Yeah it is disappointing.
This is the rds system. Very strange listening to aux and I hear Dan from triple m giving an ad for a betting company lol.
Ah ok, I thought you meant like a normal AM/FM radio traffic update you heard via DAB
Yes but using the aux port.
Gee very disappointing to have these issues on a brand new car! You’d think Mazda would be on top of it. No problems at all with the Focus and a friend has a new Lancer and the DAB works fine too.
Yes if only I can turn back time.
The MZD unit comes with ADR (Australian design rules firmware). It’s concerning they also tested a brand new car and it had the same issue.
Would of expected some basic testing before releasing the dab hardware,
A) They can scan all dab stations first time if you can scan on a pocket radio.
B) They can decode dab text.
C) The volume is reasonable not excessively softer on dab.
D) The reception is steady when driving in a metro area.
Dab seemed to be an afterthought. Test driving the car I did listen a bit it was only 20 mins worth. The sound is generally good.
I won’t recommend a Mazda if you love your radio 
. But if you do test drive one first do a factory reset and rescan. I would be very very interested to see the results. When I was on the hunt for a new car, I went to a couple of dealers they seem to be very reluctant you going alone and drive. Think it’s Mazda’s policy.
Now the footy season has started and I listen to the ABC on the car radio , I noted no glitches at all… And thinking back its only the 9A/9B I ever get glitches with. 9c has been clear.
Did a bit of checking and researching what are the difference between 9A/9B/9C. Obviously the repeaters. I don’t think that would be issue. The break up occurs far away from the repeaters to have an impact.
However another thing too 9A & 9B some of stations deviate off the standard EEP. 9C was uniform see below.
9B
2SER uses EEP4-A
HOPE EEP4-A
Inspire Digital EEP4-A
9A
1SM/FUN/Gorolla/Zoo EEP4-A
2000 /2RPH EEP 3-B
9C
All EEP 3-A
So do you think that the less robust error checking of a couple of stations can actually throw the whole ensemble out and cause glitches ? For not all radios but for some (like my car radio). Or technically it does not make sense. Would like to see what my theory is to some who is an actual broadcast technician or knows a bit more than me which is not hard :). I am thinking of writing to ACMA on this. Anyway stations should be at 3-A. More people may think their digital radio is faulty with the inconsistency in error checking with the current setup.
As FYI ; EEP 4-A requires around 4 times the TX power to match EEP 3A to give the same signal strength. I believe, the international level of protection standard for DAB Terrestrial broadcast appears to be level 3.
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So what is the curve of return if you move to level 2? Is there much improvement over 3A? How many capacity units do you lose for more error protection?
Would be interested to see a test with the highest level of error protection in a regional area to see if it throws the signal significantly better.
What was the highest level of error protection used in the Darwin and Canberra tests?
I am not sure I would say it would be like the logarithmic. There is a big different between say 4A to 3A but going to 2 might not make much difference.
As FYI i have submitted a request to ACMA. I heard some one ring George and Paul and state that a brand new Sangean had issues with drop out with 2UE. I felt like asking her does it work on the ABC. My main point is they should standardise the error correction as they cannot control the firmware of all the devices out there. Maybe I should move this post back to digital radio :).
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I updated Android Auto on my phone today, and I finally got Voice Control on my Ford Focus to work with the Tune In radio app.
So I just say “Play (station name)” and it seems to work!
Never had much luck with this before.
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Great. I try aha on the Mazda but it’s just not as good as tunein radio. I think Android audio should add radio app and Waze.
Also I think Android auto on the Focus only works when plug in the cable? Good thing with Pandora in the Mazda it can work without the cable.
Yes, I would LOVE to see Radio App on Android Auto!
And yes, phone needs to be plugged in via USB for Android Auto to work.
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Good news for me. My car should be supported . Now just need dab to be fixed.
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Have noticed signs of wear/tear due to age of the helical whip aerial on a Holden TS Astra, 2002.
Where can I buy a replacement that is best designed for the car?
Thanks in advance.
A Holden dealer could do that.
But it would be the most expensive solution.
Maybe try a wreckers?
That would be much cheaper.
Thanks, think I will try wreckers.
Wondered if there was a third party part available from a car part supplier?
I upgraded to later version of the european firmware in my Mazda 3. Bad news looks like the drop outs are still there. It did happen once with 2ch. Another not so good news after the factory reset, it was unable to scan 9a and 9b. Given the fault with scanning might only be a Sydney thing not sure if they will fix. Lucky I have my trusty workaround to lock in the stations.
The good news I can see dab text for the first time.
No updates for Australia firmware for easy download. Lucky Europe seem to get more updates.
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Installed myself a DAB headunit in my car over the weekend - a Pure Highway H250S, which I got for about $120 on eBay.
Firstly, in the hope of maybe helping someone who is googling for this info - the plugs on the unit itself are the ISO standard plugs - so I was able to just buy the wiring harness adaptor for my car and then directly plug that into the unit - which powered on and works absolutely fine.
On the other hand, despite some reports that it would work, just using a splitter/converter on my regular car antenna hasn’t proven to be adequate signal wise - in an area marked as being covered on the in car coverage maps. I was able to tune the multiplex in, and in some spots I can get a signal, but not one that’s listenable for more than 10 seconds.
So that means I’ll need to figure out my options for getting a dedicated DAB antenna, any recommendations here would be great.
As for the rest - FM performance isn’t quite as good as my stock unit, part of that could be the splitter though, though AM is as good.
The iPod controls work well - though plugging a cable in to the USB socket is a bit messy. I’ll see if I can live with that, otherwise I’ll just buy a USB drive and load it up manually with songs and leave it there.
When I did have signal, DAB sounded nice, better sounding than listening with headphones on my other devices - I don’t know if that’s just better processing or the car speakers muffling out the harsher tones of the low bitrate stations?
Anyway, as just a CD/MP3/iPod head unit, I’m happy with the purchase. Sorting out the antenna will be even better.
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This splitter/converter you’re talking about - is it something that splits the standard car radio antenna between the DAB connector and the AM/FM antenna connector? Does it have a power wire? Like this:
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Yeah, something similar to that, but an Aerpro branded one. There was one unconnected wire, but it said something like ‘remote’ on it, so didn’t sound like it was power related?
There’s your problem. The ‘remote’ wire carries 12V power to the amplifier within that splitter, which will boost DAB, AM and FM reception and actually activate the electronics which split the signals between analogue radio and digital radio. You’ll need to connect that wire to the corresponding blue wire on the wiring harness.
It’s called ‘remote’ because it’s usually used as a signal wire to switch on items like external audio amplifiers and motorised car radio antennas, but the power consumption of the amplifier in the signal splitter is small enough that it can use the remote wire as its power source.
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