Radio Changed Stations???

Driving to class last night and then again on the way home my radio decided to change stations all on it's own. It was at about the same spot on the freeway (just opposite directions). It moved up just one decimal spot on the tuner. First 105.1 to 105.2 and then from 101.3 to 101.4. Any one have an idea on why this happened? Any help or thoughts are welcome.

If it was in the same spot coming and going, it's gotta be some sort of outside interference, perhaps from a power plant/radio station/power lines.

I've never seen a stereo go in between stations like that. FM stations always end in an odd number.

it may have jumped to the next odd station like 105.1 to 105.3. Happened again while driving around today in a completely different spot then last night. WTF?

Mine has been doing the same thing maybe once or twice a week. it'll go up one notch from 91.5 to 91.7 just out of the blue. We're both from Portland... weird.

Possibly a rough ride and the knob jiggled? Hit a bump or something like that? I've never heard of a radio doing that!

Ride92 said:

Driving to class last night and then again on the way home my radio decided to change stations all on it's own. It was at about the same spot on the freeway (just opposite directions). It moved up just one decimal spot on the tuner. First 105.1 to 105.2 and then from 101.3 to 101.4. Any one have an idea on why this happened? Any help or thoughts are welcome.

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Is it only the tuned in station which is doing this, or the stored ones too?

If it is just the tuned in one it might be that there is a very slightly shorted upward scan button. However, even that should make it jump by .2, since all FM stations in the US are 200 kHz apart. Honestly I don't have a good feeling about this - when digital electronics starting acting like there is a gremlin inside there usually is, and it makes its home within an integrated circuit surface mounted to a board, so that you can't ever fix it. Pull the radio, disassemble it, blow all the dust out of it and clean all the connectors. If that doesn't resolve the issue by far the easiest thing to do would be to replace it. Some might argue that once you have the original unit out you might as well replace it right then and there, since the odds of the cleaning fixing things are not very high.

I have heard of radios with a sort of autotune feature, where they tune to the strongest station and then switch to a nearby stronger station if the first one fades. The idea is to keep the radio playing while you drive long distances, as in cross country, without the driver having to adjust anything. Don't recall if the P5 has that mode, if it does I never used it, but if it does you might have enabled it, and it might be jumping between two different stations 0.2 apart at the same spot on the highway, just at the point where the signal intensity shifts from favoring one to the other.

The Mazda Gods are saying you listen to crappy music(angel)
lolz

Shub said:

Mine has been doing the same thing maybe once or twice a week. it'll go up one notch from 91.5 to 91.7 just out of the blue. We're both from Portland... weird.

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That is weird... I imagine there is some sort of iterference happening in our area or something. We'll how long it keeps doing this, maybe I'll get a new radio.

pasadena_commut said:

I have heard of radios with a sort of autotune feature, where they tune to the strongest station and then switch to a nearby stronger station if the first one fades.

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Just looked in the manual and the stock radio does not have this feature. It does have an automatic search function, but to get that you have to press and hold AUTO-M for 2 seconds, until it beeps. It will then scan for and store the 6 strongest stations. That doesn't sound like what you are seeing though, because your stored stations would change, and there was no beep.

What happened to the sound when the radio's frequency display changed?

pasadena_commut said:

What happened to the sound when the radio's frequency display changed?

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For me it will play the audio of that frequency, generally static.

Shub said:

For me it will play the audio of that frequency, generally static.

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So it really changed frequencies, and not just the display of the frequency.

See if vibration will change the tuning. While parked turn the radio on. Tap the center of the tuner knob gently with the back of your fingernail (so it shakes but shouldn't turn). Also tap the front of the radio near the scan buttons. Heck, just tap all over it wherever it shouldn't change the station and see if it ever does. For obvious reasons car radios are supposed to be very insensitive to vibration - perhaps yours no longer is?