimental status ended, AM-HD was
authorized for nighttime use, and the legal ID rule (73.1201) was
amended to add the following text:

"A radio station operating in DAB hybrid mode or extended hybrid mode
shall identify its digital signal, including any free multicast audio
programming streams, in a manner that appropriately alerts its audience
to the fact that it is listening to a digital audio broadcast."

I would gather, from that wording, that leaving the ID as "WINS New
York" on WWFS's HD2 channel is probably not sufficient (that does not ID
the stream as being a digital broadcast), but then, I'm not a
communications lawyer either.  A simultaneous ID of "WINS and WWFS-HD2,
New York" might make more sense for those puzzled over hearing WINS on
the FM band.

Sid Schweiger