WHAT I DON'T KNOW is whether the signal is actually usable in large parts of
the National Capitol area, which is why I asked this question. I sort of
figured that the signal wasn't very good, or I would have heard of it; but it
would be nice if it did work.
Finding a working portable HD radio is tricky. In car radios, one of
the repeating refrains is that the HD part drops out all too frequently,
which isn't a problem if you're listening to the HD1 signal (most radios
drop back to the analog signal which is also NORMALLY the HD1 signal)
but is if you happen to be listening to HD2 or HD3.
The portable versions like the Insignia or the Zune with HD both also
suffer from dropouts as you move about, just as you would in a car.
For home listening, my favorite is the Sony XDR-F1HD Tuner with HD but
note that it's just an FM/AM HD tuner, you need to connect the tuner to
an audio amplifier or receiver with audio inputs.
For use in an office, or use in a bedroom I'ld suggest the Radiosophy
HD100 which is a radio with speakers included.
The Sony Tuner and Radiosophy radio both would adequately serve in
Washington in a fixed location (for that matter so would the Zune and
Insignia portables). The signal levels should be more than high enough,
looking at one of the sites that gives AM and FM signal strengths.
http://www.v-soft.com/ZipSignal/default.htm
Please note I'm not in DC, but I used the Capitol zip code and then
extrapolated what the predicted FM HD signal should be.
Please note that if you want AM HD while moving around, you'll really
suffer, because the Hybrid Digital format from Ibiquity doesn't cope
with movement well at all.
If the technology is not truly digital, I wouldn't know why the broadcasters
call it digital; but, as you see from the example above, they do.
It is digital or hybrid digital, of course the US might have been better
off adopting the European system instead. Because it's an in band
system on both FM and AM, compromises had to be made to allow standard
radios to still work.
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