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Radio Data System - Frustrations over manuals standard etc

dan, 3.1.2011, 05:57, 68.117.102.144
Frustrations over manuals, standard etc.

Thank you. Your reply was helpful. You are correct there is a large misunderstanding. I've read page 13 of the manual, and the rest of it, but I didn't know that Dynamic PS is not part of the standard, or that it's a substitutes for static PS. I could find no documentation about how RDS works or examples of how to set it up for various purposes. I assumed the radio displayed what was sent out. This explains why every single radio I've tested responds differently. This is unfortunate because there is no way of consistently sending a message or even know what people are seeing. (Why would anyone make such a "standard"?) How can anyone possibly setup RDS when all receivers react differently? It would help to have some idea of how the radios work - even the a percentage of radios have feature X enabled as opposed to feature Y. I don't have a dozen RDS radios on my workbench to test, and there are no guidelines in the manual about best practices, suggested settings, etc.

The manuals are difficult to understand. They lack definitions.
Here is the description of 'Label Period': "Label Period used in DPS Mode 0 and 2. Increasing the value by 1 increases the period by approx. 0.54 seconds (exact value depends on Group Sequence)." OK, so I know that WHEN it's used (mode 0,2), and I know how to convert the number to the number of SECONDS, but no where does it say WHAT it is, or HOW it's used. No purpose is listed anywhere. I am sure it is simple if you already know it, but otherwise you are left guessing that it could be a half dozen different things. I am sure you can sense my level of frustration.

So what I now understand:

DPS us useless since it will not display properly on some radios. On those radios it will only appear as a word or two of the entire string - confusing the listeners.

Radio Text (RT) is useful, but only on the radios that support it.

Program Type (PT) is sent by number, and the text can not be changed. Since my type of station does not correspond to the limited number of descriptions, I will have to set it to a blank description which will force the display to be blank for about 5 seconds on (some/many/most/all?) radios. It's not possible to have this skipped.

PTYN might be helpful here, but again there is no way of knowing what percentages of radios support it.

All of this is why most radio station only enable default PS, and forget about doing anything else. Default PS is the ONLY part of RDS guaranteed to display on all RDS equipped radios.

Jan, 3.1.2011, 09:29
Re: Frustrations over manuals, standard etc.

I appreciate your opinion. In fact, you are correct in all points. Please allow me a few notes:

1) RDS standard is unfortunately insufficient in some issues - from today's view the receiver's behavior would be specified in more detail. As a result, each receiver type = different behavior. Moreover many receivers do not meet the standards in some points. Suppose how many receiver types are sold around the world, how the distribution differs with each country or how many new types are released each month. There is nobody on this planet which can give relevant information like "this will work on X percents of receivers".

2) Dynamic PS, regardless of your opinion, is a very asked feature. That's a fact and I respect it although my opinion is similar to yours. Let's say it, dynamic PS is a crutch only. It would never has been requested if there was really usable text service defined in the RDS standard and implemented in all receivers. What's important - nobody puts pressure on you to use it! That's valid generally for any feature: If you do not understand it or if you have no imagination what its benefit could be, leave it off. It is not a duty to know all RDS services completely, especially in the range that PIRA32 offers.

Jan, 3.1.2011, 09:33
Re: Frustrations over manuals, standard etc.

And one more thing that may help anybody to set-up all services before placing the encoder in final operation:
http://pira.cz/rds/show.asp?art=rds_encoder_software#rs

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