HD Radio receivers and HD-n (n>1) subchannels

[Dan.Strassberg]

Thanks, Scott! Great info. Would you believe that this thread started
through a combination of Aaron's post (which I think was on
radio-info.com) and a call I heard on Steve LeVeille's program a
couple of nights ago?

Steve had a caller who was about as confused as I imagine it's
possible to be about this subject--but apparently didn't know how
confused he was and most certainly wouldn't admit it. Because I
realized that I would probably only make matters worse if I called and
tried to clear up the confusion, I refrained from calling.

Steve must have asked the guy at least six times how you select the
different subchannels (HD-2, HD-3 et al) on an HD Radio receiver. Each
time Steve asked how you change the subchannel, the caller would
change the subject. Finally, Steve threatened to terminate the call
but first asked, "Does the radio have pushbuttons to select HD-1,
HD-2, and so on?" And the caller said "yes." So that's where I got the
pushbutton idea.

Before the call ended, however, the caller was onto how HD reception
was highly "directional." Turned out, the caller didn't understand the
meaning of directional; what he meant was very sensitive to the
location and position of the receiving antenna. BUT he was predicating
his conclusion on observations of digital _TV_ reception, not
realizing that HD Radio and digital TV are quite different systems.

Of course, the brain trust that developed digital TV deserves some
kind of award for botched nomenclature because I'd be willing to bet
that fewer than 1% of DTV viewers know which of the many DTV formats
are legitimately called HD and which aren't.

For example, my 26" DTV receiver does not receive 1080P but does
receive 1080I and it displays 1080I (if available) full-screen on the
16:9 aspect-ratio screen. When it does so on "Channel 2-1," the
letters HD appear in the lower right corner of the screen next to the
WGBH "bug" (I think that's what it's called), so I _guess_ that 1080I
IS HD, but I don't _know_ that! And if I'm not mistaken (which I could
be), it's possible to display a 4:3 aspect-ratio picture in 1080I--if
that's what the station is transmitting. So is THAT HD? I sure don't
know!

And of course Steve's caller was also victimized by iBiquity's choice
of a name that contains the letters HD for its misbegotten
digital-audio broadcasting scheme. As I understand it, iBiquity claims
that the HD in HD Radio stands for nothing--it's just letters, but
aside from us radio geeks, who knows THAT? Some people say that the HD
in HD Radio stands for hybrid digital, which would make perfect sense.
But AFAIK, iBquity says the H and the D are just letters.

-----
Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
eFax 1-707-215-6367

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Scott Fybush" <scott@fybush.com>
To: "Dan.Strassberg" <dan.strassberg@att.net>
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 10:35 AM
Subject: Re: HD Radio receivers and HD-n (n>1) subchannels
>
> There are a number of misconceptions here, and now I'm thinking I
> should really ship one of my "extra" HD tuners off to Arlington to
> give Dan a chance to play with one firsthand.
>