"D Peter Maus" wrote in message
...

Which raises questions about why, if HD is going to be the saviour of
the AM band, there hasn't been as much promotion of HD on the low band as
there has been on FM.

The problem is that, with or without HD, there are only a couple of viable
AMs per market, if you average the top 100 or so markets. Some have none,
like DC. To the non-viable stations, HD is probably of no interest...
brokerd shows, ethnic fringes and religion are the alternatives.

Two additional questions: if 2.0 spec receivers are on their way to
retail, how will we know them from the 1.x spec receivers, since retailers
are going to be disinclined to identify obsoleted inventory themselves.

There are only a couple of 1.0 radios out there... the infamous "disco
lights" car radio and the BA and one or two others. They will probably be
retired... I understand the BA was redesigned, using the new spec.

What, specifically, are the differences, improvements, and advantages
of 2.0 over the previous generation of HD radios?

Lowered manufacturing cost is the main one, but there are some features
related to the HD 2 selection and the data screen and sensitivity to the
digital signal, as well as improvements to the basic algorithm on the
receiver side.

There is still not an efficient chipset that will allow portable devices
that run on batteries. That is a major concern, but being worked on.