Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by 0xffff2 2898 days ago
> but now even the analogue car radios are digital devices that scan multiple frequencies to hop to the next frequency aired by a given station so you don't experience much cutout

Wait, is this really a common thing? How would I know if a car radio does this, because I'm 99% sure my car doesn't.
2 comments
AnssiH 2898 days ago
The name of the feature is usually AF (RDS), all my car radios since 90s have supported it and all multi-transmitter FM stations here make use of it. I'm in Finland - no idea if it is less common in US.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_frequency

link
laumars 2898 days ago
Maybe it's not a thing any more? Or maybe it's not as clever as scanning multiple frequencies? I've not listened to analogue radio in the car for long distances in a while but I do remember there used to be a big problem with national radio spanning multiple different frequencies and your signal would drift out as you changed regions. This problem seemed to solve itself when RDS and "smart" radios started becoming a thing. However my experience is with video broadcasting rather than radio so I might have gotten some of the details wrong.
link