Spam: WCBS Newsradio 880 in HD, FM that is!

[Larry Weil]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dan.Strassberg [mailto:dan.strassberg@att.net] 
> Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2008 4:11 PM
> To: Larry Weil; boston-radio-interest@tsornin.bostonradio.org
> Subject: Re: Spam: WCBS Newsradio 880 in HD, FM that is!
> 
> But reception of the HD-n (where n>1) subchannels is 
> particularly problematic in cars. If you lose sync with the 
> digital stream and you are tuned to the main HD channel 
> (HD-1), the receiver automatically falls back to analog, and 
> if everything has been set up correctly, the fallback is not 
> very noticeable, if not entirely aesthetically pleasing 
> (frequency response changes; stereo switches to mono). With 
> the n>1 subchannels, no analog stream carries the same 
> content, so my understanding is that the fallback is to 
> silence. I've seen reports (from HD radio proponents 
> campaigning for higher subchannel power on the FM band) that 
> claim that, with the current power levels, reliability of the 
> digital streams is simply unacceptable and coverage areas are 
> much smaller than for the main analog stream. Hence, 
> listening to HD-n (n>1) streams at home or at work MAY be OK 
> (though not necessarily), but listening in a moving vehicle 
> is unlikely to be acceptable unless you are very near the transmitter.

Everything you said is true, but not a reason for not putting WBZ on an FM
HD subchannel.  No one is forcing you to listen to it on the HD subchannel,
if you are getting it better on AM because of your location or situation,
then listen to it there.

Larry Weil
Lake Wobegone, NH