[IRCA] A new radio

["Craig Healy" <bubba@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, sheer perverse curiosity has led me to buy a JVC KD-SHX900 car radio
which includes an HD Radio (IBOC) decoder.  As an AM radio, it's pretty
decent, maybe equal to the abilities of the Blaupunkt.  All my usual dattime
stations are heard.  There is a very good EQ included that seems to mimic a
narrow IF when rolled off top and bottom.  In the descriptions, it says it
has "16 bandwidths".  Wonder if any of the NRD-545 designers had a hand in
this DSP receiver?

To cut to the chase, only two HD stations can be decoded, both locals.
WBZ-1030 which has about an 8 second difference between the analog and
digital portion, and WHJJ-920.  Here is a 1mb file of the audio received
from WHJJ.  It changes from analog to digital halfway through.
http://www.chowdanet.com/920_ana-hd.mp3  Seems about equal to a 32-48kHz
internet stream.

No-decodes include WOR-710 which had a very good analog signal, and the
Disney station on 1260 in Boston.  That didn't really surprise me. 1430 in
Boston is too weak and was not expected to decode.

Antenna used was my 100' sloper with sufficient attenuation to get rid of
the intermod.  Stuffing a hundred feet of signal in a radio that's expecting
two feet is bound to cause intermod.

FWIW, no FM stations decoded.  It was hardly a fair test, as a hundred foot
sloper isn't any good on FM.  And, my local 101.5 has it's digital off.
Plenty of solid dead full quieting analog Boston signals, and not a decode
among them.

Next plan is to set this thing on an AM frequency with a known IBOC station.
Set it in digital-only, and let Total Recorder run in audio sense mode.
We'll see if anything goes through by increased propagation.  First test
will be WOR and it's running now while I go off to work.

Once I'm done with testing in the house, I'll replace the Blaupunkt in the
truck and see how it does out in the real vehicular world.  Maybe in a
couple of weeks.

Craig Healy
Providence, RI


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