HD Radio in Seattle

It depends on how diligent the station is at inputing the correct info at
their end. They don't yet see HD radio as a mass market thing, and don't devote a lot of effort to it.

Same thing happened in Portland a couple of months ago. The Engineer told me that they had to reset the "importer" computers, which took the all of HD-2 signals at that facility off the air for a short while... I think they waited till late in the evening to do this.

I had this happen here in LA with Jack FM. . . Sheryl Crow. . . for a whole 24 hours. I know the team down there and sent them an e-mail. . . If I hadn't who knows when they would have figured it out!! But is is not a problem with the radio. . . Text services are the station.

Please! Don't go blaming the messenger!

I know this is an old thread, but didn't want to create a new one since it exists here. Just got my Sony XDRF1HD from Fry's in Renton. Couple things I noticed:

1. 93.3-HD2 doesn't seem to have any content. Locks but no audio.
2. 100.7 (KKWF), HD & HD2 don't tune in HD even with a perfect analog reception.
3. 106.1 (KBKS), HD & HD2 don't tune in HD even with a perfect analog reception.

Other than that, been very happy with the unit! I already filled my 20 FM presets with my favorite HD channels! Gonna work on the AM side when the sun rises...

Cheers,
Kermee

I've been looking into HD radio... (live in the Seattle Area). Been wondering if it is worth it. I would add the Kenwood add-on to my car head unit - kind of pricey, so I want to know about quality and reliability of signal...

I can't speak for the Seattle area but in the boston area it's pretty good. I'm more on the south east so I get some of Rhode Island content as well. I'd say if a station is within 30 miles (for fm) it should come in. Beyond that might require more of an antenna. AM I don't find much but I listen to mostly the fm.

Overall I think it's a decent thing because I get more content and actual text. If I like a song I can now buy it...rather than wait for the dj to announce the name. If every song title was mensioned in the song maybe it would make things simplier but that's not the case.

Here in the Seattle area (I'm way down in Auburn) I mostly listen to KING-FM (classical) and KPLU-FM (jazz), sometimes to KWJZ-FM (cool/jazz). KING and KPLU offer programming on all three channels, the second being essentially no commercials and few interruptions--if you don't mind the somewhat Muzak quality of the signal. There are plenty of HD stations and still a few analog stations, I just haven't listened to them very much to get an idea of programming and quality.

AM in the Seattle area has almost nothing to interest me; I think I can pull in two HD stations, one of them Disney, but very little music to be had. Possibly a much better antenna will be required. Everything else ranges from obnoxious talk to sports to whatever survives on AM these days. So I can't make a good judgement on HD AM and that's disappointing.

My Sony HD tuner plows through multipath, virtually eliminating distortion with just the supplied dipole randomly mounted. For a while I could pull in a Canadian station on 98.5 with a listenable signal--not bad! I hope to put up a directional outdoor antenna with rotator and get back into DXing.

Sound quality varies with station; at least KING and KPLU have decent quality and I believe the Sony HD tuner compares well with most any analog tuner--especially when reception is problematic. I wish Sony would build a more "audiophile" version based on this chipset with more attention to audio quality and digital outputs. However, it seems that the XDR-F1HD is in short supply and possibly no longer in production; I don't know if that's a result of the economy or a possible new model in the works to replace it.

Hey, DamonWHill. Down here in Auburn as well, listening to HD radio. Mostly KZOK, along with the KPLU jazz stuff when the mood hits. Over here in Lakeland Hills, I never find the need to use an antenna, although I might to try and pick up some distant channels some day when I get ambitious enough (still haven't re-hooked my Buttkicker since getting my new receiver).

"Airways" means "routes of air transportation."

Hey, don't throw any rocks--I'm right down the hill from you! Wish I lived on high ground like that, my FM reception would be that much better. Got a rotator, guess I'd better buy a FM antenna before they all go extinct. The only outdoor FM antenna I've got now is a homemade J-pole made from copper tubing, and multipath made that nearly useless until I got the new Sony.

Been experiencing annoying drop-outs with KZOK's HD channel, to the point where I stopped listening.

I'll monitor KZOK for a while and see what happens. Check your antenna connections and reorient it.

If I'm going to have a chance of getting more HD AM stations I'll have to have a much better antenna. Looking at shielded loop designs I could build.

Now that the weather has returned to "normal," I'll be spending more time in the HT and will check my connections, etc., and will tune in KPLUs HD channel to see if the same thing happens. Just too deep into writing and listening to NFL news right now.

No more problems with KZOK. Listened to hours of music this morning without a single glitch.