Are there any good HD radio tuners?

[KiM3Ce]

I had a good conversation with my local public radio station engineer. He all but admitted that my noise problem was caused by HD. He said they they considered it their public service mission to broadcast as many streams of service as possible and HD allowed many more than analog. This is another reason the public broadcasters have jumped that way.

 

[KentTeffeteller]

Yes, but many a new HD plant gets digital consoles and some gear modernization too. But the processing must be changed at minimum and often STL gear must be modernized. Not trivial expenses. I have several of the stations I care for which run HD. And those do well and have the operating budget to run it. Not everything we have runs HD. And no AM we have will run it. FM's will be capable of it as transmitters and processing and ancillary gear gets upgraded. So, in our larger markets, HD is an option for us. In smaller markets, we are considering it as we modernize.

 

[sKiZo]

Update here ... the Sony car radio is doing a bang up job on the home system. Only issue I had was reception on my favorite college station. I could get a fairly clean analog signal, but HD wasn't in the cards using my Magnum ST-2 omni. We're talking 3kW at about 30 air miles over rolling country.

Got me one of these and put it up today ... an Antenna Craft FM-6 ...

Pointed it right at the station, and HD Radio booming in loud and clear - been listening a couple hours with nary a dropout. Even getting the sub carriers now. wOOt!!

Next step is to figure out how I can run both antennas, as I did lose a LOT of stations with the directional antenna vs the omni. I "should" be able to stack both on the same mast as they're both different polarity, and run them off a selector switch. Best of both worlds maybe, even with incidental coupling ... wish me luck.

EDIT >>

I got a note back from Magnum ... they suggested I just stack the ST-2 omni on the same mast as the yagi and couple both into the same feed cable. With any luck, I'll still get the boost I need for WGVU and also get my omni range back. Cold snap and snow, so no rush there.

 

[exhippy]

Sony XDRF1-HD was a small gamble for me to take, and it worked wonderfully. As long as the unobtanium components last, I'm good.

Probably the best $85 I ever spent on a new component I use every day. Once I got the antenna to do its thing (the cheezy dipole is long gone, I just use a piece of coax cable), I was home free.

My local freeform classic rock HD station (KSHE2) is waaaay better than their parent station, which is the longest-running classic rock station in the nation. KSHE proper is not as good as it used to be in terms of programming, but the HD 2 station is miles ahead in terms of playing mid-level obscurities and providing a nice soundtrack to a simple lifestyle.

Haven't posted lately. Busy listening.

My Sony gave me nothing but problems. I got pissed and added it to the pile of broken/old/out of date electronics in the basement closet. Your right KSHE isn't what it used to be. I could tell you of stories back in the '70s when they were in Crestwood. Like knocking on the window in the DJs booth and asking them to play something at 2:00am! Good times!
Not sure how close to STL you are but if like "older" rock try KCLC 89.1 HD-2. That's Lindenwood U. in St Charles, MO they don't have a lot of watts so you might have trouble picking it up.

.