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RDS

B

BobOnTheJob

My first attempt at programming an RDS. Here's what I entered:

PS = Station's slogan
RT = Station's version of we play the most music
PI = The 4 digit hexidecimal code that relates to the station call letters
PTY = The station's format

My 2012 Ford Focus car radio (the premium sound model) shows :

Unassigned (no idea where that is coming from but I need to stop it)
and
Station's slogan which scrolls (presumably the PS)

How many of the above 4 items should display on the car radio? Education appreciated!
 
BobOnTheJob said:
My first attempt at programming an RDS. Here's what I entered:

PS = Station's slogan
RT = Station's version of we play the most music
PI = The 4 digit hexidecimal code that relates to the station call letters
PTY = The station's format

My 2012 Ford Focus car radio (the premium sound model) shows :

Unassigned (no idea where that is coming from but I need to stop it)
and
Station's slogan which scrolls (presumably the PS)

How many of the above 4 items should display on the car radio? Education appreciated!
Click to expand...

It appears that the PTY code you entered may be outside the range of assigned North American codes. Have you confirmed that the encoder is set for the RBDS format protocol, rather than RDS?

PS normally displays by default on most car radios, so that's probably OK as you entered it. RT is only available on some car radios (reportedly, the auto manufacturers' lawyers were concerned about people driving off the road while staring at the radio) so scrolling PS is the usual workaround, never mind the fact that it's more hazardous.

When time permits, check some other receivers to see how they look. The FM receiver in my Droid X will display a callsign based on the PI code, as well as PS and RT.
 
Inovonics makes some good RDS encoders and their manuals have great descriptions on how each line should be programmed. It would serve you well to give a quick read to the Inovonics 720 manual.
http://www.inovonicsbroadcast.com/model/720

The 720 manual does say that the PI code is a little more difficult that standard HEX. So it also might serve you well to download the little Inovonics program module, because it has a PI code calculator.
http://www.inovonicsbroadcast.com/wp-content/uploads/catablog/downloads/PCSoftware703-720-730Rev3.4.zip
 
Thanks for the answers...I did find out why "unassigned" was showing up. The desired format was showing Unassigned. After some experimenting, I 'found' the one I needed, even though it was labeled as something totally different. Which probably has something to do with the RDS vs RBDS issue. There doesn't seem to be a way to choose between the two on this particular piece of equipment.
 
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