HD Radio in Calgary

[Teacher]

It appears that Corus Calgary is now broadcasting in HD. Country 105 and News Talk 770 are both broadcasting HD on Country 105's 105.1 MHz. Country 105 is obviously HD1 and News Talk 770 is HD2. I don't have an HD radio (yet), but would like to hear from the members in Calgary, with an HD radio on how it sounds.

[albertaboy4life]

I'm using an Audiovox iHD-P01A HD Radio Portable Player, with the supplied ear buds, to listen to Country 105 (CKRY) and News Talk 770 (CHQR) in HD as I post this. Country 105's HD feed is on HD1 while News Talk 770 is on HD2. No sign of a signal on HD3. The Audiovox is an FM only radio.

This is my first experience with HD Radio. I don't have access to a car with an HD Radio and I have no other devices capable of receiving HD Radio signals. I'm also not a broadcast engineer.

The following descriptions are highly subjective and may be due to the limitations of the radio and ear buds I'm using. I have nothing else to compare what I'm hearing with and tonight's experience will serve as reference points for me.

News Talk 770's HD audio is a mono signal and sounds like a web-stream. I'm hearing digital artifacts, especially when the talk show hosts speak. No question that the audio is more wide-band like than the AM signal and there is no electrical noise. There is the odd popping sound, sort of like the sound a static electricity shock makes.

Country 105's HD audio is in stereo but while it seems to be a pretty decent bit rate it too sounds like a web stream. I would not call it CD-like quality. I'd compare it to a stereo 64 (maybe a bit higher) kBps web stream as again I'm hearing digital artifacts. It's quite noticeable, for example, when a SHAW cable ad runs and their "chime/sounder" for lack of a better description is played. This is also the case with percussion instruments and acoustic guitars. Years ago I remember reading a critic of compressed digital audio saying that the ultimate test is a hand clap for hearing digital artifacts. Haven't heard any applause so far, but I'd bet the digital artifacts would be quite noticeable for both stations.

The switch to the HD feed isn't immediate so I briefly hear Country 105's FM signal before the HD feed kicks in. There is a noticeable difference as the FM signal has the usual lop-off of frequencies above 15 kHz and again, like 770's feed, a more wide-band like sound when the HD feed starts. The HD Radio stereo separation is pretty good.

In listening for over an hour and switching between the two stations, I'm not experiencing any signal loss and haven't had a single drop out.

Now if only some other Calgary stations would offer HD Radio signals as neither 105 nor 770 are among my local favourites. It will be nice to listen to play-by-play of Stampeders games, though, without any sign of electrical noise.

[Rocky]

Q107, sister station to 105 and 770, might be next.

Except they think they're Rock 101 on their website.

http://www.q107fm.ca/hd/

[albertaboy4life]

Well, that page is gone - http://www.q107fm.ca/?err=404

[TRENT310]

Are they time-delaying the analog FM audio by long enough, in order to smooth out audio for receivers which may automatically switch between the FM and IBOC?

[jon]

Are they time-delaying the analog FM audio by long enough, in order to smooth out audio for receivers which may automatically switch between the FM and IBOC?

Didn't realize that that was an issue, as the only IBOC I've heard has been KSL-AM from Salt Lake City, which switches back and forth a lot, and it is seamless. If it is not synced exactly, it is well under a second.

[Teacher]

The delay seems to be bang on, as the blends from analog to digital are seamless sounding to me, as far as time alignment is concerned.

[Beacon]

The analog is delayed by 8 seconds. If you're in Banff listening to the repeater and flip back to 105.1, you'll notice the repeater is ahead of 105.1.

[pave]

What on Gawd's green earth is all this supposed to accomplish...?
I recall sitting in the PD's office at 66-CFR to hear the AM-stereo signal.
That was the first and only time I ever heard AM-stereo.

[kal]

I know the thread refers to Calgary ....

here in Vancouver the HD campaign for CKNW seems to have ended. Might HD radio here (in Canada) die before it ever gets widely accepted?

[Aaron]

The difference between AM stereo and HD radio -- AM stereo was all about sound quality, while AM stations on HD radio is all about being able to get the damn signal in the first place.

But...going to 105.1, then finding the hidden station within, is too complicated to cut through the clutter.

So the similarity between AM stereo and HD radio will be the lifespan.