The radio in my F250 has a “Seek” button for radio stations.
I know, who listens to plain ole radio these days?
Anyway, my guess on how it’s sposed to work is that when pressed, it seeks out the next strong radio signal on the dial.
What happens about 19/32nds of the time is that it stops on a very static-y station, or it stops on a freq that is nothing but undulating static.
What gives?
This is not just a problem with my radio. I’ve had the Seek button do this on nearly every vehicle I’ve been in that is so equipped.
I know, 1st world problems.... but...GRRRR!

Don't know how common it is but I once had an aftermarket radio in put in a car and the "seek" had 2 levels selectable sensitivity level. It's a long shot yea but you might refer to the manual...

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:
Don't know how common it is but I once had an aftermarket radio in put in a car and the "seek" had 2 levels selectable sensitivity level. It's a long shot yea but you might refer to the manual...

Read a manual?! Heresy!

quote:

Originally posted by hudr:

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:
Don't know how common it is but I once had an aftermarket radio in put in a car and the "seek" had 2 levels selectable sensitivity level. It's a long shot yea but you might refer to the manual...

Read a manual?! Heresy!

Not heresy. Just stupidity.

I have a 2017 F150. The owner's manual is gibberish. Disorganized, impossible to use or understand. Probably written by somebody that speaks Mandarin Chinese as his native/primary language. It's a damnable mess.

I have a seek button but it doesn't go to the next strong signal. It hits a radio station, stays there for like 40 seconds then moves on. I have to press it to make it stay.

That particular version of seek is called scan.

All I usually get on seek is astounded by how many mexican radio stations are in the greater Phx area.
I may find a classic rock tune only to find out that it's the only one they've played in 6 months.

quote:

Originally posted by KMitch200:
All I usually get on seek is astounded by how many mexican radio stations are in the greater Phx area.
I may find a classic rock tune only to find out that it's the only one they've played in 6 months.

Or a radio station that has a playlist of 6 songs and 5 of them suck. Plus the terrain around here allows for a usable signal (assuming you can find one at all) to last about 10 miles. Except Bubba Gump's All Jesus All The Time channel. They must have their own nuclear reactor powering their transmitter.

Can't remember the last time I turned the radio on in a vehicle.

quote:

Originally posted by KMitch200:
All I usually get on seek is astounded by how many mexican radio stations are in the greater Phx area.

Speaking of Mexican Radio:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyCEexG9xjw

Depending if it's an AM or FM station, time of day can play a factor on when you you tune in to static instead of music or commentary - even from a vehicle (there's an FM station I like, most times a mirror to my favorite AM station, and I can only get it in the car - portables can't get it clear - even with an external FM antenna.). If you know your stations, you can preset them and just push the buttons.

I always listen to the radio while driving. And sometimes when I'm not (portables). Mostly between two stations - classical and oldies. The oldies station plays the long version to Don McLean's American Pie, The Guess Who's American Woman, and Redbone's Come and Get Your Love. Classical is always on on Sunday, when they play Baroque for 7 hours in the morning.

I recently bought a new vehicle that came with a 6-month trial for SiriusXM. Sat. radio has revived my interest in listening to radio on the road.

The DC area has long been a veritable wasteland of decent AM and FM stations, while satellite has several good channels, many of them ad-free. Yes, the idea of paying for radio burns my ass, but I am seriously considering doing so when the trial is over.

And the seek button works just fine when you don't have to worry about a bad signal.

quote:

Originally posted by architect:
I recently bought a new vehicle that came with a 6-month trial for SiriusXM. Sat. radio has revived my interest in listening to radio on the road.

The DC area has long been a veritable wasteland of decent AM and FM stations, while satellite has several good channels, many of them ad-free. Yes, the idea of paying for radio burns my ass, but I am seriously considering doing so when the trial is over.

I've had XM sat since I bought my 2008 Ridgeline 10 years ago and have been paying $5 a month for several years. When your trial period ends tell the cust service retention expert that, while you like the service, you don't use it enough to warrant keeping it.

they will immediately offer $99 a year. I say no, not worth it to me, please cancel. CS comes back with 6 months super promo rate for $30 and I accept that. The only catch is if you don't call to cancel before the 6 months promo ends you auto renew at reg price. I put it on my yahoo calendar and call 2 or 3 days before exp. I always say I'm calling to cancel but I would renew at the same $5 a month rate. Takes about 3 minutes of listening to the $99 a year pitch and refusing.

XM's value is based on number of subscribers so they will do their best to keep current customers.

I seldom listen to anything but sat, especially on the road.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
Can't remember the last time I turned the radio on in a vehicle.

I bought a Ford Edge eleven months ago. I have no idea whether the radio receives any stations. I have never used it for that. Never even tried it.

It does one thing for me, and it does that really well. My hearing aids do a really crappy job with the telephone, so bad that telephone calls are not an option for me, with one exception: when I am in the Edge, Ford Sync does a fairly reasonable job of connecting my iPhone to the car radio via bluetooth. Incoming audio from phone calls goes through the car radio's amplifier and speakers, and depending on the frequency content of the caller's voice, my comprehension can be anywhere from "muddling through" to "very understandable." The only time I have a prayer of understanding a phone call is when I'm in the car.

Multi-function buttons abound. Tap it (short press), and it may “tune”- as in manually moving up (or down) to tune to a particular frequency. This may be used to tune to a station that is not strong enough to be caught in the “seek” mode. Press and hold (long press), and you may get the “seek” that you are...ahem...seeking.

Steering wheel controls can work the same way, although some times a short press moves you to the next preset station while long press seeks.

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The DC area has long been a veritable wasteland of decent AM and FM stations...

I'm reminded of that sad fact every year when we're back there visiting. However, when I was stationed at PAX River in '77-79, WPGC, Morningside, MD was a great station. And IIRC, another one of the local stations was airing The Greaseman.

quote:

Originally posted by hudr:
....or it stops on a freq that is nothing but undulating static.
What gives?

Because it sounds like a lot of modern music, especially modern "dance" music. I am not joking.

Fast forward to about 25 seconds:

Who knows what criteria the radio uses for deciding what is a station or signal it should pause on. Sounds like a programming problem on the OP's radio.

Mine has the scan feature. I prefer seek functions that stop and have to be told to move on.

The (factory) radio in my F250 was just the opposite. The seek/scan never stopped on a staticy station, it needed a fairly strong signal to find. It would skip over frequencies where I knew damn well there was a station, albeit not a strong one.

As far as Sirius XM goes, I'm still on a 12 month free trial and I'm less than overwhelmed by it. I probably won't extend it when the trial period expires this summer.

quote:

Originally posted by FRANKT:

quote:

The DC area has long been a veritable wasteland of decent AM and FM stations...

I'm reminded of that sad fact every year when we're back there visiting. However, when I was stationed at PAX River in '77-79, WPGC, Morningside, MD was a great station. And IIRC, another one of the local stations was airing The Greaseman.

WPGC was top 40 pop back when I was a teenager, it is black pop/rap now (I think). I never cared much for WPGC, but it was fairly popular among my peers.

The last decent music station in the area was WHFS, a great but low-power station that went off the air back in the 90's. WHFS let their DJs select and play whatever they wanted, no playlist or "format" (although it trended towards progressive rock). I really miss WHFS, although picking it up across the river in VA was always chancy.