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Chriss Scherer Scherer has been the editor of Radio magazine since 1997. His experience in radio includes work as chief engineer at stations in Cleveland (WMMS-FM, WHK-AM, WZJM-FM, WJMO-AM...more

HD Radio: More Power!

Chriss Scherer February 10th, 2008

By now you have heard that there is a quiet movement to increase the power level of the digital portion of the HD Radio hybrid signal. You can read something about that in the Feb.6 Digital Radio Update newsletter.

On the surface, increasing the level of the digital carriers sounds like a good idea. More power means a better digital signal. But increasing the power raises other questions, with concerns of first-adjacent channel interference being at the top.

The results of the study have not yet been posted. I’m looking forward to reading them.

What’s your opinion of the power increase?

Related Topics: FCC/Regulatory, HD Radio

3 Comments to “HD Radio: More Power!”

Ed Jurich Says:

February 11th, 2008 at 11:11 am

3 years ago I was involved with two HD Radio installs and afterwards discovered I was getting interference on my car radio. It was a fading problem driving around in certain parts of the city like someone turning the volume up and down. I came to find out it is a problem on some radios only if you are close to the tower. Well both towers were right in the city and I apparently had one of those radios. Increasing the digital level may aggravate this problem and show up in more receivers.
Chriss Scherer Says:

February 11th, 2008 at 2:31 pm

I never heard of the receiver problem you describe as a general problem. However, I know that there were some issues with audio phasing between the analog and digital in some HD Radio hardware and in some HD Radio receivers. Was this dropout caused when the receiver switched between analog and digital?
Ed Jurich Says:

February 11th, 2008 at 3:35 pm

It was an older analog car radio and I believe it was a Bose but I really do not remember for sure. This was listening to the analog FM only, not the HD. But it was for sure the HD sideband causing the problem because the problem was there immediately after the HD went on the air. Prior to that the radio did not have the problem on the same stations.