[BC] HD Radio's lack of upgrade capability

[Dan Strassberg]

Phil Alexander singled out HD Radio's lack of upgrade capability as the
system's greatest single flaw. I wholeheartedly agree (and Phil and I have
generally not agreed on much). I posted about this problem on this list
about a month ago. There were more than a dozen responses, and all but one
(which was somewhat ambiguous) said that easy software upgrades are the LAST
thing that IBOC needs. Notwithstanding the resounding disapproval of my
point, I continue to believe I am right and that those who are wrong are all
of the people who told me that I am wrong. Phil has greater credibility here
than I do, so maybe he can persuade at least a few of the doubters.
(Actually nobody was a doubter; with one exception, everybody who responded
believed that upgrades are a worse idea than a design that makes the
purchaser throw out the radio if the system is upgraded--and given the
degree of integration of radios with modern cars--sell the car at a distress
price if an upgrade obsoletes the radio). Enough good engineering plus a
suitable infrastructure could even--I suppose--yield a system that would
perform software upgrades in a manner that would require no user
intervention and would be invisible--I guess that should read
"inaudible"--to the listener while the upgrade was in process. A project to
add such a capability would be far from cheap, but I believe that without a
viable upgrade capability, the system is doomed. OK, I believe that the
AM-band system is doomed without the capability; the FM-band system might be
good enough.

--
Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg at att.net
eFax 707-215-6367