rds car radio

SF1

Hi i got a new car last week and the preset stations were wierd :rolleyes:
fm1
1 bbc radio deven
2 bbc radio crymu :eek:
3 bbc radio mersyside
4 bbc radio 1
5 rte1
6 bbc radio ulster
fm2
1 bbc radio 2
2 2fm
3 bbc radio 3
4 lyric fm
5 bbc radio 4
6 r na g
fm3
1 nova976
2 lmfm
3 today fm
4 fm104
5 eastcoast radio
6 98fm
mw
1 virgin radio
2 fivelive
3 bbc radio scotland
4 talk sport
5 manx am
6 radio ulster

Did any one else get stations like that on there car
so lets see your stations

Mossy Monk

do they all work?

i dont own a car so cant comment

BrianD

What brand of car is it and where was it manufactured? If the FM stations are preset it suggests that the radio was tuned in the UK at some stage perhaps at the factory.

There is a trend, particularly in the USA for radio networks to pay car manufacturers to tune fitted radios to their channels. This could also be the case in the UK.

RDS is not available on MW but you will find that as you tune into a particular MW station the name is displayed. This is preprogrammed in advance. You will find that some radios will display Atlantic 252 when you tune to 252KHz LW even though it is now RTE Radio 1.

Genghis

My car has a Japanese radio in it, which not only means that the stations are at different frequencies (though not unrelated - 100.9 is 80.9 for example), it also means that the radio is very poor at picking up any stations at all. Going down the Naas Road I would be lucky to be able to listen to any Dublin station beyond Rathcoole, and picking up Radio FiveLive is impossible if it isn't after dark (even then is subject to a lot of interference).

Can anyone shed any light on this problem? Is there anything I can do to improve its reception?


P.S. The next car I get will have a radio that can pick all stations for a hundred miles on FM and 1000 on MW! I consider it to be one of the more important features of the car.

Lennoxschips

I used to live in Japan and have a Japanese portable radio. The Japanese FM band runs from 76.0 - 90.0 Mhz, the rest of the world uses 88.0 - 108.0 Mhz. So you will only be able to pick up Irish FM stations that are between 88 and 90 Mhz.

though not unrelated - 100.9 is 80.9 for example)

I'm not sure about this, but if it works for you...

eireman1916

eireman1916 wrote:

Hi i got a new car last week and the preset stations were wierd :rolleyes:
fm1
1 bbc radio deven
2 bbc radio crymu :eek:
3 bbc radio mersyside
4 bbc radio 1
5 rte1
6 bbc radio ulster
fm2
1 bbc radio 2
2 2fm
3 bbc radio 3
4 lyric fm
5 bbc radio 4
6 r na g
fm3
1 nova976
2 lmfm
3 today fm
4 fm104
5 eastcoast radio
6 98fm
mw
1 virgin radio
2 fivelive
3 bbc radio scotland
4 talk sport
5 manx am
6 radio ulster

Did any one else get stations like that on there car
so lets see your stations

Quite a simple thing happened there.
Your new car was in a couple of garages before the one that you bought it in.
I'm not saying it was a demo car,It's just that often, dealerships exchange stock between their garages depending on demand.

At each of the dealerships someone must have tuned in the radio stations available in the local area.
This could have happened in the showroom when a person was looking at the car if the key was in it, and at the factory aswell.
The RDS title for the last channel received or on the preset on the number you press will come up on your radio when you press it regardless of whether there is a signal there or not.

It will only go off it, if you have a new local channell on that frequency with RDS or when you retune to another yourself.

By the way I often get BBC radio Devon here in Wicklow and always get BBC radio cymru both with RDS
the only ones I can't get on your list are fm104 and nova 976 and obviously BBC radio ulster-though I got it once in high pressure and on the same day got galway bay fm here-a very rare FM occurance in south Wicklow.

Genghis-you need a new car radio and aerial

Antenna

BrianD wrote:

RDS is not available on MW but you will find that as you tune into a particular MW station the name is displayed. This is preprogrammed in advance.

I have come across that on LW on some car radios but never MW !

BrianD

I have only seen this facility for LW as well (perhaps I was wrong). I was assuming that as eireman was able to readily identify all of the stations on MW I asumed that the station name was being displayed.

SF1

the names of the mw were from my knowledge of radio station frequancys plus a little help from the computer

Mike 1972

RE: The Japaneese problem

Sometimes when Japanese cars with radios prefitted get shipped abroad instead of replacing the radio they fit "convertors" (This can also be a problem in parts of Eastern Europe where the old OIRT band which runs from around 65 to 74 MHz or on very old US radios which tuned from 42-50 MHz)

Convertors supposedly enable your car radio to tune part or all of the standard FM band but as youve discovered theyre usually a pile of crap

Replacing the radio is your only option