HD Radio? Lots of signal loss!

I'm not real sure exactly how this HD radio thing works but there is this Christian radio program that I used to listen to online and then I found out they have an HD radio channel so I wanted to get a car stereo with HD capibilities so that I could listen to that one program on the way home from work each night.  I didn't want to invest a whole lot of money so I seen that Dual offers this model (XHD-7714) that was loaded with features like HD radio built in ,bluetooth ,ipod, etc for $140 so I bought it and I am extremly disappointed with the quality of the HD tuner.  It does this "LINKING" thing about every 15-30 seconds during a song and even worse during talk segiments.  The audio completly goes out while it's "linking" and I just wanta know if this is just common with HD tuners in general or is it just common with cheap radios that have HD tuners built into them?  I live in a decent size suburbian city and the HD station I'm wanting to listen to is about 60 miles (1 hour) away from me so I should be able to hold a strong signal without any problem ,right?  I mean the regular station (not HD channel) fades out sometimes and they never happened with the factory radio so what is up?  Is HD radio advanced enough yet.  I'm thinking about buying a more expensive radio and then just add on the HD tuner seperate but I don't want to spend the money on the seperate hd tuner if im just gonna have the same problems regardless.  I wanna know if other people have alot of signal loss with HD radio or agin is it just me and my cheap dual radio?  All I'm wanting is a radio with good Ipod incorperation and a good HD signal so where do I find this? What car stereo companies do this the best?  Please help!

Your results are fairly typical (actually, I would say your reception is pretty good if you are actually about 60 miles from the transmitter).  I am about 35 miles away and get about the same things you are experiencing.

If the station is a subchannel (HD-2, HD-3, etc.), it will drop out like you said and go to "Linking".  If it is a main station broadcasting in HD (HD-1), it should drop back to analog.

The problem is HD is a digital signal, so you either have the signal or you don't - with analog FM, the signal will gradually fade away until you have more static than signal, but since it is gradual and since you can often make out the songs over the static, it seems like the range is greater.

I cover this in a few of my posts in this HD forum and in my HD tuner review thread.

I seriously doubt you would get much better results with a different tuner.

In general, HD radio has been a bit disappointing to me - I like being able to view song and artist name, and I'd miss it if I didn't have it, but USB or bluetooth would have been more useful - as well as satellite radio if I weren't opposed  to paying monthly for radio.

Hope This Helps!!!

Thanks for your input.  I think im just gonna give up on the HD radio thing for now as I just don't feel it's anywhere near being ready for the public yet.  I do however want to get something that is gonna give me full control of my ipod and I've had a tough time with that too.  I have bought and resold on ebay atleast 3-4 car stereos just in the past year that didn't really do much for the ipod.  I want quick & easy searchabilty ,song text etc and so far there is only one stereo maker that seems be able to deliver that.  The Alpine IDA models (IDA-X001 & X100) both have great color displays and seem to be all about the ipod (they claim) sense they don't have a CD player (don't understand why it would hurt to put a CD player on these things behind the faceplate???).  I'm really not wanting to spend a ton of money but it just seems I'm gonna have to to get what I want.  These things don't include anything. You even have to buy a remote seperate!  Does anybody know of any other good Ipod intutive units that have a CD player atleast?  I GOTTA have good control of my ipod though thus being why I'm leaning toward one of the Alpine IDA models.

I don't have an iPod, but I do use the USB input with flash drives.

Which models have you tried?

Alpine has the best reputation for iPod control - I suspect their non-IDA models (CDA-) that include a CD drive would work well also.  You also might look at the new HU's with full-speed iPod control on the USB ports - I think the new model Kenwoods and Sony's do this.

That said - I have a comedy CD in my CD drive, mostly so it remembers where it left off and can be an additional source, but I couldn't tell you when I've played a MUSIC CD in the drive - probably well over a year - I listen to all my music on MP3 on the USB drive.

Like you, I would hate the idea of buying an aftermarket deck and having to explain to friends that I don't have a CD drive so I can't play their CD's, but personally I'm not sure I'd miss it.

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TigerHeli:

 

Which models have you tried?

 

 

I 1st had a cheapo Jensen one that had the USB input so that I could have full ipod control.  Didn't do what it claimed then 2cd I bought a pioneer package model DEH-7700MP with an ipod interface box and that didn't do anything but play the ipod ,really no text much came up on the display and now (3rd) I have the Dual XHD-7714 model that has built in HD radio, built in bluetooth, itunes tagging, etc but the hd radio sucks (rarely keep a signal through 1 song) and the display is hard to read alot of times.  Don't know what I'm gonna try next.  I guess I need to be patient and shop around.

Definitely shop around, but let me throw some things out there for you ...

Jensen is not the best brand for iPod integration.

The Pioneer you had was an older (hard to tell years if you don't keep up with models, but I found a post where a guy in 2008 said he had had one for five years), and Pioneer used to have two separate external iPod interfaces depending on the model and the iPod determined which one you needed - you might well have gotten the wrong interface, and a new one likely has full-speed USB iPod built-in and should work much better.

On the Dual - if you are listening to an HD-1 station, it should drop in and out fairly seamlessly between analog and HD.  (It won't do that on HD-2 stations).  I know you didn't buy it for it to do that, but if it IS doing that, it is still probably better than you will get with an analog tuner, if you like the other features of it (which it sounds like you might not).

Definitely look at Alpine and Kenwood also, and you could try Blaupunkt and Sony and Eclipse as well.

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I've had my eye on some of the kenwood models that have 3 or more lines of text read out. seems like these will work well with my ipod. Looks like they all have a cd player and a bit cheaper than the alpines.  The model I'm thinking about getting is the kenwood KDC-HD942U with the built-in HD tuner.  What do you think?

KDC-HD942U  <Mod Edit: Fixed Link>

That is a new model - I haven't seen it in person yet, but I have seen some of the other 2009 models and like them a lot and the pictures of that one look really good.  I think it's a good choice.

Hope This Helps!!!

Well, just like what I have been telling everyone - HD Radio is a scam and farce by iBiquity. The real sh*tter is that the main purpose of IBOC is to jam the smaller, adjacent-channel, community radio stations off the dial. Buy an HD Radio and you are supporting the slow destruction of our airways.

HD Radio has been a complete disaster - conversions by broadcasters have stalled, and consumers have zero interest.