Click here for Altrok 90.5 HD2
Get the app for your iPhone and iPod Touch.
Now bringing Modern Rock to the Jersey Shore, at 90.5 HD2



 

There's more ads down here, and they help support us so, y'know, check 'em out...

Monday, March 01, 2010

Driving Tales (With HD Radio In Full Effect)

I took the long way around to get to New Brunswick for the Melody Reunion (about which you'll be hearing much more in the coming days) because I figured it was a great opportunity to get out on the road with my pocket HD radio and see just how big a tract of land the new Altrok 90.5 HD2 signal can legitimately call its own. From Freehold, I picked up Route 33 and headed east, then east-north-east on Route 66, and then picked up Route 18 in Ocean Township and headed north, then west, then northwest to New Brunswick.

HD works better when you're standing still than it does when you're moving...which is a bit annoying when it comes to driving around with a portable player jacked into your car stereo with a wire long enough to do double-duty as an antenna. Note that a properly installed car HD Radio would likely have a much better antenna array to receive with. But it did work, and here's what I found:
  • I started by moving my car to a spot on my somewhat-distant-from-the-Lincroft-transmitter driveway that I know gets me an HD signal from 90.5. Tuning in, you first get 90.5 The Night's FM signal, and after a few seconds the radio picks up the HD signal and locks on. From there, you can click up to 90.5 HD2, where our little experiment in broadcasting resides. "Locking on" is important for this experiment, because I know I'll be traveling through areas that the signal won't reach - and when that happens, the radio goes silent. (Honestly, it takes a little getting used to, but if this is what it takes to bring Modern Rock back to the Jersey Shore, so be it.)
  • Route 33 seems to form the southernmost boundary for getting the station when you're not moving. As I tooled along 33, the 90.5 HD2 audio popped in and out as expected, with the signal finally getting fairly reliable near the Garden State Parkway before chopping up again further east. (As I said, a choppy signal in the car translates to a signal that you'll be able to receive reliably at home, once you find a spot in your home that you get it from.)
  • Same results heading east on Route 66; a somewhat choppy listening experience, getting a bit better when I started heading north on Route 18...
  • ...until I hit the Deal Road exit. At that point, dropouts ceased and I got a nice, consistent listening experience heading north on 18...
  • ...past the Eatontown interchange...
  • ...on up to Route 34...
  • ...past Route 537...
  • ...and then it started getting choppy about a mile from the Route 79 exit on Route 18. Since by this time Route 18's path took me directly away from the broadcast tower, the degradation accumulated quickly. The last squawk of the station I was able to hear was around the Route 9 intersection with Route 18.
So, in summary, it's not exactly a border blaster from days of yore, but in today's extremely conservative programming climate, it'll do quite nicely. Very importantly, your mileage may vary, but I found that with a long enough wire connecting the pocket radio to whatever you're listening to it with, you can get the most signal possible. Red Bank, Eatontown, Ocean Township, Tinton Falls and Long Branch seem well-covered by the signal, and folks living there shouldn't have too many problems listening in. Asbury Park, Ocean Township, Wall, Howell, Freehold, Manalapan and Marlboro are choppy at best in the car, but a stationary radio placed carefully should bring it in. North of the tower, the hills throw the signal for a loop, so I don't expect nearly as much consistent (or even predictable) coverage in that direction.

Help may be on the way from the FCC, who recently announced an increase in power available to digital broadcasters; if 90.5 can take advantage of it, the map may fill in nicely. We'll keep you posted on our progress.

In the meantime, you probably don't have an HD Radio yet, so you're more than welcome to listen in using our Internet station. You may have noticed me pointing out discounts on HD radios...though the two cheapest are now sold out (watch this space, though, for some other deals when we can find them) and now you know...the rest of the story.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Links to this post:

Create a Link

<< Home

 
Please Look At Our Advertisers (Or The Website Gets It)
Congratulations, you've found the hidden text.
 
Welcome to Altrok.com, also available at AltrokRadio.com and AltrockRadio.com. Here's where the remaining listeners of several fine radio stations have retreated, regrouped, and built a replacement strong enough to stand on its own. It builds on the independent legacy of New Jersey's FM106.3, New York's WPIX and WLIR, Oklahoma's 105.3 The Spy, the pre-buyout mindset of KROQ, WBCN and WHFS and of every other alternative station that was destroyed at a moment's notice - not because they weren't making money, but because there was bigger money to be found elsewhere.
 
We've stood by as truly independent alternative rock radio died. Sure, something called "alternative" took its place, but we know for sure that anything that "tests well" with soccer moms just ain't alternative. (Even if some of us happen to be soccer moms.) So we've taken matters into our own hands.
 
This really is independent alternative rock radio, visible here at Altrok.com and audible at our web radio station. It has the classic music that fired our passions back in the day - or that we maybe only heard about from our elders - but it's mostly made of the new music that does precisely the same for us now. We're paying attention to scenes all over the world, watching the energy build, and waiting to see what it creates. Wherever it happens, we'll make sure you can hear about it here. We've been slowly building all this since 2001, and now that you've noticed us, we're glad you're here.
 
Of course, it's only here because you want it to be here, and it can only stay if you help it along - especially by checking out our advertisers (they support us) and by listening (the more that listen, the more visible we are.) Please use the "feedback" link above to let us know whether it works for you, and what you want it to be as the future unfolds. (And if you need help hearing it, let us know that, too.)