Exactly. Well done @RFBurns with solving this problem & investigation.
Can I ask how old the Mitsubishi vehicle is?
I suspect, given what we have now discovered many Aussie stations with RDS PI codes beginning with 0 should be considering a change to a relevant state digit identifier.
For the enlightenment of all; a worksheet was created some weeks ago on the Australian RDS list with a numerically (HEX) sorted list of station PI codes. For those with some influence at the stations concerned one could justify a case requesting the effected stations (PI codes commencing with zero) to change their PI codes.
The âknownâ list of stations are:
4US
2BLU
2VOX
2OAG
2GZF
2CCR
2RGF
3SUN
3RMR
3MDA
Individual stations for sure. Mitsubishi, and other manufacturers for that matter, would be reluctant to admit fault.
Itâs potentially an issue with other radios too, so a station level change would be a quicker and more reliable solution, as well as getting one step closer to all Australian stations using the same numbering system.
Iâm not sure that the manufacturers are necessarily at fault as the aforementioned Australian broadcasters arenât following the RDS specifications. No country is allocated a PI country code of â0â, so according to the RDS specifications, Mitsubishi is technically correct in assuming 0 is an invalid PI country code and that the radio is receiving an invalid/corrupt RDS transmission. Valid country codes range from 1 to F.
The allocations for the country codes (or state codes, for the case of Australia) were set out decades ago: Country codes Each Australian state is allocated a country/area code between 1 and 7 (in line with how our callsigns are allocated).
Those allocations were developed by the EBU who designed RDS in the first place, so presumably, itâs what manufacturers refer to when designing RDS receivers. The allocations are now in the European Standards. However, youâre right in that thereâs no oversight of RDS in Australia and broadcasters can essentially do whatever they want with RDS and use whatever PI code they wish.
In Europe, the broadcasting authorities issue the PI code and in the US, itâs calculated from the stationâs callsign, but in Australia, itâs a free-for-all. Thus the problems weâre having now with PI codes, incorrect TA/TP flags, incorrect AFs, incorrect CTs, etc. The ACMA simply doesnât regulate RDS.
No trouble for SDRuno to decode RDS, but I have a JVC media player car head unit (KD X351BT) that hasnât shown 6MM RDS since they switch to FM last year.
It sounds like multiple brands of radios check for a valid RDS PI country code before decoding then and Australian radio station operators should be using the correct code assigned to the state theyâre in as per RDSâs specifications (or at least something not beginning with 0).
Most RDS-enabled radios donât have the ability to display PI codes from what Iâve seen, as itâs just meant for the radio to identify if a station broadcasting on a frequency is the same as another station and the end-user is meant to rely on the PS instead to identify stations.
Thatâs fine, but as much as Commercial radio Australia would like to think so, RDS is an international standard not a CRA one & as a result RDS receivers are made to decode the international standard some loosely & as weâve now discovered some tightly to the standard.
As part of the standard the second number is still important for program type & any station with a frequency below 100.0MHz would again break the standard as listed below:
The second character identifies program type in terms of area coverage: 0 - Local (Local program transmitted via a single transmitter only during the whole transmitting time.) 1 - International (The same program is also transmitted in other countries.) 2 - National (The same program is transmitted throughout the country.) 3 - Supra-regional (The same program is transmitted throughout a large part of the country.) 4 to F - Regional (The program is available only in one location or region over one or more frequencies, and there exists no definition of its frontiers.)
Having the first (Country Code) as the state number is acceptable to all radios unless itâs 0.
Having the second that doesnât meet the standard may cause an issue on some radios depending on how people have the settings.
The best option would be to have the first & second numbers to international standard & then the 3rd & 4th to be the first 2 letters of their official call sign?
Commercial Radio Australia having a standard is fine, but thereâs plenty of other stations in Australia that arenât commercial & donât have to do what CRA say.
Maybe a standard should be adopted & enforced in Australia, & ACMA allocates the PI codes, or they are set on a slightly modified version of what the USA uses & is based on the call-sign?
The biggest failing of the CRA system is surely that it only allows for one station to fit the recommended PI code per frequency. So what happens with 2AAY and 2MMM or 2ROC Canberra and 2CLR Grafton and as two examples of commercial stations on the same frequency and state (not to mention countless clashes for commercial and community stations).
I tried SDR Console for the first time. Havenât had much of a chance to experiment yet but managed to get it to display the PI codes for the Sunshine Coast stations that have RDS. None of the stations comply with the CRA recommendations.
