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Here’s more on the earlier story about Boston Acoustics packaging an additional antenna with its Recepter HD, first reported by Radio World Online.
Mike Starling, NPR’s chief technology officer and head of NPR Labs, described certification test results on the unit to Radio World Online:
“The Boston Acoustics Recepter HD measures at NPR Labs as having very good inherent FM HD sensitivity, but it’s no surprise that the short supplied antenna does not perform as well as other separate antennas in challenging indoor locations.
“There has been some suggestion that amplified antennas work better in such locations, but our NPR Labs measurements show the best results come when using relatively inexpensive passive antennas where needed.”
NPR purchased a number of Recepters for its member stations and Starling noted the buy was “fully subscribed in just a few days last November.” Since then, the network has received requests from a number of stations looking for more receivers as soon as they can get them, he added.