[BC] HDradio & our digital future

[Rich Wood]

------ At 08:27 PM 12/21/2006, Phil Alexander wrote: -------

>Just one question: Where can you buy a MONO-FM set today?

At virtually every retailer I visit. Tivoli sells very high quality 
mono table radios. I bought a Boston Acoustics clock radio that's 
mono. Most drug stores have mono radios in blister packs. Wal-Mart sells them.

>IOW, the time will
>come when all radios are IBOC capable. If you look at the innards of the
>Sangean, (mostly empty space) it begins to look like the pocket portable is
>much closer than many think. There are factors that will tend to speed the
>transition once sets begin to become more widespread.

The issue isn't the size of the chip. It's the power consumption and 
the sensitivity. I installed a long wire AM antenna in the attic 
yesterday hoping to receive the only IBUZ AM in the market. No luck. 
If a long wire won't work on an Accurian. What makes anyone think 
earbud leads are going to do much better? The real bottom line is 
that most of the IBUZ radios really stink. I'm installing these 
antennas to experiment. What makes people believe the ordinary 
listener is going to install antennas on table radios? So far every 
consumer I've talked to on my "Where in the World is Carmen IBUZ" 
retailer visits has said no. Every single BA Receptor, according to 
one of the dealers, has been returned for being either defective or 
deaf. They've sold a couple of Polks because Polk is spiffing 
salespeople. They believe the Polks haven't come back because there's 
a real CD player. They've only sold two.

For decades to come we'll have very low powered IBUZ stations trying 
to reach deaf radios. It doesn't seem like a winning plan to me. I 
don't understand why iBuckuity didn't put more pressure on 
manufacturers to design decent receivers. At least for a little while 
to get this elephant to fly.

Rich