I have problems with a specific HD Radio station in the Denver area that's driving me a bit crazy. When listening to one particular HD Radio multicast (sub-channel) station, there is intermittent audio distortion that sounds like a crackling or "loose audio source connection" which seems to be present as part of the lower frequency ranges. The distortion makes the station unbearable to listen to.

The issue seems to be unique to my 2023 ID.4. It seems to me that this could be a hardware problem with the radio itself because I do not hear distortion on this station when listening on two other HD radios I have access to: one in my wife's vehicle (not a VW) and the other being an HD Radio receiver I have at home.

Has anyone else encountered this issue with your ID.4 radio?

Is there someone else in the Denver area with a 2023 ID.4 that could try tuning into HD Radio station 97.3-2 and let me know if you also hear distortion as well?

Do other HD stations work successfully for you on your ID.4?

 

Yes, absolutely. This specific FM frequency has 3 multicast stations. HD1 and HD3 have no distortion. HD2 is the only one that has issues.

I have listened to multiple other FM frequencies and HD multicast stations as well. I have only found this one multicast station so far that exhibits this distortion. 🤷‍♂️ (Of course it's one that I'd like to use!)

 

My 2022 ID.4 has the same issue with 97.3-2. My other vehicles are too old to access -1 and -2 stations to troubleshoot 🙂.

 

'Sounds like that call to the station engineer is in order!

 

It seems implausible to me that the receiver would have a problem with one specific HD substation. Doesn't make sense. I'd be more suspicious of the station. Of course since HD Radio is digital, you either have good enough reception to lock onto it cleanly, or you don't. A weak HD2/HD3 station might cut in and out, off and on. Or it just wouldn't be receivable at all. There wouldn't be any static.

If we were talking about HD1, a receiver might randomly switch between analog and digital reception if the signal is weak.

The digital HD signal is piggybacked on the station's analog signal, and at a small fraction of the power of analog. HD can have from 1% to an FCC maximum of 10% of the station's analog power.

 

I agree that it's very unlikely to be a receiver issue. As to the difference between perception of distortion between two different receivers, I would put it down to the listening environment and sound level.
My guess is that it's the audio transport stream (a lot of stations use IP transport for their program audio), or the actual HD exporter/importer hardware associated with that particulary HD channel. Also, any excessive levels in the digital audio path will result in cutout and static-like sounds.

 

Thanks all for your feedback. I have reached out to the station but have not heard back from anyone yet.

 

Thinking about it more, given that the HD processor is software-driven, I guess there's small chance that there's a coding issue that only affects that frequency. Just speculation though. I would focus on the station.

When reaching out to the station, check their web page to see if they have an engineer listed under Contact Us. Many stations use contract engineers though so none will be listed under Contacts. In that case try to reach out to the station's General Manager (or equivalent), making it clear you're hoping your comments will be forwarded to their engineer. If you send to Info@ there's a good chance whoever gets the email won't know what to do with it.

 

I have the exact same problem with the exact same station. The only difference is that I'm driving a 2025 Tacoma. I'm going to assume it's the station and not our hardware