HD RADIO DISCOVERS STATIONS BETWEEN STATIONS

I guess I'm dating myself once again when I say I remember as a kid that my TV set had a channel dial from 2 to 13. Then we got TVs with a UHF dial that held the exciting promise of more channels only to discover that there was nothing ever good there. Today's TVs are going digital and can get literally hundreds of channels with cable and satellite programming. Even with just an antenna you can still get lots of stations, especially if you live near a metropolitan area. But what about radio?

There's a revolution happening in the radio world as well. Many stations broadcast an RDS signal that gives equipped radios the ability to display information about the programming it's playing such as a song's artist and title. Satellite radio from XM and Sirius offer hundreds of stations but the radios are costly and as with cable and satellite TV, you must pay a regular subscription fee to listen. But the TV you get over the air with an antenna, be it analog or digital is still free and the same thing goes for the new Hybrid Digital or HD Radio. Using the same old AM and FM analog signal, they've discovered a way to piggy-back a better digital signal.
This hybrid signal has the ability to not only carry a better sounding radio, it can also carry along with it a lot more programming. And it's all free.

With multicasting, they can broadcast two, even three different programming channels. Let's say you are listening to 90.3 on the FM band. With an HD radio, you can also get 90.3-1, 90.3-2 and even 90.3-3 if that station is offering it to be heard. And more and more radio stations are doing just that because the equipment to make all of this happen uses a stations existing broadcasting towers and infrastructure. According to Radiosophy (www.radiosophy.com), the makers of a little table-top HD radio, there are over 1700 stations doing this right now. In fact, 90 percent of the US population can tune in an HD station in their area and that continues to grow.

Radiosophy's HD100 radio can still tune in ordinary AM and FM stations but when it detects an HD AM and HD FM signal, a little blue indicator signals it's locked in. HD AM has the clear static-free audio quality of an FM station and HD FM sounds like you're listening to CD-quality audio. The HD100 has an LCD display that describes the programming you're hearing along with the station information. If it's music, you'll see the artist's name and song title, playing time, and more. Talk stations will show relevant data such as who is being interviewed for example.

The HD100 also offers features you'll find on a typical clock-radio such as an alarm clock that beeps or plays stations to wake you, a snooze button and even preset buttons you can set to 5 AM and 5 FM locations that include the newer HD broadcast locations on the dial. It also offers a headphone jack, an AUX out for your stereo system and an input for your MP3 player to use its stereo speakers.

If you want to check if there's an HD station in your area, you can go to the Ibiquity Digital website at www.ibiquity.com. You can search for a station by state, city and market. Ibiquity is the company that created the HD radio technology and makes the equipment available to radio stations.

I want to make one thing perfectly clear here. Unlike satellite radio where you can tune in all of the programming offered regardless of location, the HD Radio signal comes from the local radio stations to which you are tuning in. So you won't be able to get more radio stations. You will however, be able to listen to more offerings that are coming from those same radio stations in your area that are multicasting their HD broadcasts.

Radiosophy's HD100 table radio is available only in a glossy black. It sells for $99.95 and can be purchased directly from the Radiosophy website.
The HD Radio broadcasts are free. Thank goodness something out there still is.

www.radiosophy.com

www.ibiquity.com

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