This is a bit random, most modern car radios dont have a stereo indicator, I wonder why?
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I have wondered that too… I assume manufacturers think all FM stations are stereo now and thus there’s no need for one, but they obviously haven’t been to Australia and experienced the glory of News Radio and Radio National in wondrous and spectacular mono!
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Haha yes. Newsradio is mono on dab too. It help give a good indication of reception. I always remember in early 90s there was a pretty standard model (used in fords, Nissans cars)which would cut over to mono in bad reception areas. Good thing on the old radios they were more simple.
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Though today’s car radios are generally better for DXing on FM, they reject adjacent channel splatter much better than the old ones. And that they have larger displays with RDS is another good thing.
I’m glad it wasn’t just me who’d noticed that too. I guess the radios these days are much more sophisticated at switching from stereo to mono where signals are weaker, it doesn’t need the indicator. Some of those old radios could be quite jarring when the signal would flick in and out
You’re right too that the selectivity on the newer FM radios is so much better too, most stock models seem to be able to reject a local station 0.2MHz away for a weak distant signal. The one in my Mitsubishi isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty good, and certainly doesn’t warrant a several hundred dollar investment just for marginally improved selectivity
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As are a lot of the ABC local radio stations.
Yet the pilot tone is on. Surely they realise that if they were not transmitting it, the mono only coverage would be much better.
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Or they don’t care? Agree, it would help with coverage where it is needed.
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Ok - my car has 3 sets of 6 preset FM stations and 1 set of 6 preset AM stations. I simply scroll up the list when I don’t like the song (or ads) - so not really constantly tuning, more I don’t have the endurance that radio programmers may seek. For the record, FM1 has the the following presets:
- Nova 100
- Mix101.1 (yes it still displays Mix)
- 101.9 The Fox
- 102.7FM (aka 3RRR)
- Gold1043
- Triple M
Like half the people they are set in frequency order…(sorry too old fashioned).
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For me it’s:
*FM1
Nova 96.9
2Day 104.1
2WS 101.7
Triple J 105.7
The Edge 96.1
KIIS 106.5
This is so I can use the up< down> buttons and easily switch between Nova and the other most listened to stations: Edge< KIIS < Nova > 2Day > 2WS.
*FM2
Nova 96.9
Smooth 95.3
Triple M 104.9
Wave 96.5
Sea 101.3
2SSR 99.7
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Same except my presets are:
- MMM95.3
- Hit96.9
- 97.70 (ABC Shepparton)
- KIIS1011
- The Fox
- Triple M
I do a lot of travelling between Shepparton and Melbourne, so three of each usually is enough
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I think my AM presets will give away my travel…
- 531 (3GG)
- 693 (3AW)
- 774 (3LO - ABC Melbourne)
- 828 (3GI - ABC Gippsland)
- 1116 (3AK - SEN)
- 1242 (3GV - Gold1242)
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Mine are
FM1
1: 102.9 Triple M Newcastle
2: 105.3 NEW FM
3: Hit106.9
4: 101.3 SEA FM
5: Star 104.5
6: 2GO
FM2
1: Smooth 95.3
2: Nova 96.9
3: WSFM
4: 2DAY FM
5: Triple M Sydney
6: KIIS106.5
FM3
1: 92.3 ABC Coffs Coast
2: 95.5 ABC Mid North Coast
3: 100.7 Triple M Port Macquarie
4: Hit 102.3 Port Macquarie
5: Hit 105.1 Kempsey
6: 106.7 Triple M Kempsey
(the last set handy for quick DX checks from up north and when travelling up that way)
AM
1: 1143 2HD
2: 1233 AND Newcastle
3: 1458 News Radio
4: 1512 Radio National
5: 702 ABC Sydney
6: 981 2NM Muswellbrook
And @Rob_Melb_AU if you re-store the preset, that will update the station name.
My parents’ Subaru Forester doesn’t have an FM1 & FM2, just a single FM list which can store up to 12 stations.
Here it is how it stands at the moment:
FM
1: C91.3
2: Smooth 95.3
3: 101.7 WSFM
4: 104.9 Triple M
5: SWR 99.9
6: 104.1 2Day
7: 105.7 Triple J
8: 2ST 102.9
9: Wave FM 96.5
10: 98.1 i98FM
11: Star 104.5
12: 2LT 101.1
AM
1: 702 ABC Radio Sydney
2: 630 NewsRadio
3: 576 Radio National
4: 1170 2CH
5: 1107 SBS Radio 1
6: 1368 2GN (will no longer exist if/when it moves to FM)
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I don’t quite use frequency order - my FM 1 is instead:
1 = KIIS 101.1
2 = Fox 101.9 = 102
3 = Nova 100.3
4 = Gold 104.3
5 = Triple M 105.1
6 = Triple J - which ruins the system, so obviously I should replace it with PBS.
I can’t remember what I have on FM2/3, I’ve got Smooth and Joy in there at least, but the rest is usually just regional/community with no particular order to them.
AM doesn’t use a system, but at the moment it is - SEN, MSR, SEN+, ABC 774, ABC News, 3KND. SEN+ is only in there because I haven’t replaced it since it was Classic Rock.
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Have the following in my Personal car.
FM1: Toowoomba Bank
1= River 949
2=The Range 91.5
3= 4WK 95.5
4= Hot FM 100.7
5= 102.7FM
6= 88.0FM
FM2: Brisbane Bank
1= River 949
2=97.3FM
3=Bay FM 100.3
4=Triple M 104.5
5=B105
6= Nova106.9
AM
1= 693 : 4KQ
2= 882 : 4BH
3= 1197 : Switch 1197
4= 864 : 4GR
5= 963 : 4WK
6= 1242 : 4AK
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Here’s Mine for North West NSW
FM1 (Local Stuff)
- 91.3 2MAX FM Narrabri
- 97.5 2GGG Gunnedah
- 98.3 2NOW Moree (This is On most of the time)
- 99.1 ABC Local Radio New England/Northwest
5.99.9 2JJJ
6 102.9 2GEM Warialda
FM 2. (Road One)
- 88.9 2YOU Tamworth
- 92.9 Tamworth
- 95.1 GEM FM Inverell
- 101.5 News Radio Mt Dowe
- 103.7 Racing Radio Moree
- 104.5 (My MP3 Player)
FM.3 (Road 2)
- 88.7 2NOW Goondiwindi
- 89.5 2VM Goondiwindi
- 92.7 ABC Local Goondiwindi
- 96.3 Rebel FM Goondiwindi
- 98.7 Breeze FM Goondiwindi
- 107.1 2NOW FM Mungindi
AM
- 585 2WEB Bourke
- 648 2NU (ABC Local Tamworth)
- 711 (ABC Local St George QLD)
- 1080 2MO Gunnedah
- 1188 2NZ Inverell
- 1530 2VM Moree
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So the Mazda is currently being shared between a few people so the presets are a bit all over the place, but:
FM1:
- 90.7 3SYN
- 102.7 3RRR
- 106.7 3PBS
- 100.3 3MEL
- 104.3 3KKZ
- 91.5 3PTV
FM2:
- 101.1 3TTT
- 101.9 3FOX
- 107.5 3JJJ
- 105.1 3MMM
- 95.3 3SRR
- 102.1 3NNN
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Should re-save your presets: both of these stations have updated RDS names 
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It’s very clear to me how sophisticated new radios are with regards to tuning. The stock radio in my sedan, which was pretty decent for its time (2000) just sounded awful on FM compared to my new Sony XAV-AX100. The old radio lost reception going north at around Hornsby, but now I can clearly pick up Sydney FM stations all the way up to Wyong, and from then on it’s occasionally listenable all the way to Newcastle.
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