Category Archives: HD Radio

CIDX Special Event Stations and QSL information!

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Sheldon Harvey, who shares the following announcement from the CIDX:

CIDX AMATEUR RADIO CLUB STATIONS ON THE AIR JULY 17, 2022

CIDX has two amateur radio club stations that are activated from time to time on the ham bands, usually to mark special events, club anniversaries, etc.

VE2AQP is our eastern Canada amateur club station callsign, located at CIDX eastern Canadian headquarters in Saint-Lambert, Quebec

VE6SWL is our western Canada amateur club station callsign, located at CIDX western Canadian headquarters in Sherwood Park, Alberta

CIDX is planning to activate the stations in July to mark the 60th anniversary of the Canadian International DX Club.

VE2AQP will be active from Montreal, Quebec, operated by CIDX World of Utilities editor Gilles Letourneau, VE2ZZI, on July 17th from 1800 UTC to 2200 UTC around 14240 kHz USB, plus or minus, depending on activity and the conditions on the band,

VE6SWL will be active from Lamont, Alberta, operated by CIDX Vice-President & Verie Interesting editor Mickey Delmage, VE6IDX, also July 17th from 1800 UTC to 2200 UTC around 14265 kHz USB, plus or minus, depending on activity and the conditions on the band.

VE2AQP will be active again on July 31st at 2200 UTC to August 1 at 0200 UTC on 40 meters around 7150 kHz LSB, plus or minus, depending on activity and the conditions on the band.

CIDX will be issuing special e-QSLs for contacts with either or both CIDX club stations. SWLs are also welcome to submit reports should you log either or both stations. For those receiving e-QSLs who are not CIDX members, a free sample copy of “Messenger” together with club information will accompany the e-QSL.

CIDX will activate the two CIDX amateur club stations at various times throughout the balance of 2022 to mark CIDX’s 60th anniversary. Notices of future operations will be posted on the CIDX Facebook group and the CIDX IO Group.

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Exploring HD Radio receiver availability

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mangosman, who notes that since a number of SWLing Post readers are in North America, he’s curious if readers could read through and add to his list of HD Radios. He notes:

There was a HDradio trial in the FM band in India early 2021. The report shows the receivers used. I wonder if they are currently available in the USA?

I searched the receiver manufacturers’ websites with the following results.

It was not an easy task particularly for car radios so there could be omissions.

HDradio’s list of aftermarket car radios

Kenwood KDC-BT758

https://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Car/NEX/AVIC-W8500NEX#Tuner is the only current model of car radio I can find that will receive HDradio When you click on a particular model many of the links go to the manufacturers’ website but not to their product HDradio is very difficult to find.

HD radio’s List of Home radios

Sangean. HDR-15 is manufactured

Sangean SG114 clock radio is on the manufacturers’ website but not HD radio’s website

Sangean HDR-18 is manufactured

Sangean HDT 20 Tuner is on the manufacturers’ website but not HD radio website

Sangean SG108 is on the manufacturers’ website but not HD radio website

Sparc ITR-1 Not on manufacturer’s website

Sparc SHD-BT1 Out of stock on the manufacturers’ website

Now, Viewquest only makes DAB+ radios and not HDradio versions

https://hdradio.com/get-a-radio/portables/ there is only Sparc radio which are all out of stock.

HD Radio’s list of Portable Radios

sparc-shd-tx2 Out of stock on the manufacturers’ website

AudioVox HDP01A This company was renamed Voxx international in 2012 and no longer makes radios.

Sangean HDR-14

Phones

Beatboy was an HDradio with a phone added. It is not a smart phone https://www.carousell.ph/p/boxed-beatboy-basic-phone-243342561/ a free give away in the Philippines. Internet searches of the Philippines broadcasts shows evidence of HDRadio but all the references are old. Considering that xperi charges broadcasters for the use of HDradio standard, I wonder if they have all dropped it. It is not mentioned on the www.Hdradio website.

On phones I found this https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hd-radio/id333257742 Don’t get excited, look at the comments in 2012!

If you can find any other new HD capable radios which are currently available to consumers please post.

-Mangosman

If you can help add to or correct this list, please comment!

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Sangean HDR-16: Benjamin pleased to see re-mapped front panel buttons

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Benjamin, who writes:

I recently started looking into smaller HD radios and most recently have been looking at the HDR 14 and 16. In the process of doing my homework it looks like there was a very recent change to the HDR 16 that is a major pro.

The new version now has the MENU and INFO keys sharing a single button and the former INFO button now being remapped as a PAGE button.

Just like the HDR 14, the new 16s have a total of 40 presets 20 on AM and 20 on FM. It looks like they may have also changed the back light but it is hard to tell on the video that I saw. It makes me wonder if there were any other changes made under the hood that could affect either positively or negatively the HD reception as well as analog.

Here is a link to the YouTube video that I found the change through.

Thank you as always for all of the wonderful information you provide on your blog. I will be curious to see if there are indeed any other differences to this radio and maybe somebody else already has one that can comment pro or con about it.

Thanks, Benjamin for sharing your findings. If you’ve recently purchased an HDR-16, please comment!

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The new Sangean SG-108 portable HD radio

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Many thanks for SWLing Post contributor, Zack Schindler, who shares the following:

Sangean released a new MW/FM/HDRadio this year, the SG-108: https://www.sangean.com/products/product.asp?mid=261&cid=3

It seems to be identical to the HDR-14 except for the color https://www.sangean.com/products/product.asp?mid=230&cid=3.

I wonder if the receiver is any better than the HDR-14? I have an HDR-14 and am amazed by its performance every time I use it.

Thanks for the tip, Zack! I, too, love the HDR-14. I also love the fact the SG-108 still uses AA batteries as well.

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Parks On The Air: Finally biting the CW bullet!

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I mentioned in a previous post that one of my Social DX goals was to activate a Parks On The Air (POTA) site in CW (Morse Code).

Mission accomplished!

Yesterday, I mustered up the nerve and drove to the Blue Ridge Parkway (site K-3378 in POTA).

My wife and kids were knee-deep in another project so I planned to go solo until my dog, Hazel, caught wind I was leaving with my radio backpack in-tow. Always ready for a hike or road trip, she jumped in the car the moment I opened the door.

I’ll admit it: I was nervous. I had the same jitters I had the first time I spoke in front of a large crowd.

In the end, though, I really had nothing to fear. The POTA community is a very kind, courteous, cohesive and supportive group of radio operators.

I picked the Blue Ridge Parkway as my first site not only because it’s so convenient to where I live, but it’s also one of the most activated parks in the POTA program. I knew a BRP activation wouldn’t attract a mad pile-up of park hunters because everyone in POTA has this one in the books already.

My full radio kit–including my KX2 transceiver, KXPA100 100W amplifier, two antennas, Heil headset, two battery packs, chargers, and all accessories–is packed in my Red Oxx C-Ruck and always ready for action. I grabbed the full kit, although in truth I only needed the KX2, my CW paddles, coax cable and antenna.

Conditions were rough yesterday. Propagation was pretty good, but there were pop-up thunderstorm everywhere in the region, so the bands were very noisy with constant static crashes. Herein lies one of the great things about CW: you can use a filter width so narrow that it doesn’t affect you as much as it does operating phone.

Because I had limited operating time, I deployed the Wolf River Coils TIA portable antenna. It takes me all of 4 minutes to set up.

I got on 40 meters, started calling “CQ POTA” and the next thing I know I had 13 stations logged.

My nerves dissipated quickly after I logged the first couple of contacts and I was even looking forward to stations answering my call. The operators were also incredibly patient with me and two of them even followed me to higher bands and made contact there.

Hazel the dog staring at my portable logging computer.

Hazel was a bit upset this activation didn’t include a hike, so several times she insisted on “helping” with the logs as I sweated it out!

All-in-all, I logged 17 stations in one hour on three bands using about 10 watts of power.

I deployed my station quickly, and I packed it up quickly. A pop-up thunderstorm, once again, chased me off the air. That’s okay, though, because I was already feeling pretty chuffed about bagging my first CW activation.

If I’m being completely honest here in front of my community of radio enablers, as soon as I arrived back home, I started mentally putting together a super-compact CW activation kit built around an LnR Precision MTR3B transceiver. I’ve always wanted one of these little CW-only transceivers to carry in my EDC bag for impromptu field radio fun, but never could justify it. Until now! 🙂

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Let’s take a deep dive into a list of our favorite radios!

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Over the past week, I asked the SWLing Post community if they’ve ever regretting parting with a radio, and then what radios they’ve owned that had the most “fun” factor.

The response from these two posts was pretty overwhelming.

I don’t actually check the SWLing Post viewer stats that often, but I was too curious: together, those two posts amounted to well over 20,000 unique pageviews in two days!

Obviously, I’m not the only radio nostalgic person around here!

These posts resonated so well, I didn’t want readers’ favorite models to be lost in the comments section. I decided to comb through the comments, make a list of all of the models, and link to sites and pages with more information and photos.

This is an interesting collection of radios since some are benchmark performers, while others much less so. Many were listeners’ first radios–the ones we cut our teeth on.

I would encourage you to read through the comments on our first and our second posts. Many great memories in there!

Below, you’ll find the full list of radios in alphabetical order, starting with receivers then moving to transceivers:

Receivers

AOR 7030

AOR AR8000

Drake 2-C (Photo: Eric McFadden)

Hallicrafters SX-100 (Photo: Rick Post)

JRC NRD-515

Kaito KA1103/Degen DE1103

Realistic DX-394 (Photo: RigPix)

Realistic DX-394

Realistic Patrolman 6

Realistic Patrolman 9

Sangean 803A/Realistic DX-440

Siemens Radio E309

Sony Earth Orbiter (CRF-5090)

Sony ICF-2001D

Sony ICF-SW1000T (Photo: Universal Radio)

Sony ICF-SW7600GR

Wireless Set No.19 Mk III

Transceivers/Transmitters

Heathkit HW-8 (Photo: Eric McFadden)

The Icom IC-735

National NCX-3 (Photo: Universal Radio)

Many thanks to everyone who shared their favorite radios! I truly enjoyed checking out each of these models as I listed and linked to them. There were a number of unique models I had never seen before and many I had completely forgotten (like the Sony ICF-SW1000T)!

If you have more favorite models to share, feel free to comment here or on the original posts!

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Radio World: Time to “sound off to the FCC about using all-digital on the AM band”

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who shares the following note posted by Paul McClane at Radio World:

For those who want to sound off to the FCC about using all-digital on the AM band — either “fer it” or “agin it” —- the comment deadlines now are set.

Comments are due March 9, reply comments are due April 6.

As RW has reported, the FCC recently released a notice of proposed rulemaking to establish rules governing all-digital broadcasting by AM radio stations in the United States.

Read the NPRM here. The NPRM number is 19-123.

Click here to read at Radio World.

As we mentioned yesterday, this proposal is certainly in the final stages at this point.

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