Thanks for the detailed feedback. Let me address each point:
Frequency Detection in Italy
Good timing - I just released v1.3.8 beta which includes FM Regional Standards with an Italy preset (87-108 MHz, 50kHz spacing, 50us de-emphasis). This should resolve the frequency offset issues you experienced. After installing the beta:
Go to plugin settings
Enable “FM Radio Region” section
Select “Italy” from the dropdown
Save and refresh page
Clear your FM stations and rescan
The scan will now detect stations at their exact frequencies (95.75 MHz will remain 95.75 MHz, not round to 95.8 MHz).
Track +/- Frequency Adjustment
I understand the appeal, but implementing granular frequency control through Volumio’s transport buttons would require significant architectural changes for relatively limited benefit. The Station Manager web interface (port 3456) provides a more practical solution:
Export your stations to CSV
Edit frequencies in any spreadsheet application
Add stations manually with exact frequencies
Import the updated list
This gives you full control over your station list without the complexity of real-time frequency stepping.
Manual Tuning Interface
The Diagnostics section has a “Test FM Frequency” field where you can tune to any frequency manually. For building your station list, the CSV import/export workflow is more efficient than tuning station by station.
RDS Station Name Display
The display name priority is: customName (user-defined) > RDS PS > scan name. If you see the archived name rather than RDS:
RDS decoding takes a few seconds after tuning - wait for the name to update
Some stations broadcast weak or intermittent RDS
Check signal strength - weak signals may not decode RDS reliably
The station may not broadcast RDS at all
The RDS PS name should appear automatically once decoded. If a station consistently shows the wrong name, you can set a custom name via the Station Manager.
I recognise FM could use more attention - DAB has been the primary focus. The regional standards in v1.3.8 are a step toward better FM support.
I’d attempted to install with my current version and it failed so I did a factory reset because it wouldn’t let me update due to changes that I’d made, or so it said and updated to the latest version.
I updated to 4 and now can’t install plugins because I’m not logged into my Volumio…yes my time is off by 20 hours and I don’t have time for all this crap. This place is a joke. I’m off to picoreplayer.
Just a small remark. With your rather childish response, you’ve managed to insult quite a few people who voluntarily spend their free time helping others, which is an impressive achievement, though probably not the intended one.
If Volumio already feels too complicated, I’d also suggest a quick attitude check before switching to piCorePlayer, as it require much more knowledge.
i am also very interested on how to do an easy DAB and bit perfect setup with PiCorePlayer and would much appreciate if you would let me know how you do it. That is sounding extremely promising.
i guess also @Wheaten would be very interested in…
The wget command in the format you tried will not work - that URL points to a GitHub web page, not a downloadable file. GitHub requires either git clone or downloading a ZIP from the web interface. This is very common mistake and how to retrieve GitHub assets - there is plenty of knowledge in the public domain, easy to find.
Regarding MyVolumio: using a MyVolumio account is your choice. Without it, plugins can still be installed manually via SSH. This has been explained in community threads many times - search is your friend here.
Regarding Volumio 3: I do not have plans to backport this plugin. Raspberry Pi Foundation wiped their repositories for Buster-based systems, which makes maintaining V3 compatibility impractical.
For those who want to install manually without MyVolumio, here are the steps:
Note: This plugin is in the official Volumio plugin store for V4 users. The manual steps above are for reference only.
@Wheaten and @Josh2000 are volunteers spending their free time helping in this forum. Calling the place “a joke” after receiving accurate guidance is what made it quite personal.
I update to 1.3.8, thanks for add the 300kHz Best audio function, it sounds great.
FM Radio Region I choose Europe because Taiwan use that.
I had manual add 22 FM station with description and it works well.
Then I tried the FM station scan but it search nothing if I set FM gain = 20,
Then I use FM gain = 100 and very-sensitive 3dB,
it add about 21 stations,
because it is added, so I can compare with the correct station,
there is some shift about 100 to 300 kHz shift
Thanks for the detailed feedback - glad the 300kHz audio mode sounds good.
The 100-300 kHz frequency shift you observe is likely a region setting issue. You mentioned selecting “Europe” for Taiwan - but Taiwan uses 200kHz channel spacing (same as Americas), not 100kHz like Europe.
Try changing your FM Region to “East Asia” instead:
East Asia: 88-108 MHz, 200kHz spacing, 50us de-emphasis
This should align the scan to detect stations at .1, .3, .5, .7, .9 MHz positions rather than the 100kHz grid Europe uses.
One important point about RTL-SDR hardware: unlike dedicated FM tuner chips, SDR dongles have no signal quality measurement built into the hardware. The scan uses rtl_power to detect energy peaks across the spectrum - it finds “something is transmitting around here” rather than locking onto a precise carrier frequency. The regional channel spacing setting tells the scanner which frequency grid to snap detected peaks to.
This is why Station Manager has editable frequency fields. Workflow:
Set correct region (East Asia for Taiwan)
Scan finds approximate frequencies
Compare against known station list
Fine-tune in Station Manager if needed
Save
Your 22 manually added stations work perfectly because you entered the correct frequencies. The scan is a discovery tool - Station Manager is where you dial in precision.
