4 ms·

The page reads "A few weeks ago cellphone companies — and KUOW — switched to a 5G signal." What's the link between 5G and an FM radio station, anyone has an ide

by ale42 5y ago

The page reads "A few weeks ago cellphone companies — and KUOW — switched to a 5G signal." What's the link between 5G and an FM radio station, anyone has an idea?

wickedsickeune 5y ago
None they are extremely different frequencies, plus FM radio is not even digital.
- srj 5y ago
  In this case it's an HD radio broadcast, which is digital.
  - trelane 5y ago
    It's digital, but still in the broadcasters FM allocation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_Radio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_Radio It has nothing to do with 5G, which is a cell technology. 5G has low (600-900MHz) medium (microwave) and high ("mm wave"), and is far away from broadcast FM frequencies (USA is 88-108MHz) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/fm-frequencies-end-odd-decimal https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/fm-frequencies-end-odd-decim...
    - srj 5y ago
      My wild guess would be that there's something in the HD broadcast causing the issue. Something as simple as a metadata field being too long could trigger a bug in the headunit firmware. The HD broadcast spec seems non trivial and largely closed off so it wouldn't surprise me that there'd be buggy implementations.
      - trelane 5y ago
        That sounds likely, given the easier issues.
jweather 5y ago
Per the geekwire article linked above, one of the local Mazda dealerships blamed 5G for causing the issue. Apparently that's the popular thing to do these days. Tangentially related, an old ham radio operator related his advice for putting up an antenna on your house: "Put the antenna up, but don't connect it to anything for a few weeks. Don't even run the cable yet. When people complain about it making their fillings vibrate or garage door open or whatever, you can show them that it isn't even connected to anything. This helps filter out the people who have nothing better to do than to complain."
- ale42 5y ago
  Indeed 5G had nothing to do: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2022/02/radio-station-snafu-in-seattle-bricks-some-mazda-infotainment-systems/ https://arstechnica.com/cars/2022/02/radio-station-snafu-in-... Btw nice advice for the antenna... I'll try to remember it the day I'll finally manage to have an antenna again ;-)

by ale42 5y ago

The page reads "A few weeks ago cellphone companies — and KUOW — switched to a 5G signal." What's the link between 5G and an FM radio station, anyone has an idea?

wickedsickeune 5y ago

None they are extremely different frequencies, plus FM radio is not even digital.

srj 5y ago
In this case it's an HD radio broadcast, which is digital.
- trelane 5y ago
  It's digital, but still in the broadcasters FM allocation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_Radio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_Radio It has nothing to do with 5G, which is a cell technology. 5G has low (600-900MHz) medium (microwave) and high ("mm wave"), and is far away from broadcast FM frequencies (USA is 88-108MHz) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/fm-frequencies-end-odd-decimal https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/fm-frequencies-end-odd-decim...
  - srj 5y ago
    My wild guess would be that there's something in the HD broadcast causing the issue. Something as simple as a metadata field being too long could trigger a bug in the headunit firmware. The HD broadcast spec seems non trivial and largely closed off so it wouldn't surprise me that there'd be buggy implementations.
    - trelane 5y ago
      That sounds likely, given the easier issues.

jweather 5y ago

Per the geekwire article linked above, one of the local Mazda dealerships blamed 5G for causing the issue. Apparently that's the popular thing to do these days. Tangentially related, an old ham radio operator related his advice for putting up an antenna on your house: "Put the antenna up, but don't connect it to anything for a few weeks. Don't even run the cable yet. When people complain about it making their fillings vibrate or garage door open or whatever, you can show them that it isn't even connected to anything. This helps filter out the people who have nothing better to do than to complain."

ale42 5y ago
Indeed 5G had nothing to do: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2022/02/radio-station-snafu-in-seattle-bricks-some-mazda-infotainment-systems/ https://arstechnica.com/cars/2022/02/radio-station-snafu-in-... Btw nice advice for the antenna... I'll try to remember it the day I'll finally manage to have an antenna again ;-)