No Google hits for “Blade 945” + Adelaide or “Blade 94.5” + Adelaide. “Blade FM”+ Adelaide returns only the website listed above.
I didn’t see a temporary licence listed in the latest ACMA transmitter data so I wonder if this is a pirate station. A very sophisticated one if they’re using RDS; the London pirates use RDS ,though.
I was wondering the same thing when writing my post.
Was hoping someone from Adelaide might be able to enlighten us all…
Indeed. They’ve gone to a lot of trouble with the RDS & establishing a website.
If indeed they have been on air & RDS info real.
I assume no LAP for 94.5 FM in ADL?
Was in the north-west today.
Here’s a RDS capture of: Hawksbury Gold 89.9 FM
Just a couple of small RDS changes noted.
I messed with a Raspberry Pi based FM transmitter a while back - RDS was extremely simple to set up and get working. I think I used this software - but there’s a lot out there that does similar things.
So I wouldn’t necessarily chalk up RDS as a sign of a more professional operation.
It does make a station look more professional though - a bit like a shopfront with nice signage vs one that has no signage at all.
Given how cheap and easy it seems to be to set up, it surprises me that more stations aren’t using it. I can only think that there are hardware compatibility issues with older/higher power transmitters that are used,
Was an anonymous edit on September 15, can’t find any more than that. All signs suggesting a pirate, or someone wandering out of the If you could create the perfect radio station... - #72 by Tuco_Salamanca thread
Looking at the publicly available information, the website is registered to a William Lawes with an ABN registered only on 26 September 2019.
Nothing’s listed on 94.5 MHz on the ACMA’s Radcom database within 100km of Adelaide CBD on 94.5 MHz, so if it’s been on-air, I assume it’s unlicensed.
When I was driving around in Europe, I found that almost every station seemed to have RDS and with extensive use of AF as well. I guess RDS is particularly useful in Europe as they have a lot more networked stations (with lower-powered transmitters). Particularly useful for DXing, especially as in some areas you can receive stations from several countries at the same time.
That’s not to say there weren’t any issues though – I remember a religious station had the TA (traffic announcement) flag permanently on so the radio would keep switching to that station. Some radio networks had a few seconds’ delay between different transmitters, so it wasn’t a smooth listening experience when the AF switched between different transmitters. Another station had scrolling song names in the PS, which would result in that one word from a song name being stored as the programme name in the station list.
Nice looking software!
A little quirk I noticed driving the Great Ocean Road today, it appears there is an error with the AF coding on Mixx FM Colac’s translators. When tuned to 92.7 Lorne or 95.9 Apollo Bay, when the signal dropped out (which is not uncommon on this winding road) the radio would shift frequency to the totally unrelated religious program on 96.3 from Geelong.
Mixx Colac’s main signal is 106.3, so something makes me think 96.3 is broadcasting the same code as 106.3 and the radio is mistakenly shifting to the wrong frequency? Can anyone with the gear here check the Pi codes to be sure?
Tamago, can I suggest you look at & edit any new entries or changes to the RDS list here:
It’s likely there are entries that most of us are unaware of.
There’s state entries & a sorted PI list worksheets there for all to use/reference.
I was looking & couldn’t see any RDS entries for Colac & it’s translators/relays.
Maybe you could add some Tassie entries too?
Re obtaining PI codes & investigating RDS AF anomalies with FM stations etc you might want to consider buying a cheap SDR dongle & if you use a Android phone or tablet download the SDR Touch app - it offers SDR software with RDS. Add a small portable antenna & you can have a cheap mobile FM station RDS monitoring system.
Was peering @ the Victorian RDS spreadsheet & noted an odd entry for 105.3 Triple J Swan Hill added last month according to update date against entry.
Is this a real RDS entry?
Has an odd PI code entry of: 63271
PI codes are in HEX (a 16 bit number).
So number can’t be higher than FFFF.
Who added this entry?
It looks sus.
Yeah good idea. I don’t have access to my PC so might just list the additions I know of here for now:
Connecting the portable antenna via the headphone jack?
Is there tracking available to see who edited the document?
Someone has now kindly deleted the entry.
Youth Radio 92.5 Moss Vale (Bowral), NSW now has RDS.
Appears to be using Dynamic PS; music FM 92.5FM
Has two RT messages, No PTY, but using the same PI code as 2SER of FFFF.
I think that’s 4 different Australian FM stations lazily using FFFF as a PI code.
Hopefully 89.9 Hawksbury Gold didn’t just join that ranks (re previous post & PI code of FFFF??)
Youth Radio also has a new website (thanks to RDS RT) - http://www.musicfm.com.au/
They are using Stereo Tool for RDS and processing… How do they sound?
Seamed good last night as I recall. I was focused on trying to piece together the RDS Text at the time 
This morning the station’s reception is much weaker, mixed with static
