Insignia Portable HD Radio NS-HD01

I bought this radio (obviously) to get HD Radio. But being that it was portable and lacked any FM antenna was very shocked to actually get a great radio. Whether you care about HD Radio or not. It's a great one just for FM DX'ing or just listening to stations far away. The seek (which normally rejects low signal stations on most radios) pulls signals in well. The HD signals on it are fair (for far distances). I found out you have to aim it toward the city of broadcasting or toward the transmitter of the station. You can lock or start to lock in the HD signals. Meaning the wire or headphone cable. For $20 (what I paid) it's a steal! HD Radio plus great DX radio. RDS however on normal analog is very weak. Showing poor RBDS or RDS signal when other radios pull in with no issues. Rejecting RDS info from a station that is less than 4 miles away. I modded mine added a portable speaker and telescoping antenna for better use. But if used normal it works well. Much better than expected.PROS:VERY Long battery life. Charged it once last week and use it for about 30 mins a day and it still has 1/2 battery.FM reception. Great at pulling in weak stations from up to 80+ miles away.Good size for carrying and easy to read display.No AM HD (trust me that's a GOOD THING)Can preset HD-2/3 stations (great if the HD-2/3 signal is weak and lock is needed)CONS:Rejects or looses very strong RDS data from stations that are VERY close.No EQ options or STEREO / MONO selector.No option to reject analog (for most HD-1 stations) signals when HD is available or vice-versa.No AM (analog) reception.Could use more presetsJumps between IBOC low SQ on HD signals (this is an IBOC/Ibiquity issue)UPDATE (12/12/2011)After using this radio for 4 months now. I'm still VERY pleased. This radio may not be the best for what it's SUPPOSED to be good at, HD Radio. But it's a KILLER (that's a good thing) at pulling in weak stations. I took it on a trip from TN to WI a few days ago. Was shocked what I was able to pull in that other radios failed on. Even car radios (which are notoriously good). It also is VERY good on DSP or PLL for zeroing in on stations that are a few kHz from each other. i.e. 107.5 in Nashville, TN (75 miles from me) and 107.7 McMinnville, TN. (My local hometown station.) The radio can pull BOTH in WITHOUT any crossover or high-power bleed-through . This radio can pull in stations that are listed "fringe" by Radio-Locator.com. Stations that even my $100 AM/FM/SW Radio (Grundig G3) fail (or are poor at) to pull in as well.So I'll say it again. I'd buy the radio AGAIN. JUST FOR THE FM reception. Forget the HD Radio. Yeah it's an HD Radio. But it does a BETTER job at regular FM Radio than most any other radios. Plus it's a steal at the current price as of this update. Most radios in this price will do good if they can get LOCAL. Forget any stations further than 30 Miles. This one has the rest beat!If you want to make this radio better. Make your own EXT antenna mod. I took a small stereo cube speaker. Old telescoping antenna and a 2 jack headphone splitter and connected them all together WITH 3M tape and soldered them together. Not much I can't pull in. But in testing. I can do fairly well with just headphones too.Get this radio. if you want a powerful sensitive radio you won't be disappointed. If you want HD Radio only however, You may not be as pleased.UPDATE : 5-7-2012.... This evening I received a station that was over 187 MILES away from where I was at. This shows the receiving capabilities of this radio. I'm sure this was a fluke. However I doubt many other radios could pick up like this one does unless it's very expensive.

You can't get too upset over a technical malfunction with a 20-dollar HD radio, but mine suddenly has clammed up on me. The silence occurred after I left it charging for a prolonged period of time--over a day, which I may have been warned about in the instructions. Up to that point (I may still coax it back to life), it performed like a miniature champion (if not up to iPod quality). The sensitivity was about equal to my Sony tuner, and the sound as heard through high-quality headphones--both regular and HD FM--was pristine. It's definitely not a "toy" or a "rip-off" as some have suggested. I never got around to trying it with external speakers, but I see no reason that anything would limit it other than content availability in your area and the power of your amplifier. As a walking companion, it was perfectly fine, so I'm hoping it's merely temporarily on strike.]The scarcity of HD radios, and the availability of this nifty little radio only through Amazon 3rd-party sellers, does not bode well for the technology. As others have mentioned, HD can be erratic and inconsistent. There's is no static or "weakening" of the signal: it's all or nothing, which means that there are times and locations when the signal will be "stop and go" or will have flown away. Also, the search and "lock-in" of the signal takes a few extra seconds compared to the instant response from conventional AM and FM bands (though on this small unit the lock-in is reduced to a fraction of a second).With those caveats in mind, this little device nevertheless represents a good value. I find that it rapidly finds and holds on to a local signal more securely than the well-reviewed Sony HD tuner, which is 2-3 times the price. And unlike the Sony, no antenna is required (it's invisible, tucked away inside of the small case). So you can pretty much use it like an iPod, attaching it to the included arm band, carrying it in a pocket along with your favorite earphones, or even connecting it to an amplified speaker.Besides HD frequencies, the unit picks up conventional FM. In fact, you can make it scan simultaneously for both, selecting the strongest signals and best programming as pre-sets.Personally, I don't sense that the audio fidelity--even under optimal conditions--is dramatically different from that of a good conventional FM signal. So its usefulness to the purchaser is likely to depend on available content. For example, if you're a jazz fan and have a local HD station that offers continuous jazz 24/7 but only on one of its HD bands (most stations are beginning to take advantage of the opportunity to employ a single band, but only as an alternate, "cleaner" version of their primary broadcast. But a few stations are offering more than a mere simulcast, giving the listener from 2-6 different programs exclusive to their broadcasts in HD).Quibbles: 1. I may discover I'm wrong, but it appears that if an FM signal has a sufficiently strong HD alternative, the unit automatically converts to the HD signal (which is a fractional second behind a regular FM signal). I'd like the option of comparing the conventional and HD signal. 2. It appears that the unit does not receive AM, which I understand also can broadcast in HD. 3. The unit presents the slight inconvenience of having to charge it through the USB port of a computer (similar to an iPod). An AC power adapter or a couple of common AA or AAA batteries would have been preferable (though I have a hunch my iPod AC adapter will do the job).Final plus: Well packaged, with inclusion of armband, USB charging cable, earphones, complete instructions (full booklet plus quick set-up sheet, both written in clear, user-friendly prose).

Honestly, the first second I opened the product I knew I was going to have problems. Then I hooked up some headphones to try it out and was pleasantly surprised when I first started it up. It came in, crystal clear. Then I put it in my pocket... and there was so many pauses in the music/etc I couldn't stand it. Then I took it out of my pocket, and it got a little better, but as I walked about my house it did the same thing.The product itself is a pretty cheap product, the buttons have a terrible feel, and overall this product just didn't work for me. I hate giving 1 star reviews, but when you can't even use the product what you bought it for - even with some extensive ghetto rigging(Which is something I specialize in) - I'm not going to give you any stars.