Radio switches stations intermittently ?

[guest5669]

Whilst listening to the radio sometimes it's switching station, is there a fix for this or do I need to change the arial ?

[applicationcen]

You could do an automatic station scan and store? Or manually configure the buttons to the stations you like. It might just help.

If it jumps stations the usual way that that happens is because you are located at the intersection of two or more radio channels broadcasting at the limit of their signal strength.

Imagine driving from one end of the country to the other. You will pick the station signal up from the strongest transmitter. The radio constantly hunts for a stronger signal for that station and you usually don't know the change over has happened. Sometimes a momentary loss of sound.

But there are locations that have different radio stations that make the radio go from the one you were listening to, and change it for a for a totally different one. It is not physically possible to proscribe exactly what will happen, although a lot of engineering goes in to keeping things sectioned off nicely. In the AM days and with local pirate FM's in London and other cities this was a cause of a lot of concern because every one wanted to smother Terry Wobegone!

If there is something wrong with your radio or connections you are best placed to trace it back and trouble shoot connections and such?

[VicW]

Whilst listening to the radio sometimes it's switching station, is there a fix for this or do I need to change the arial ?

My radio aerial has been replaced by one half the standard length because of garage door problems but the radio still works perfectly. At home the radio works with no aerial fitted !

Vic.

[JazzyB]

There is a setting you can change as i had the same problem. I can't remember what it was but its on this forum.

[guest5669]

I listen to Smooth a lot and its this station that jumps and then goes back. I have done auto scan also used the presets but still got the problem?

[VicW]

We have Smooth preset on our radio and it does 'stutter' now and then.

Vic.

[guest5251]

make sure AF (auto frequency) is turned on,this is the setting that Automatically scans and find the best frequency for your listened to station

[culzean]

There are a few things that can make radio switch to another station and back
A-TP auto traffic information program - will switch to station that has traffic announcements on
News - will change to a program where news is on

[Eddie Honda]

Check if AF is on or off. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_frequency

If it's on, then it may and try and retune and find itself back at square one. Depends on what the signal is like in your area.

The other one TA if on will bounce to a traffic report on a TA station (such as BBC local radio) and bounce back to the original station when finished.

[guest5669]

Ive tried all the above from peoples feedback on here so far still have the same problem ?

[applicationcen]

You need to switch off TA, AF, RDS one by one or all together and see if thats causing it.
Be logical and note the settings so you can trace the cause.

Also are you stationary or moving when this happens?

I am guessing you are in one of these intersections where the radio is confused.

From another forum - - http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=455818

Does it have RDS? Easy way to tell is if it displays a station name rather than just a frequency.

It may be that the radio has decided that the signal isn't good enough and is trying to find an alternative. It does this in a number of ways. Firstly it will look in the AF (Alternate Frequency) list transmitted in the RDS data. This will list any alternative frequencies for the station.

If there are no stations listed - or those that are listed are too weak - it may then search by PI code. This is a four character code that uniquely identifies a programme service. The radio will try to find an exact match wherever possible but some radios switch channel if only the first or last couple of characters match!

Some radios have two tuner sections. One that you listen to and one that scans in the background for alternative frequencies that might have a better signal. In these radios the switching is relatively unobtrusive. However if your radio doesn't have twin tuners then it has to momentarily interrupt what you are listening to to go off on a hunt for an alternative.

There may be a RDS or similar button - or it may be buried in a menu option - that can turn this off.
chrisjr is offline     Reply With Quote
Old 29-08-2006, 16:51     #7
Dyn
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Newark-on-Trent
Posts: 794
Quote:
Originally Posted by chrisjr
Does it have RDS? Easy way to tell is if it displays a station name rather than just a frequency.
This isn't strictly true... one of the lower models in the Ford range has TP/TA and AF RDS functions, but doesn't display the station name.

[chrisc]

We only have plain FM here, no TA or such luxuries.  But the RDS is switched on and due to the terrain here, where you drive around a mountain to get from the suburbs to the city, it retunes itself.  In some parts of this city, behind another mountain for example, there is no signal at all

However, I have found when coming back into a strong signal area, the station stored in preset 1 seems to merge with that in preset 2.  I just press preset 1 again and it is fixed

[applicationcen]

Is your Jazz manufactured in SA?

[VicW]

Check that your radio isn't selected to 'Aselect' (autoselect).
It is a function that,if selected, retunes the selected station to something similar if it becomes weak.
It also reduces the number of FM pre-selects from twelve to six.

Vic.