Digital radio - retuning?

[Northernlurker]

We have a Sony radio in the kitchen with several pre-sets. Recently it seems to be 'losing' a lot of the pre-sets. They still sppear in the display but it won't tune to them and they have a ?in front of the radio station name. So Radio 4 shows as ?Radio 4. This is the case for a lot of the stations in the main menu as well. Is it a fault with the radio? Or something else - and what I can do about it - is driving us mad!

helllllllllp

?Radio4 to me means that it can't tune to the station. So retuning may be needed - or simply moving the aerial.

Knowing the model number may help, as can then locate a manual for how to retune.

THanks. I think the model is Sony XDR-S10. I have moved the aerial a bit but not much. Will try that again - I blame the cat - she likes to sit there So is it 'normal' for this to sometimes happen? It's not a fault with the radio then?

I expect it's a change to the transmitter(s) in your area or possibly the aerial can't pick up the transmitter it was previously tuned to.

If fiddling with the aerial doesn't help, you may need to re-tune. On mine (not a Sony) it's as simple as going into the menu and selecting the autotune option.

I would expect it's far more to do with changes to transmitters than an actual fault with the radio... so try repositioning the aerial, try retuning (sorry can't find a manual online, so hope you know how to retune).

Northernlurker - just wondered if the BBC web site might be worth checking. I know they have plans to add around 60 DAB transmitters so there might be news of engineering work (to change the direction of output on some of the existing aerials, as they won't want to duplicate coverage).

One effect might be that you previously had a usable signal from a distant transmitter at that position in the kitchen, but now some 'nearby' transmitter is in use, just not giving you as good a signal in that same part of the kitchen.

As others have indicated, a re-tune might be all that's needed to pick up a signal from a different transmitter. Where I am, in N Wales, I have had signals from Liverpool, Manchester and Stoke areas, but none are reliable (and I don't know why, as I don't think there's any chance of me moving the aerial, but perhaps dropping the [metal] blind earlier in the year when it got more sunny has been interfering...

Definitely try the retune, but if you live in an area where you're on the 'edge' of the transmitters then you might have lost signal - this happened to us a while ago, we persevered for a while with retuning, shifting radios around etc and then gave up and got a Squeezebox instead.