Radio Data System (RDS)

Looks like a Mercedes system you have there?

Niiiice!

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Friends System Unfortunately… wish it was mine… nice car he has 2010 AMG Convertable

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But was off within a day & off most of the time since

Seams as though 2BACR have a RDS encoder issue.
Noted twice today that the RDS stream returned, but only for about 6 seconds each time. My PI count logs only show PI counts of 57 & 58 on each occasion. A count of 100 should take around 10 seconds. RDS is inactive/faulty almost all the time. No subcarrier seen when faulty (most of the time).

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I happened to decode RDS on both northern Victoria Flow FM. They were slightly different unfortunately only captured on 95.3 which had a strong signal with no signs of Triple M (3SR) underneath

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Sporadic E right now Eyre Peninsula to Bunbury WA. Magic 89.9 (Port Lincoln) PI code 5899. Fast fading signal not strong enough to decode PS / PTY / RT.

And great troposphereic propagation last night her on the West Coast. Been chasing RDS details from Perth community broadcaster 897FM. PI code 10D7. No luck with a PI code for nearby 6iX. Stronger signal than 89.7 and could even see the RDS carriers on the spectrum display, but no decode. I wonder if I was receiving both 105.7 FM 6iX translators at the same time and they where interfering with each other.

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We noticed 2XL/t Bombala (92.5) running its own RDS ID= ā€˜XLFM 92.5’.

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Seems 105.7 Radio Metro have changed the RDS again… now just says ā€œMetroā€ … No radio text or date/time info and PTY set to Pop music. Seems to be transmitting a TMC though… wonder if they got the traffic contract back

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Forgot to mention that the new Snow FM translator at Mount Selwyn (90.3) has RDS. The 2XL repeater on 99.1 isn’t on air.

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Re 2TVR RDS.
A perfect example of how NOT to program RDS for a FM broadcast station re the usage of Dynamic PS.
Probably the worst I’ve ever seen…
I’d go as far as calling it RDS usage blasphemy!

In case the technician at 2TVR or someone connected with this station is reading this.
DO NOT use Dynamic PS. It’s considered a sin in the broadcast industry.
Most receivers only handle a 8 character PS. Having a scrolling PS is considered a distraction for drivers & most people consider it annoying.
PLEASE keep the PS for the name of the station (static & limited to 8 characters) & use the RT field for various text messages - that’s how RDS was primarily designed & mainly used here & elsewhere. Yes one can do dynamic, but please don’t! It’s discouraged.

Thanks @dxnerd for bringing this classroom example (of what not to do re establishing RDS for a station) to our attention.
BTW what was the frequency you were listening to? 96.3?

My emoji was laughing, if a had the option for crying I would have used that.

Cheers

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That’s how 2NUR in Newcastle does it too.
So equal worst.
Agree, it’s woeful.

The Q has to be asked… WHY do broadcasters do this… when there is a 2nd line of text that is more suited to the additional line of info such as song titles and weather etc.

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How long has this been the case? Do they do it for song title/artist as well?
When I was there in August, the displayed looked to be static, but I suspect possibly I may not have looked long enough to notice on the Android device.

What made the 2TVR dynamic PS look so bad was the use of it for song title/artist & other messages. There’s different modes of usage for dynamic PS, the two scrolling types are bad (eg 2TVR). The mode used for Youth FM/Music FM 92.5, not as bad. I think some RDS encoders provide up to 4 different dynamic display modes, within RDS group OA or OB.

The only reason why broadcasters use dynamic PS is for the older tuners that don’t have a radio text display, just the 8 character display, mainly used for the PS.
Scrolling PS usage is not part of the RDS standard. In fact some countries ban it.
Obviously our regulators here are lagging behind - hello ACMA.
But I do wonder with all the distractions in a modern car these days if it’s just one of many now. It should not be necessary to use it these days with the amount of modern vehicles & modern full LED displays available in a range of radios/tuners currently available in recent times.

UPDATE:
The P232U RDS Encoder provides for 4 Dynamic PS modes.
Four display modes are provided. The mode is switchable ā€˜on the fly’, without need to re-enter the text message.
ļ‚§ Mode 0 - Scrolling by 8 characters
ļ‚§ Mode 1 - Scrolling by 1 character
ļ‚§ Mode 2 - Word alignment scrolling
ļ‚§ Mode 3 - Scrolling by 1 character, text separated by spaces at begin and end

Ref: https://www.pira.cz/rds/p232uman.pdf
Mode 1 & 3 would be the worst.
Mode 2 would be the least objectionable. I think(?) this is the one used by 2WYR.

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Yes, for song titles too… and pretty much since they started using RDS in 2014 or thereabouts.

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With some strong tropo about tonight I’m receiving rare RDS reception of Music FM 92.5 (2WYR). They’ve made a change to their PTY. PTY now displaying as: Pop Music

2ST Bowral RDS should be there if not for interference from 102.9 Newcastle.

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100.9 2BACR have reinstated their RDS encoder.
They have made one noticeable change, that being the dropping of
sending group 4A, Clock Time CT.

97.7 2SBSFM have also corrected their CT.

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Another RDS change…

2VOX 106.9 have changed their PI code from 00CE
to the proposed CRA standard. Now showing as: 206B
This change probably happened within past few days.

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not sure where abouts you are receiving from but that must be an extra strong tropo if you don’t normally get the RDS and are today for 92.5 as we are running at about half Tx power at the moment with some equipment out on maintenance

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Yes was extra strong tropo reception between your TX site & Sydney central that I seamed to catch mid evening last night briefly. Rare to get RDS or even a static free signal from Music FM here.

The site below is an excellent forecasting site for tropo occurrences in our region
http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo_aus.html
Conditions are still enhanced out Moss Vale way with PI code from 2ST 102.9 received just now, but no sign of RDS carrier from Music FM atm (maybe again tonight?)

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I was getting 2TVR’s 96.3 transmitter, which is the parent tx. I’m not sure whether the repeaters at Adelong (94.1) and Talbingo/Gundagai (94.3) have RDS.

Went back up today and was amazed that the scrolling RDS featured the name of an advertiser.

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Gundagai does… I copied that when I was down in the Riverina in May.

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