Radio Data System (RDS)

I’ve spoken to the HOPE engineer, apparently this RDS issue has been occurring since last Tuesday & a number of people have contacted HOPE about it, they spoke to Triple J engineering but neither knew why it was happening or where it’s coming from or how.
After giving him the info @ozbark provided, he confirmed yes Triple J RDS is being fed from the HOPE DAB+ info, but he doesn’t know how or why, he’s contacting the Triple J engineers again with the further details to try to track the issue down.

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I wonder if this is related to the recent ABC DAB changes?

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Can’t see how, the ABC DAB is totally separate to the Commercial/Community DAB, they have different links, different PIE Racks & all different equipment, & then all DAB is at Artarmon & Triple J FM is at Gore Hill with no link to Artarmon, (to my knowledge).

Having said that, I don’t know how the CBAA get their DAB data to Artarmon, it’s quite possible the wrong data has been put on the wrong link somewhere in the Telstra Broadcast DVN2 Network, & the HOPE DAB data has been linked to the HOPE DAB service & also the Triple J FM service?

That wouldn’t have any relation to the ABC DAB moving to Telstra Broadcast for management, unless all the ABC services (FM, TV, AM) have also been moved to Telstra Broadcast for management between leaving the ABC studios & BAI taking over for transmission?

I think HOPE do have a Telstra Broadcast link as a backup, their main links are with TPG, so maybe this link has been misconfigured in the Telstra network & was being routed to 2 different places when it shouldn’t have been i.e. CBAA/HOPE DAB & Triple J Sydney FM?

We may never know. Unless caught red handed, Telstra likely won’t admit to this, or tell ABC or HOPE even if it was their fault, it’ll just have mysteriously resolved itself.

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More than likely. If it was a more serious issue an investigative engineer would most likely have been asked to write a report to provide to his management for filtered relay to customer.

I’m surprised how long the fault existed for.

In retrospect Hope FM received some extra exposure for their fund raising drive currently happening. Not sure how many triple j listeners would have made the switch, but interesting none-the-less :grin:

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While it seems like near impossible to happen, we may need to give @Radiohead a job, he may have been on the right track with the Triple J FM RDS issue?

The HOPE & ABC Engineers & myself would also like to thank @ozbark for the information he provided, that very much helped diagnose where the issue might be.

Apparently the ABC feed their FM RDS from their DAB data, & somehow they were getting HOPE’s.
A reboot of something at the ABC end fixed it, the HOPE engineer didn’t say what though?

None of us still know how this happened, or how it was even possible though?

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You’re very welcome @RFBurns - thank you :+1: . It’s always encouraging when somebody takes an interest in a reported fault & actively pursues it.

As with any tech problem resolution. Requires an understanding of the setup, understanding all the symptoms of problem, testing, observing, resolving etc.

Still on the subject of the ABC & their FM RDS. I note for both ABC Classic FM & triple j that their RDS RT now only shows Song Artist & Title information. Their other RT info seams to have disappeared.
The Australian RDS List can be used as a guide to the other RT info
I’m unsure when this occurred, could be recently, weeks or months…?

Just wondering if the ABC engineers are aware of this as well or by design due to recent DAB+ or other technical config changes?

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Not sure, at a guess seeing we now know the FM RDS comes from the DAB info I’d say it’s related to the recent DAB changes?

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Can confirm (at least in Hobart) the ABC FM RDS RT definitely comes from the DAB+ RT, but very much in a way I can imagine this would easily happen… While I’m probably not allowed to share a picture, in the Mt Welly racks in Hobart, there is a non-descript box (looks like one of those Jaycar 1ru rack cases) that has a label on the front saying “DAB to RDS data converter”, with an individual status light for triple j and Classic FM.

From my understanding after chatting to BAI engineers about it a couple years ago, it’s basically just a Raspberry Pi + SDR inside (or the equivalent hardware) which just sits tuned to 9C on DAB and decodes the DLS and sends it as text to the onsite RDS encoders for triple j and Classic FM respectively. I’d imagine with the recent DAB+ changes, the DAB+ receiver would have freaked out when the service ID’s etc changed and retuned to whatever closest it could find.

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Which probably helps to explain why the ABC doesn’t have RDS in any regional areas (because there’s no local DAB service from which to feed in RDS).

Except for Triple J Sunshine Coast, but then I suspect they are getting their RDS from Brisbane DAB?

Knights Hill (Wollongong) is one site where they COULD use Sydney DAB to feed in RDS there.
Gold Coast is another with Brisbane DAB again.

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That’s it - RDS on ABC turned on in Hobart within two months of DAB+ going live :slight_smile:

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Thanks Josh, I’ll have to check the ABC racks at Gore Hill next time I’m there & see if I can find the same, as all DAB is at Artarmon, this is the only way it could get to Gore Hill for the FM RDS & get screwed up.

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@RFBurns Might wanna talk to the ABC guys again…
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Oh yes…
Here’s my 92.9 RT capture:

13:19:37 NOW: Rush Rush - Paula Abdul
13:19:59 NOW: Fun Digital Radio -
13:20:23 NOW: Love Cats - The Cure

RT feed from Bill’s - FUN Classic Hits

Interesting this should come up again.
It very briefly appeared & disappeared a week ago,
only moments before I was going to report it, but
it appeared on 105.7 not 92.9

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RDS station name change for Port Stephens FM

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Did their PS change from dynamic to static?
I recall you mentioned song & artist info was in the PS field last month.

BTW Hope 103.2 now have their usual RDS RT, as it was pre their donation drive.

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I THINK it’s static… I didn’t see any song info when I checked…

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92.9 Classic RDS issue looks to be fixed now.

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Some RDS from this afternoon’s opening that may be of interest.

97.9
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105.9
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93.1
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2CCM Today’s Country 94.1 have corrected their RDS RT. Now just the one message.

RDS PS still 3 lines of Dynamic PS for station name.

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Thanks, it’s the Dynamic PS that needed fixing more than anything else! :unamused:

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