[BC] HD Radio's lack of upgrade capability

[Rich Wood]

------ At 06:45 PM 10/17/2005, Dan Strassberg wrote: -------

>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.

I recall responding and agreeing that over-the-air upgrades were 
critical. The Kenwood rep said they had stopped manual upgrades 
because of the time involved. Upgrading 1.5 billion receivers, I 
believe, can only be done over the air. My suspicion is that iBorg 
doesn't want them to be upgraded. They want them to be replaced. An 
upgrade probably would be free. Replacement lets them sell a radio 
all over again. Michael, the Kenwood rep said Kenwood had better 
things to do than make design changes to the radios either to upgrade 
or provide a unique identifier for each channel.

>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.

With the admitted flaws in both systems the inability to upgrade the 
software makes no sense to me unless the manufacturer doesn't care 
much about the industry. Hard to believe, I know.

Rich