SONY XDR-F1HD - GENERAL OPINION OF THE HD RX:
I resigned myself to the reality that I am not going to the much anticipated radio day in Amsterdam next month. It is a shame, but a weekend in Holland will end up too dear for me this year. So I bought myself a little American Sony HD receiver instead, which it seems was made in China!!!!!!!
The following observations are made of the unit straight out of the box, no modifications, except cutting the American plug off and fitting a UK type!!
These little gadgets are all the rage in the FM DX community, and are remarkably cheap. £55 plus postage. The reviews of this receiver for FM that I have read have been really over the top with praise. It was as though the set had some unique and really "hot" spec. That was one of the reasons I bought it. The second reason was to see if there was any American HD going to be possible across the Atlantic.
During my first trials here, I am comparing side by side with the much heralded Sony SB-920, dual input wide/ narrow tuner. This truly is a great receiver in itself, but I had never read a decent A-B comparason.
Both receivers are running from the same antenna, vertically polarised, and running from the same splitter amp, and fed through the audio desk at the same equaliser settings.
So I began trying the known local channels for selectivity, and sensitivity.
1. 97.4 Belfast and 97.5 Girvan are close in freq, (as well as geographical area). Results showed the HD set was about the same as the SB-920. A little rumble from the stronger ILR AYR 97.5, heard on both sets. Audio on the HD set was far worse, and sounded more like MW, than FM. The SB 920 provided much better audio on both frequencies, and with no difference in selectivity noted, the SB-920 won on that test. My old Grundig Satellit 3400 is also capable of splitting 97.5 and 97.4 equally as good as the two Sony sets, or certainly very close to it.
2. Next, the Kintyre FM frequencies on 107.7 and 107.1. 107.7 is much stronger here, and apart from the audio quality, both radios produced about the same results. On 107.1 on a weak transmission, on a clear frequency, I much prefer the audio of the SB-920. There was absolutely no benefit of any improved signal strength on the HD set.
3. After trying various frequencies, I found a tight one. 101.1 is a weak Edinburgh station, while on 101.3 I have very local Classic FM. On the SB-920, Classic FM is more of a problem ,and the weak Edinburgh signal is barely heard. On the HD set, the station is audible without Classic FM splatter, although still very weak. The HD set had the edge on this freq.
The HD set decreases audio if the signal is weak, so volume has to be turned up to compinsate.
SONY XDR-F1HD - RDS:
RDS is quite important to FM dxers. I prefer to hear IDs myself, and much prefer to have audio clips. But I have loads of little movie clips of flashing and scrolling RDS. To help check the RDS on the two receivers, David Hamilton and I tuned .1 off freq on each set, and on the count of three, both tuned to a strong local, and waited. The SB-920 showed RDS faster. But the story doesn't stop there. On a weaker station that was touch and go with RDS, the HD set won over the SB-920. The word GALAXY was up on the HD set while there was nothing on the SB-920. Both are quite slow to respond to RDS however.
Is the audio quality on FM kept to a lesser standard on the HD set, so as to fool the public into thinking that the HD is so much better??? Or is the American FM system so very different from here?? Who knows? But knowing what I know now, I wouldn't rush out and replace the SB-920 with the XD set. It is a fine addition though to a dx shack, and at a very reasonable price, and probably beats many other FM tuners easily. I find the sensitivity of the HD set absolutely no different to the 920. Selectivity is about the same with moderate strength signals, but if you are tuning a very weak station right next to a very strong local, then the HD set has the edge in some circumstances.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Do not part with your Sony SB-920. I do fancy that the SB-920 will remain to be my FM DX receiver of choice when the season comes in again.
So is it worth while buying a set from the States, paying import duty etc, throwing together a 110v power supply, rather than using a UK tuner, tried and tested in the SB 920.. But there is the stumbling block. They are no longer available, except on the second hand market.
SONY XDR-F1HD - PRESETS, OR LACK OF:
The presets on the HD set revert back to the defaults after power down. So there is no point in programming any local channels in to it. It makes you think this unit has been built as cheaply as possible, or without much thought input, if the presets do not even work properly!!
You may say, "Oh yes, such and such has shared a modification on their web pages, of how to add a back up battery", but that is hardly the point. Imagine if your television presets had to be retuned every time they were plugged in!!! It is not everyone who wants to start tearing their sets to pieces anyway, if they have just purchased a new radio. And not everyone would feel confident making technical mods.
SONY XDR-F1HD - THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING:
Below are a few audio clips to compare the two receivers. Remember the sets are both supplied from the same antenna from a multi way splitter amp. Despite my best efforts at the time of recording, I was finding it difficult to mimic the results on 101.1 as mentioned above. The signal on the very weak 101.1 was barely there today, except during some fluttery strong signals. The SB-920 has the benefit of tuning to .05mHz up or down, where as the HD set can only tune .1 at a time, so the weak station on 101.1 was still audible on both receivers.
1. Good strong signal on ILR AYR on 96.7 FM. HD receiver is less toppy.
3. Medium strength signal from Galaxy Glasgow tx. RDS was more consistant on HD rx.
5. Very weak signal on Argyll FM 106.5, clear channel, no other stations near by.
The Sony HD
rx is on top of the classic NRD 515.
The power unit bottom right is a variable supply useful for the required
110V
Sony SB920,
still a great receiver
SONY XDR-F1HD - MW ON THE SONY HD:
I was pleasantly surprised by the AM audio quality of the HD set. Many Euro channels are beyond the 10kHz channels, and not listenable. Some are however, and the response on MW is quite good. It is also good on some of the American channels, eg 1130, or 1080.
NB: The radio is NOT a MW DX machine, but it does pick up TADX, as will any old junk domestic type radio. The reception of long distance AM stations on kids toy radios seems to be a hobby in itself these days, though this fruitless distraction is not for me. Time spent listening on cheap junk for me would be time not spent listening to dx on my proper receivers, which I spend too much time in front of anyway!!
The Sony HD set has built in AM HD, which is sometimes referred to as IBOC, or to put it another way, jamming with white noise. I thought it would be interesting to try this here in Europe, but the chances I think are slim. Look how unreliable strong DRM is with a skywave signal, never mind a dx signal from 3000 miles away. So trying the band yesterday morning when the signals were well down on the previous day due to high K's and Aurora.
The Sony HD has an HD light, which is always out when listening to European signals. But when listening to American stations, if there is a weak HD signal there, the light will come on and flash. If the signals were strong, I think the idea is that the HD light would lock and the HD signal would switch on automatically, if there was a good enough signal.
I did receive an indication of a weak HD signal from the following.
880, 1080, 1100, 1120, 1200. Also over the weekend I noted the HD light flashing on 660 and 1140. Not sure which station it was on 1140. Listings say the common WQBA has no HD, but WRVA in Virginia does. Add to this 1010, 1130 and 1560, and we have a reasonable selection of signals making it to Europe.
The weak HD signal present indication was as far as it went however. Nothing further noted than a flashing light, which is NOT dx by any means!! I can say however that on MW in the European evenings, even on strong and busy frequencies, the HD light does not come on by itself in error.
CLICK HERE TO SEE A MOVIE CLIP OF WTIC ON 1080 WITH HD LIGHT ON (7 meg)
Often this mush is seen and heard here in Europe as white noise, much the same sound as DRM jamming. But the technical spec of IBOC is very different than that of DRM. IBOC has two signals, one either side of the main AM signal. DRM is an independent signal on one freq. I have no idea if you need the two sides of the IBOC to be of reasonable signal level to lock the HD signal. If that is the case, it becomes more difficult here in the UK. The mush is often seen and heard around 1070, from what I always took to be WTIC 1080. This being the case, the other half of the HD signal will be somewhere in the middle of Talk Radio which is strong on 1089.
SONY HD RADIO:
I had an e mail yesterday from an old collegue I haven't heard from in a while. He had been listening to a top band discussion on the Sony HD radio. Just to make it clear, the HD that I have been trying to bring in is the MW version of HD, which is proving very difficult. I have had the HD light on for the channels listed below. Bear in mind that the HD light flashes when HD is detected, but it hasn't ever locked on yet. A couple of times the radio has went silent, as though the HD was about to kick in, but then it eventually reverted back to AM. The longest it was out for was about 15 seconds. I shall keep on trying. If ever I do get a brief HD signal, I think I will remain pleased with the first instance. It looks like an uphill battle at this distance.
Compared to the Perseus, the HD set sounds easy and nice on the ears. It is a nice quiet radio when there is a mid Euro channel TADX freq available. (Meaning the stations with the widest space away from the Euros, eg 1130, 1120 etc)
HD NOTED ON THE FOLLOWING:
660 - Prob
WFAN
680 - WRKO??
880 - Prob WCBS
770 - WABC??
1010 - Prob WINS
1080 - Prob WTIC
1100 - Prob WTAM
1120 - Prob KMOX
1130 - Prob KFAN
1140 - Unknown, poss VA?
1200 - Prob WOAI
1560 - Prob Disney
Every station is presently UNID, as there has never been an indication of text on screen or HD audio.
The Sony is capable of receiving both AM and FM analogue, as well as AM and FM versions of the American HD. Not that I am a believer in the FCC granting permission to jam the MW band with white noise. But I would like to dx the signal, even if it was only once. See a more detailed description below of the Sony HD set.
Audio clips from the Sony HD set off of MW. You can see how having to stay put on 10kHz effects 880:
091031_0712_570_reloj_gd_on_sony_hd_rx.mp3
091031_0713_590_vocm_gd_on_sony_hd_rx.mp3
091031_0709_880_wcbs_gd_on_sony_hd_rx.mp3
091031_0707_1130_wbbr_gd_on_sony_hd_rx.mp3
091031_0722_1700_kvns_poor_on_sony_hd_rx.mp3