Miami area FM Stations on my cellphone

[FLjack2]

This morning, I used the FM chip in my cellphone for the first time. Reception was good, but I found this very odd.

All of the Clear Channel stations were "labeled" wrong.

93.9 KBYU
94.9 KBWY
100.7 KDQQ
103.5 KBYV
105.9 KDAC

The formats were all listed correctly and the RDS feed of song titles was correct. Any idea why the call letters would all be wrong? Is that something on Clear Channel's end or my cellphone?

 

[cd637299]

I can tell you this. Late last night, all the stations you mentioned, except for 93.9, had their HD shut off. Great for this DXer....but alas, the HD was all on again today. I looked at my HD radio, and did not notice anything unusual about readouts or anything.

cd

 

[richiedon]

Radio stations on a handheld mobile device. That sounds so familiar. Give me
a minute here... transistor radio.

 

[w9wi]

This morning, I used the FM chip in my cellphone for the first time. Reception was good, but I found this very odd.

All of the Clear Channel stations were "labeled" wrong.

93.9 KBYU
94.9 KBWY
100.7 KDQQ
103.5 KBYV
105.9 KDAC

The formats were all listed correctly and the RDS feed of song titles was correct. Any idea why the call letters would all be wrong? Is that something on Clear Channel's end or my cellphone?

Clear Channel uses the "wrong" PI codes in their RDS configuration. It has something to do with a traffic service for GPSs.

(the "PI" code identifies a particular station. In order to ensure it's unique, the EIA wrote a formula to map PI codes to call letters. Some radios & cellphones reverse this formula to read the PI code and calculate the call letters.

Of course, if the wrong PI code is being transmitted, the call letters will be calculated incorrectly!

The RDS standard is not in the FCC rules -- there are no legal consequences for using the wrong code.

What I *think* is going on with Clear Channel... is that for the GPSs to work properly, the first digit of the PI code must be 1. As I understand it, the rest of the code is correct.


I have a calculator on my website (http://www.w9wi.com, look in the panel at the bottom middle of the main page) to go from PI to call letters & vice versa. If you run the call letters-to-PI converter on the first example you posted (KBYU), you get the PI code 1528 -- that's obviously what this station is transmitting.

With most Clear Channel stations, you know the last three digits of the PI are correct. The "right" PI for this station is either 0528, 2528, 3528, 4528, 5528, 6528, 7528, 8528, 9528, A528, B528, C528, D528, E528, or F528. (this is a hexidecimal -- base 16 -- number)

So, you can use the *other* calculator on my site (adjacent link)... to get the call signs for these codes:

0528 (invalid U.S. code)
1528 KBYU
2528 KIAI
3528 KOBW
4528 KUDK
5528 WAEY
6528 WGGM
7528 WMIA
8528 WSJO
9528 WYLC
A528 KYHS
B528 (invalid U.S. code)
C528 (invalid U.S. code)
D528 (invalid U.S. code)
E528 (invalid U.S. code)
F528 (invalid U.S. code)

I suspect you'll find 7528 is familiar

_________________________________________________

Ironically, KBYU are valid call letters for a non-commercial station in Provo, Utah. I know off the top of my head that KIAI and WSJO are also valid call letters -- indeed, KIAI is also on 93.9! (in Mason City, Iowa)

 

[FLjack2]

I gotta tell you, I have NO idea what you are talking about. :

 

[w9wi]

I gotta tell you, I have NO idea what you are talking about. :

Shoot. You know us engineers, sometimes we get carried away

There's a data code in the RDS information. This code is supposed to indicate the call letters of the station. For some reason, Clear Channel stations transmit the wrong code, that's why your phone is displaying the wrong call letters. The data code is not assigned by the government, so there are no legal consequences for transmitting the wrong code.

 

[FLjack2]

Much better. ;D