FM – Page 18 – Engineering Radio

Comparison: Over the air listening on FM vs. streaming audio on Android phone

I have had my HTC Android phone for just about a year now, which is enough time to learn the device’s strengths and weaknesses. I have done a fair amount of listening to the audio, watching youtube videos, and playing .mp3’s to give me some idea of the technical quality and operational issues. Like anything else, these are general observations. Some radio station’s streams sound better than others due to the effort those stations put into audio quality.

The listening test was done with a set of Sony earbuds, which sound far better than the small speaker built into the phone. For ease in streaming audio, I used the TuneIn Radio application for Android by TuneIn Inc. For this test, I only listened to FM broadcast stations, both streaming and over the air.

The over-the-air tuner is the stock factory radio in my 1997 Jeep Cherokee. I would rate the radio average in every way. The actual tests were done driving around on interstate highways and other major roadways. There were a few instances where I had to give up on the Android phone due to traffic and driving considerations.

My Android phone has an FM tuner installed in it, however, it is really useless. I get only local stations, and then their audio is all hissy and for the most part unlistenable. The HTC FM tuner uses the headphone wire for an antenna, which may be a part of the problem.

Here is a chart of my observations:

Category evaluated	Analog FM radio	Streaming via Android
Overall Station Selection	Only those stations that can be received	Any station that is listed in TuneIn Radio App*
Almost unlimited, worldwide*	Can press the preset or scan buttons on the radio without taking eyes off the road*	Only those receivable signals limit it to a few well-programmed stations, the rest being garbage
Available formats	Only those stations that can be received	Any station that is listed in TuneIn Radio App*
Ease of use	Varies depending on location, and can be quite annoying, especially in mobile environment. App also occasionally locks up and needs to be restarted	Requires squinting at a small screen and pressing several little boxes to get to the desired station
Annoying commercial avoidance	See above on preset and scan buttons*	Very difficult to change stations quickly
Quality of sound	Good to excellent, depending on the station’s signal strength*	Fair to good, depending on the bit rate and network congestion, some stations sound very good and some can sound very bad
Drop outs	Occasional picket fencing with distant stations, otherwise, non-existent*	Requires data plan with smartphone, some plans cap data amounts, can be fairly expensive
Expense	Free, radio came with the vehicle, no paid data service needed*	Requires data plan with smartphone, some plans cap data amounts can be fairly expensive
Overall enjoyment	Good	Good

*Wins category.

I am having a difficult time assigning the overall enjoyment as well as an overall winner. On the one hand, it was very cool, driving down I-84 in Danbury, CT listening to Howlin’ Wolf on New Orleans’ non-commercial Jazz station, WWOZ. On the other hand, it was a right pain in the ass to get to that point, in rush hour traffic. By the way, WWOZ’s web stream is excellent, audio-wise.

From safety and ease of use, the FM radio in the Jeep wins hands down, I just don’t know how many more times I can listen to the same Led Zeppelin song on i95 (that used to be I-95, frankly I thought Steve Jobs copyrighted the lower case i).

The dropouts were also a concern, mostly taking place in the section of I-84 going through Putnam County, NY. I don’t know if my cell carrier needs to beef up its data coverage in that area, or if there were just a great many users on the network checking their e-mail, etc.

If they could sort out the ease of operation problem and get rid of the dropouts, streaming audio over HTC Android would win hands down.

The 75th anniversary of FM broadcasting

On November 6th, 2010, WA2XMN will once again take to the airwaves from Alpine, NJ on 42.8 MHz. Beginning at 12 noon, EDT, the station will rebroadcast the 2005 commemorative broadcast. WA2XMN holds an experimental license which expires in 2015 for the purpose of recreating Armstrong’s original Yankee Network.

I am not sure if they will be using the GE Phasitron transmitter or not.

The Armstrong Tower is located just off of the Palisades Interstate Parkway, on a bluff west of the Hudson River. After the World Trade Center site was lost on 9/11, all of the NY City TV stations relocated there until permanent facilities could be build at the Empire State Building. Empire had always been the home to most of the NYC FM’s except public station WNYC, which was also on WTC #1.

Lots of interesting pictures and history on the Columbia University blog, here, here and here.

For those interested in the history of FM broadcasting, Empire of the Air by Tom Lewis is a great read.

HD radio 2010 = FM radio 1950, (not)

I see this statement being made on various forums, blogs, and other places. As some would like to believe, the problem with HD radio is that people don’t like change. A Look at the early days of FM radio in the 1950s is a good example of this. FM radio took decades to catch on, HD Radio is no different. Currently, HD Radio is experiencing “growing pains” and the occasional “bump in the road.”

Except; no, not really.

Here is a side by side comparison:

Problem/issue	FM radio 1950	HD radio 2010
Implementation of technology	A new band was created and new radios containing the old (AM) and new FM band were manufactured. During the experimental phase (1937-47), the frequencies were between 42-50 MHz. This changed to 88-108 MHz in 1947. Uptake on new radios was slow due to a frequency shift.	Existing AM and FM frequencies were utilized using “Hybrid” mode. This entailed changing existing channel bandwidths arbitrarily. New receivers with the HD Radio chipset needed to receive broadcasts.
Funding	FM radio was implemented by broadcasters who, for the most part, bore the brunt of the costs themselves.	Consumers are generally unaware of HD. Those that are become disappointed with the lack of additional programming choices and poor receiver performance
Creation of interference	FM broadcasting created no interference to any other broadcasting station when it was rolled out	HD radio has created many interference problems, especially on the AM band at night, where skywave propagation makes adjacent channel stations bear the brunt of exceeded bandwidths. FM is prone to co-carrier interference from higher digital power levels created to solve poor reception issues in addition to adjacent channel interference to adjacent FM broadcasters from exceeded bandwidths.
Lack of consumer awareness or interest	HD radio offers a slight improvement to “CD quality” which is hard for the average listener to tell apart from typical analog FM. AM offers increased audio quality over analog, however, due to reception problems, AM receivers often lose data synchronization and return to the analog signal, creating up/down listening experience most find annoying.	Consumers were generally aware of FM radio, however, the FCC created a major stir when forcing FM broadcasters to move from their original frequency band of 42-50 MHz to 88-108 MHz. This move rendered obsolete many FM radios and caused hard feelings to amount early FM radio fans.
Technical reception problems	FM stations began broadcasting with low power levels and horizontally polarized antennas. Radio was not yet a mobile medium. Many FM listeners needed to install outdoor antennas on their homes to get reception. Radio listeners were willing to undertake this for good reception.	HD power levels are less than needed to have reliable reception in buildings and mobile listening environments. A 6 to 10 dB increase has not effectively been implemented nor solved the problem
Audio quality	FM broadcasting is markedly superior to AM broadcasting in the areas of noise reduction and fidelity.	HD radio offers a slight improvement to “CD quality” which is hard for the average listener to tell apart from typical analog FM. AM offers increased audio quality over analog, however, due to reception problems, AM receivers often loose data synchronization and return to the analog signal, creating up/down listening experience most find annoying.
Auxillary services, additional channels	FM broadcasting did not have any such features in 1950	HD radio offers the choice of 2 additional channels for programming. These channels are taken from the existing bandwidth/bit rate of the digital carrier and are a lower quality than the main channel. In addition to that, there is a data channel that can be used to display song titles and such
Programming	HD Radio main channel is the exact duplicate of its analog signal. HD-2 and HD-3 channel offer a variety of programming choices including simulcasts of AM stations, retransmissions of co-owned out-of-market stations, syndicated satellite programs, and occasionally a niche format.	During the early FM development and implementation, the only competing electronic medium was AM radio
Electronic Media availability	HD radio has enjoyed a rubber stamp environment where large businesses and the FCC work together to re-write interference regulations with no regard for technical consequences.	The choices of electronic media are wide and diverse. These include TV, satellite radio, internet, 3G wireless, mp3 players, AM and FM radio
Regulatory environment	The FCC staff was filled with ex or future RCA employees, who were interested in the status quo, thus keeping FM from becoming too big too fast and competing with the roll out of RCA’s television technology. Therefore it was hobbled with low power levels and a bizarre station class structure	The FCC staff was filled with ex or future RCA employees, who were interested in the status quo, thus keeping FM from becoming too big too fast and competing with the rollout of RCA’s television technology. Therefore it was hobbled with low power levels and a bizarre station class structure

The FM rollout in the late forties and early fifties is vastly different from the HD Radio rollout in the zero zeros. Due to fear of competition and patent disputes, RCA in conjunction with the FCC did all they could to squash the new technology. That is why FM radio took so long to be accepted by the general public. For those not versed with the history of FM development and FM broadcasting in the US, see Empire of the Air, by Tom Lewis. See also: Edwin H. Armstrong. It is a good read for those radio obsessed.

HD Radio is failing because the consumer is not buying it, I see little to change their mind.