What's the Frequency, Kenneth HD Radio for All Boils Down to Better Sound

HD Radio (see Figure 8-3) probably would have come to pass even if satellite radio didn’t begin to pose a threat to traditional terrestrial or land-based broadcasters. But from the beginning, HD Radio was heavily promoted as a “free” alternative to satellite radio. The mobile-music listener is the real winner in the radio wars because it all boils down to better sound and more choices for in-car listening.' 

Figure 8-3: The HD Radio logo. 

Courtesy of HD Radio 

What HD Radio is

With HD Radio, a digital signal piggybacks onto regular analog radio broadcasts. Because the HD Radio signal is digital, FM can potentially sound as good as a CD and AM as good as FM. Plus, there’s virtually no static, drop-offs, hiss, or the other noises or reception problems associated with analog radio broadcast.

An HD Radio station can also offer multicasting meaning it can broadcast separate programming on a sub-frequency of its allotted spot on the dial, which can only be picked up by an HD tuner. Most stations use the sub-frequencies to broadcast largely commercial-free programming that’s much like satellite radio. For example, a country station in Portland, Oregon provides a subfrequency that broadcasts blues programming, whereas a smooth jazz station in Miami offers classical music as its multicasting option.

Another advantage of HD Radio is that information such as artist name and song title as well as weather and traffic alerts and even stock quotes can be sent with a signal and shown on the radio’s display. And HD Radio promises to provide many other features in the future, including

Real-time traffic reports Surround sound

Store-and-replay functions that allow rewinding a song or even recording an entire program to play back later

On-demand news and information

Buy buttons that allow purchasing everything from music to products advertised on a station

Where you can yet it

HD Radio is available in the top 100 media markets in the U.S. and in 188 markets altogether. For a listing of the stations that carry HD programming, go to www. hdradio. com on the Web. 

How you can get it

Alpine, Eclipse, JVC, Kenwood, Panasonic, and Sony offer aftermarket HD Radio products. Some have HD Radio built into their head units, whereas others allow you to add it to a head unit with the addition of an extra-cost tuner box. Directed Electronics’ Car Connect HD Radio (see Figure 8-4) is a tuner and display/controller with an FM modulator that can be added to any vehicle. Automotive electronics supplier Visteon also offers two add-on options. So far, only BMW offers HD Radio as a factory-installed option on the OEM side, but Jaguar, Mini, and Hyundai will offer it on 2008 models.

Figure 8-4:

Directed Electronics' Car Connect HD Radio tuner can be connected to any existing car radio.

Courtesy of Directed Electronics