If you follow the CRTC approvals, where stations are granted the move from AM to FM, there will be a simulcast period of usually 3-6 months allowed, sometimes extended longer, so I'm not surprised. It could also be a trial approved by the FCC stateside to gauge how this kind of transition goes. Obviously coverage and HD Radio penetration will have a bearing on how this transpires.

And DAB has been broadcast simultaneously in Toronto for a number of years, so to me, parallel broadcasting on other bands isn't new.

We'll have to watch this one closely as I see this as a necessary step to accommodate the sheer number of requests in the GTA and Niagara region for spots on the dial.

If WKSE picks up tonight with a bit of tropo enhancement, I'll have a good listen to the HD2 feed and gauge the audio.... :-)

Cameron

My point was why duplicate WGR 550 on 98.5 HD2.Better to have something different on HD2.Yes it sounds great for sportstalk but sound quality not important for any talking.

I wonder if the rights to the comedy source ran out (that was on HD2) or they didn't want to pay a new fee structure...

Or WGR is an experiment...

I dunno...

Cameron

Ref post #197

Here is something interesting I ran across about FEMA, NPR, and HD Radio.

http://www.radioworld.com/article/117746

Don't know how long term this is, but I got a good signal on them yesterday morning (early) and had good listen. Audio sounded acceptable, not like something patched together in a hurry (like a lot of the DAB in Toronto was).

Now what we need is a good t-storm to roll through and if they've used any other method of capturing the audio of WGR as opposed to off-air, then someone's gonna notice the lack of static crashes on their radio.... :-)

Cameron

Greetings from half-way between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale. Taped the twin-lead FM antenna that comes with the Sony XDR-F1HD to a second floor wall and am getting PBS, 11 miles away, HD FM 24/7. And a bunch of other HD stations.

Listening on computer external speakers so can't relish the sound but the reception seems super.

Wish I could say the same for Toronto reception. It sure would be nice if Toronto stations went for iBiquity. I wonder..... 96.3 has been sounding like they record their stuff on old cassette tapes... would going to iBiquity oblige them to broadast to a decent standard of quality? I suppoese there's no way to make a station have clean source material whatever their broadcast method.

(Granted that is a realy good twin-lead antenna.)

Hey Ben,

Yeah, 96.3 sure doesn't sound like it used to. Was dialing around and came across The Blue Danube, one of my favourite classical pieces and man, was it brutal, muddy and highly compressed. CBC Radio 2 still sounds great.

The Toronto / Hamilton stations that to me would really benefit from HD Radio would be:

91.1 Jazz FM
94.1 CBC R2
94.7 CIWV
96.3 Classical 96 (and their 103.1 in Colburg, which I can get here from time to time
102.9 CKLH (FM audio is well engineered for pop music)


Now... If I was making some band optimizations....

88.1 for Radio 1 and a Radio 2 feed for Hamilton (CBC's been talking of a Hamilton specific Radio 1 for Hamilton / Niagara region) and this can be set up as a "SFN" (single frequency network) from Brantford-Hamilton-St. Catharines area. The vacating of 88.1 by CKLN Toronto is covered in the thread on CKLN.

94.1 carrying both CBC R1 and R2 freeing up 99.1 (or the other way around)
96.3 made as a "SFN" out to Colburg eliminating the need for 103.1
Amalgamate 93.3 CFMU (McMaster University) and 101.5 CIOI (Mohawk College) on either of those frequencies freeing up an allocation.

I'm sure many other possibilities exist. Spectrum is in high demand. So not just improve audio, but conserve space as well.

Cameron

Hey CBC already has FM radio 1 in Niagara region on 90.5.Also no one has an HD radio tuner so CBC not about to use HD radio to carry both on 1 frequency

CBC radio 1 should have been forced to stay on AM band to conserve FM space and not to have an advantage over the other talk stations.Imagine all the other AM talk and sport stations could claim the same reception problems near street cars and want the same treatment and fairness as radio 1 got and want into the FM band too.A dozen repeaters to replace 1 AM station what a joke.They should have stayed on AM and use HD radio on 94.1 to carry radio 1 as an HD2.

Hey CBC already has FM radio 1 in Niagara region on 90.5

I saw that on the CBC site. Nothing on that channel from here with my trusty Grundig G8. Must be really low power / coverage. What's more, 90.3 is CBC stereo french service from Toronto. Talk about adjacent channel spacing....

I wouldn't discount HD Radio penetration just yet. The auto industry is making noises of making them standard. We'll just have to see how far that goes. Almost all of the stations in Buffalo are HD now...

Cameron

The car market is the most important market HD Radio can use in order to expand. Once people have access to certain HD stations in their car, they most likely will look at getting a HD Radio for the home and office as well. And the prices are getting better. Sherwood has a stereo tuner/amp for your home system going for $200 over at amazon USA. That is a great price, and easy to incorporate into your present system for most people.

I think the HD Radio group went at it backwards. But, the lower power assignment by the FCC didn't help matters either. Now that the FCC is allowing the HD signal to increase up to 10% of the analog signal, the signal lock in car radios will be improved.

Just wondering, why only 10%? Why not 20% or 50% or even 100%?

Allowing a higher power level would increase the risk of adjacent channel interference.

Also, much like ATSC, the digital signal does not need as much power output to cover a analog area. NPR has a article (somewhere on the net), that indicates a 10% power relative to a analog signal is actually the equivalent of 17%. Meaning that the digital signal may be even stronger at it's 10% than even the analog signal.

Got a solid signal this morning, and only an HD1 was present.

So, it appears both the Comedy, then WGR 550 that appeared on HD2 are no longer broadcast.

We'll have to see what, if anything shows up.

Cameron

Was listening to WKSE-FM 98.5 MHz in HD this morning and on HD2 WGR 550 has returned.

The 64 cent question is, how long will it last. :-)

Cameron

Rule #1: If you're broadcasting in HD Radio, than at least have audio on it. ;-)

Was tuning around this morning, and some tropo was taking place. WDCX 99.5 was coming in just fine.... Except.... The two HD streams, HD1 and HD2 had no audio.... Dead silence (one of the joys of digital). And since there's no analogue fallback, you're stuck with silence as long as the HD components are present. The analogue side had fine audio... But with the way HD Radio receivers are currently made, the switchover to digital is a default action.

Oh well... Back to the drawing board...

Cameron

I connected a line from my TV antenna (DB8) to my HD Radio. WVPS-FM 107.9's HD streams from Burlington, VT come in just fine. I always get a lock on it now.

Perhaps this can be considered an option to all of those with a TV Antenna who would like to tune into distant HD Radio stations without having to add another antenna to the mix.

Yes, might be a very good option.

I'm keen on classical music from PBS in Buffalo and simply use a dedicated FM antenna and line. Simple, small, neat, purpose-built. You can buy local, suburban, and long-range FM-only antennas and not too expensive. You can add FM bandpass filters. BTW, FM-HD is still at the old 88-108 band.

Since the FM frequencies are in the middle of the old VHF TV band, you can use any old TV antenna with benefit. But the new TV-HD band is in the UHF band and so TV-HD antennas are not too useful except for local stations... where a paperclip is almost as good.

bentoronto, many TV stations will be using VHF-HI (channels 7-13) post transition and a few will use VHF-LO (channels 2-6) after the analog shutdown, so having a UHF only antenna will cause problems come September 1. This was a big surprise to many in the US after their analog shutdown as there was (and obviously still is) a lot of misinformation out there.