Alert Announcement

[trebor]

I'm driving along a dirt road this afternoon when all of a sudden some unidentified (nice) classical music starts playing on the audio system, while at the same time the words "ALERT ANNOUNCEMENT" appears on the screen. No warnings appeared and the vehicle continued to perform normally. I stopped the vehicle within a minute of this all occurring, switched off the engine and restarted it without incident and the message disappeared.
Has anyone else had this experience or advise what it may have been about?

Nick

MY12 D4

[IndusD4]

Someone messing about with the Traffic alert system? The radio would switch stations then by itself if there was a traffic announcement on another station.

Ron

[Rich84]

Someone messing about with the Traffic alert system? The radio would switch stations then by itself if there was a traffic announcement on another station.

Ron

That sounds like it alright... Even if you're playing a CD/AUX the unit will still switch to the traffic announcements.

[camel_landy]

Be alert...

...your country needs lerts! :D

M

[FeatherWeightDriver]

Someone messing about with the Traffic alert system? The radio would switch stations then by itself if there was a traffic announcement on another station.
Ron

Neat trick if that is the case. ;)

A lot of European cars have that facility setup on their radios but ask far as I know traffic alerts over the radio are not in use in Australia (at least not Sydney - excluding places like the Harbour Tunnel where they blat over every frequency).

See: How does the Traffic Alert function on a car radio work? | gamboling.co.uk (http://gamboling.co.uk/2006/12/27/how-does-the-traffic-alert-function-on-a-car-radio-work/)

[IndusD4]

Neat trick if that is the case. ;)


Agreed I am no expert on RDS and how it works. Wikipedia has a bit more on RDS - Radio Data System - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Check the section on components of the RDS system, in particular the TA/TP component where it allows the unit to stop a tape / pause a CD or re-tune to receive a traffic bulletin.

The re-tune to play the traffic announcement in my view makes sense in a radio with a single tuner, it should also switch back at the end of the announcement to whatever was playing prior.

Ron

[letherm]

Don't know whether it's the same thing but I was told by the dealer that the Traffic Messaging System is not available on Australian spec Discoveries. I have a MY13 D4 HSE. There was no icon to select it and so I e-mailed them to find out. It was mentioned in the manual. Something to do with Digital Technology not available in Australia. Maybe because it's relatively new here and they haven't implemented that part of it. I do have a digital radio accessory so it's not simply the car not being fitted with it. Maybe the authorities were testing it and you caught the signal.

[CaverD3]

I think the mob with the licensing rights on Oz ask too much for the manufacturers? so none have it activated for oz.