Mike:

This is excellent, and thanks so much!

I guess the main advantages of HD radio, as I understand them, are simply a 
cleaner-sounding signal, and better program variety.  However, at least for 
the commercial stations, I suspect you still have to put up with as many 
commercials as you do with the analog stations.  Anyway, it will be 
interesting to experiment with when traveling.
As far as I know, the closest fm broadcast market area to me that has HD 
radio is Grand Rapids, Michigan, which is approximately 55 miles to my 
south, and is where we picked up our new vehicle earlier today.

I wonder how much people actually use HD radio, but that's another topic for 
another day, and maybe another list.

Tom Behler: KB8TYJ

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Duke, K5XU" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, July 13, 2013 7:59 PM
Subject: Re: Off Topic: Accessing HD Radio In New Vehicle


> Tom,
>
>   There is no manual switch or menu setting to change to or
> from HD Radio.
>
> When you tune to a station that is transmitting HD, the
> radio will automatically switch to the first HD stream, *if
> the analogue signal is clean. HD doesn't like noise or
> flutter.
>
> This change can take as much as 30 seconds to occur.
> Depending on the setup at the transmitter, you will either
> hear only the change in the sound of the signal, or what
> sounds like a major hiccup in the station audio for a few
> seconds. That is, sometimes the delay between the analog and
> HD stream is such that the change will sound as though
> somebody at the station hit the "back up by 10 seconds"
> button.
>
> When the radio goes into HD mode, it automatically lands on
> the "HD1" stream. By mandate from the FCC, this stream is
> always the same programming that is heard on the traditional
> analogue channel. Some stations only broadcast this single
> HD stream.
>
> If a station is broadcasting two or more HD streams, a
> single press of the up button will move you to the second or
> third stream just as it moves to the next station in the
> analogue mode. The down button will return you to the
> previous stream.
>
> Once you tune past the last stream of a given station, the
> radio automatically goes back into analogue mode to find the
> next station, and the process begins again.
>
>
> Most stations are broadcasting two streams, and some have
> three. While there is no rule against it, I do not know of
> any station currently broadcasting more than 3 streams.
>
> The greater the number of streams, the more narrow the
> frequency responce of each one. Thus, the HD3 streams I have
> encountered tend to be mostly talk or foreign language
> channels, and not be in stereo.
>
> In HD mode, the visual display will usually show the call
> letters of the station, followed by HD, HD2, etc.
>
> Most receivers have buttons which will cause the display to
> also display song titles, other program information, etc.
> There is a major experiment in the works to use that display
> mode to communicate weather warnings and other disaster
> information to people who are deaf. Right now, that
> experiment is only along the gulf coast, and includes one of
> the stations in the network that I work for here in
> Mississippi.
>
> Hope this wasn't more than you really wanted to know.
>