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Arbitron PPM Encoder

C

ChiefEngineer

Station wants to add one in Indy metro. How does this work? Audio or subcarrier?
 
Thanks, I hoped it was that simple. Does it create issues for audio?
 
Not that I noticein normal listening... haven't critically listened over time, but I doubt it. The information injection is subtle enough that the encoder will go silent during silence or very low passages. And alarm.
 
I wish that the brain trust that designed these things had added a few items to the encoder:

-A Simple Audio Lo/OK/Hi LED would be nice to see that you are driving the thing properly.
-On the data output, rather than repeatedly sending a "life is great" data burst, actually have it show "no encoding detected" rather than waiting the full three minutes to start bursting that...time stamp would be nice too.
-An ethernet port for cryin out loud!
-A better remote on/off. (Rather than getting a BT Power Switch etc to turn the PRI/BAK on and off.) See ethernet port.

I have a boat load of these on various signals....they are fairly reliable. But they are one more contraption that can call you up in the middle of the night! We ended up adding an ARC 16 at the studio to turn these on and off, and call for help.
 
We let the alarms monitor air signal from a tuner and streams from the web site. If the listening PPM doesn't hear it, we're off... so we don't worry too much remotely about the why. We also let a Burk call us when a monitor is unhappy. The front panel key switch is a SPDT, which coule easaily be relay remoted. If you haven't already, you can remove the front panel and scope one out without breaking the seal on it. Nothing magic, fairly well built. I'd like an i.p. connect to at least the monitor... and the coder would be nice too.
In that the thing hard bypasses when the power goes off, the simple way to swap them is cascade them and then control the AC going to them. If you wanna steal what it inserts, compare input to output... reverse phase them, get them to cancel, and then look at what's left. What you'd do with the data is up to you.
 
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