Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill Mead, who writes:
Thomas, I’m sending you a short clip from WWFD 820 kHz in Frederick, MD. It’s America’s only all-digital station, apparently. They are HD only with a relatively eclectic music format. I’m hearing them at my QTH in Harrisburg, PA, about 80 miles or so north of their transmitter which is 4.3 Kw daytime. I sort of doubt they’ll come in at night when they drop down to 430 watts, but who knows.
My experience with HD on MW is that it can be heard at pretty decent distances under ideal conditions but the slightest bit of interference, a lightning strike or someone switching on the lights for example, and it’ll lose the HD lock.
My HD receiver is a Sony XDR-F1HD. It’s well-known as an excellent FM DX machine. What’s not as well-publicized is that it’s a very decent MW receiver as well. All it needs is a good MW loop antenna directly connected to the AM ANT terminals on the back of the radio.
Click here to view on YouTube.
Excellent! Thanks for sharing, Bill. I’m passing by Frederick, MD in a couple of weeks and plan to tune to WWFD in both my car and with the Sangean HDR-14.
Great catch.
The Sony XDR remains a phenomenal tuner even after these years. Its performance on AM HD is excellent too given a good antenna as you note; its bandwidth filtering is too wide to be used as a general-purpose DX machine though.
Unfortunately in constant use, those tuners eventually become self-destruct bombs because of power-supply overheating and poor ventilation. There is a wide variety of aftermarket mods which include adding fans, installing a more efficient rectifier array, and such; which will prolong its life. It is worth preserving as it is pretty clear the world will never see another product quite like it.