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HD Radio in Canada - Industry & Regulatory

260K views 481 replies 62 participants last post by  ExDilbert 
#1 · (Edited)
RASCL said:
Are there any HD Radio Stations available within the Toronto listening area?
No, it has not been commonly adopted in Canada but it has been rolled out in the U.S. already.
mr weather said:
I've never listened to "HD Radio". Is it like satellite radio?
Think of HD Radio as typical terrestrial FM Stereo Radio on steroids. For those new to digital HD Radio there is a ton of info about it in these threads:

General situation in U.S.: HD Radio situation on U.S. FM and AM bands

Popularity of HD Radio in U.S.: HD Radio Multicasts Booming in U.S.

Inexpensive but amazing tuner: Sony XDR-F1HD Tuner for HD Radio
 
#30 ·
HD FM radio stations in Detroit

Get a sneak preview of high-definition radio in Detroit

Daily Oakland Press, August 15, 2005
By: Art Vuolo

Last week, my colleague Mike Austerman reported on the debut of HD (high-definition) radio in Detroit. Besides offering a high quality digital version of a station’s signal, HD allows for “secondary” channels that can offer more specialized programming than their primary stations — all in the battle with satellite radio for listeners. Two years ago, the mammoth Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas offered a taste of HD, but I just experienced it locally and want to share what I saw and heard because it is impressive.
http://www.michiguide.com/archives2005/2005/08/get_a_sneak_preview_of_highdef.html
 
#32 · (Edited)
HD Radio Reception In Mississauga ON

Received a Sangean HDT HD radio component tuner.Locking perfect on 4 Buffalo NY stations in HD.WNED 94.5 HD1 & HD2,WKSE 98.5 1 & 2,WDCX 99.5 1 & 2,WTSS 102.5 1 & 2.Not locking onto WBLK 93.7 and 103.3 WEDG in HD but indicates it.Regular FM comes in great.This is a very selective and sensitive tuner with a remote.Also WGRF 96.9 is transmitting HD but not locking.
 
#34 ·
Received a Sangean HDT HD radio component tuner.Locking perfect on 4 Buffalo NY stations in HD.WNED 94.5 HD1 & HD2,WKSE 98.5 1 & 2,WDCX 99.5 1 & 2,WTSS 102.5 1 & 2.Not locking onto WBLK 93.7 and 103.3 WEDG in HD but indicates it.Regular FM comes in great.This is a very selective and sensitive tuner with a remote.Also WGRF 96.9 is transmitting HD but not locking.
I've been eyeing this particular tuner myself for several months now, but I guess the big question is how does it sound in HD? Does it really sound like all the samples that are floating around on the web from the HD radio manufacturers or does it (hopefully) sound better than these? FWIW, of the actual live Canadian DAB broadcasts I've heard, I would be very surprised to learn that IBOC/HD could come anywhere close to the fidelity potential of the Eureka L-147 system.

BTW, can you pick up any AM HD stations?
 
#33 ·
rob50312, could you run a monthly scan through all Canadian FM's that you receive. It would be interesting if any testing preceeds any anouncements on the CRTC site. :)

By way of comment, no change in the Toronto DAB scene, all 5 ensembles are up and running, but 680NEWS, CHFI, AM640 (Labelled Mojo640), CJMR and CJYE are silent without any audio, and it's been that way for several months now.

Cameron
 
#35 ·
FLACer no I have not tuned in any AM hd stations.I listen mostly at night .Most AM HD stations turn the HD part off at night because of skip problems.The sound is definitely better than those internet samples stations.HD sound is only a little better than that of FM. The Sangean tuner matches my modified Onkyo for selectivity and sensitivity but does not offer the same level of control.Sangean is a great tuner.
 
#36 ·
HD Radio

Just wondering if anyone has used an HD Radio in the Toronto area. I realize we don’t have any local stations currently broadcasting in it, but I was thinking some of the stronger Buffalo stations might reach us here.
I’m curious if...

A: will it reach us here ( I know the regular signals will, 94.5, 102.5 etc).

B: Is there anything decent on them, 102.5 HD 2 channel is suppose to be 100% blues music.

Thanks
 
#39 ·
Lists all HD Radio stations in the U.S.:

http://www.hdradio.com/find_an_hd_digital_radio_station.php

There's also a link to commonly available HD Radio products.
Thank you for the link Stampeder. I've asked before if anybody had any experience with HD Radio? Any i see okmrbh is curious too.
I'm going to break down and buy one for the car just to see if we can get Buffalo stations on this side of the lake. I travel in the US sometimes so it will be nice for for Summer vacation anyway. Planning a trip to Bristol for the Sharpie 500 in August.
 
#40 ·
Looking for a long range FM antenna

Hi everyone, i installed a turnstile FM antenna on my roof however i found it to be a short range omni-directional antenna. I live in Hamilton Ontario and i see that Buffalo (roughly 40-50 miles from me) is loaded with HD radio sataions. However after setting my presets on my receiver i only get a few of them and i'm planning to upgrade to a reciever with HD radio. Anyone with suggestions on an antenna that will pull in these stations (bonus if i can still grab Toronto only 30 miles away) Thanks for your time, have a good day. :mad:
 
#41 ·
Totallyr, roughly where in the city do you live?

I used to live in Dundas, below the escarpment, just off of 99 HWY, between Creighton and Overfield. I had a 48' tower with a 6 element Colban (made in Dundas I think, and that's a while ago :) ). From there, with the beam fed with 300 ohm shielded twin-lead, and a Sansui TU-9900 tuner, I could listen to WOMJ 104.3 with the beam west facing. Erie was more difficult, Buffalo was a shoe-in. The main problem I had was front-end overload from 95.3, 93.3 and later in years, 102.9. Those who designed the front-end of the receiver placed the RF attenuator AFTER the first RF stage. Using a TFM-2 double tunable FM trap, made by Gerald helped a lot. Also some wide-band switchable attenuation made the situation more manageable. It would have been interesting putting a McIntosh MR-80 on that feed line... But given a clear, un-tinkered with FM signal was an amazing experience.

So... Where you live will determine which stations you'll have problems with.
Depending on your tuner, you may or may not need to notch 94.7 and 95.3., as those two are in line more or less with Buffalo.

The tower also had amateur radio antennas for the HF bands as well as 2m, and a J-Pole for the 220MHz repeater. :)

Cameron
 
#43 ·
HD radio Reception

I can receive 5 HD stations from Buffalo 93.7,94.5,98.5,99.5,102.5 .4 stations have HD2 second channel.I am using a 25 year old radio shack fm yagi that I cut off all the directors off the front to allowed it to mounted high in the attic so i have 3 driven elements and the rear reflector.I am using a Sangean HDT 1 off ebay.I am very pleased with the sound quality.
 
#44 ·
rob50312, how is the dynamic range of the digital audio on the HD1 feeds.

Have they regurgitated the analogue compressed audio, or left it alone and peak limit the loudest levels? I'm interested in how they're handling things. The DAB feeds I've been listening to seem to be a mix of analogue regurgitation, analogue STL feeds, and some direct digital feeds. Then... There's some feeds that have have the DAB feed sounding a right pigs ear terrible. Don't know how they're managing it, but hey, they must be working towards an engineering equivalent of the Darwin awards.... :)

Cameron
 
#45 ·
Cameron it would seem that that the dynamic range is being compressed on most stations except WNED the classical station.No need to do this with digital but the signal probably goes thru the same processor.The frequency response is better.I agree if they want HD radio to succeed it should sound exactly as a CD with no compression.
 
#46 ·
Cameron and Rob

You 2 gentleman seem to have a good grasp on this HD radio and fm antennas, can either of you help me as far as a long range fm antenna. Seems to me there are 2 that i can find that might help me, they are the Dynalab ST2 and the FM Stereo 1/2 Wave Dipole Outdoor Antenna 88-108 MHz. I spoke to salesperson in an audio store who told me microwaves will interfere at my location as i'm right by the water in Hamilton. Thanks guys. :D
 
#47 ·
Totallyr there are long range outdoor fm yagi made by winegard,Channel master ,Delhi etc.You can order online,ebay etc..In Hamilton area try Neutron electronics but they dont usually stock them but can order it.A 1/2 dipole is not consider long range.RW antenna on ebay has them 40$ plus shipping. A long range antenna will have several elements to it.
 
#49 ·
Tottallyr, if that QFM-9 is a 9 element Yagi, then it will have a narrow beam width, and will pull in Buffalo just fine. Unfortunately, it appears to me that Toronto is more or less 90 deg. off the side, and you might experience multipath of the Toronto stations. With a rotator, you'll have a field day with it. You'll beat hands down any cable FM feed. :)

It would be fun to stuff a Dynalab Wordport tuner on that antenna. Or an old McIntosh MR-80...

I used to FM DX from Dundas, and the best I got (and recorded it on cassette too) was ZBM, Hamilton Bermuda. In fact, that sporadic E opening was heard over a large swath of Pennsylvania and NY state during the late spring / early summer of 1981. Ah... Those were the days.... :)

Cameron
 
#52 ·
Either that or an industry canada monitoring station.... :)

In Dundas, I had a bit of an antenna farm myself... 48ft Delhi heavy-duty tower, 6 element FM beam on top, 10 element vertically polarized 2m beam (amateur), TH3Jr beam (amateur), 80m and 40m dipoles (amateur), 220MHz J-pole for the repeater, (amateur). The top 3 antennas were rotated with a Ham II rotator. As you'll notice, there's a slight theme here.... :)

Cameron
 
#56 ·
HD FM and DAB FM stations in the Vancouver-SeaTac area

As is posted, all L-band HD radio in Vancouver is off-air except for CBC. Reception was difficult on the west side of Vancouver.
Deciding to give Sea-Tac a try, I purchased an HDT-1X tuner and hooked it to a 10 element FM yagi in the attic, 80 m ASL, and oriented towards Seattle at 161 degrees. Success! here are the results:

notes: 6 bars = all the bars for HD.
No HD means no HD detected.
0 bars means HD detected but not locked = receiver is in analog mode.
(these might still lock if left long enough)

KPLU 88.5 6 bars
KQMV 92.5 0 bars - 6 bars
KUBE 93.3 no HD - 0 bars
KMPS 94.9 6 bars
KJR-FM 96.5 0 bars - 6 bars
KBSG 97.3 6 bars
KING 98.1 6 bars
KWJZ 98.9 0 bars to 6 bars
KISW 99.9 6 bars
KKWF 100.7 6 bars
KMTT 103.7 no HD - 6 bars
KCMS 105.3 6 bars
KBKS 106.1 0 bars - 6 bars
KWPZ 106.5 6 bars
KWRM 106.9 0 bars
KNDD 107.7 no HD - 0 bars

Day-time reception seems to be better than night-time. The receiver seems to take several seconds to figure out the signal and set up the multipath equalizer. Then bingo - you are in.

No luck with Digital AM stations yet.
 
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