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From: William R. Walsh on 16 Feb 2010 12:34
Hi!

> Some interesting content in those documents Jeff, but still no
> mention of the RDS having control of this frequency-hopping
> behaviour, or how the radio carries it out 'seamlessly'.

In the US, and concerning recent GM vehicles sold here in particular,
the RDS implementation does support station switching of conventional
analog broadcasts.

The radios offered by Ford here in the US also do this if they support
RDS, as do ones offered by Chrysler in their vehicles.

RDS is, of course, pitifully underused here in the US. And while I
have some radios that can receive it, little more than the ability to
display the callsign of the station--and somtimes its format--is used.
As such, I've never seen the automatic station switch take place--the
only confirmation of its existence is in the vehicle owner's manual or
the RDS spec itself.

I suspect the station hopping ability requires two tuners, and perhaps
a sort of buffering circuit to assure that there is no delay in the
audio output. How the switching criteria is met I have no idea--maybe
some sort of "apparent" signal strength meter is observed?

The radio that's currently in my truck doesn't support RDS, and in a
way I'm glad. RDS seemingly supports "emergency" announcements that
will turn the radio back on and make it so that it is impossible to
turn it off while the alert plays.

I'm sorry, but it's *MY* radio and it will be off if I want it to be!

William
From: Arfa Daily on 16 Feb 2010 20:37

"William R. Walsh" <wm_walsh(a)hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:62a4fe43-011b-46d8-bcba-d0e1f5255170(a)d2g2000yqa.googlegroups.com...
> Hi!
>
>> Some interesting content in those documents Jeff, but still no
>> mention of the RDS having control of this frequency-hopping
>> behaviour, or how the radio carries it out 'seamlessly'.
>
> In the US, and concerning recent GM vehicles sold here in particular,
> the RDS implementation does support station switching of conventional
> analog broadcasts.
>
> The radios offered by Ford here in the US also do this if they support
> RDS, as do ones offered by Chrysler in their vehicles.
>
> RDS is, of course, pitifully underused here in the US. And while I
> have some radios that can receive it, little more than the ability to
> display the callsign of the station--and somtimes its format--is used.
> As such, I've never seen the automatic station switch take place--the
> only confirmation of its existence is in the vehicle owner's manual or
> the RDS spec itself.
>
> I suspect the station hopping ability requires two tuners, and perhaps
> a sort of buffering circuit to assure that there is no delay in the
> audio output. How the switching criteria is met I have no idea--maybe
> some sort of "apparent" signal strength meter is observed?
>
> The radio that's currently in my truck doesn't support RDS, and in a
> way I'm glad. RDS seemingly supports "emergency" announcements that
> will turn the radio back on and make it so that it is impossible to
> turn it off while the alert plays.
>
> I'm sorry, but it's *MY* radio and it will be off if I want it to be!
>
> William

William - see my further comments on how it's done (now that I've found the
info on it courtesy of Meat !) at the bottom of the thread.

The traffic announcement facility can be switched on or off at will. I too
don't like the station that I'm listening to being 'hijacked' by a traffic
announcement, so I simply have that feature turned off. Shame you don't see
more of the system's use your side of the pond. It really is quite good, and
the frequency hopping behaviour is very useful, particularly when you want
to stay tuned to a national station, over a long journey.

Arfa


From: Jeff Liebermann on 17 Feb 2010 12:09
On Wed, 17 Feb 2010 10:42:43 -0500, Meat Plow wrote:
>But I gave up terrestrial radio and the hair-pulling
>aggravation of advertisements for Sirius sat radio back in 2006.

Sirius seems to have advertising:
<http://www.sirius.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Sirius/CachedPage&c=Gateway&cid=1191942043707>
or at least "advertising partners". I don't currently have (or need)
a Sirius or XM subscription. Is there much advertising on Sirius?



--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl(a)cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
From: William R. Walsh on 18 Feb 2010 11:41
Hi!

> William - see my further comments on how it's done (now that
> I've found the info on it courtesy of Meat !) at the bottom of the
> thread.

I'll certainly check that out. I'd like to know more about how the
system works with regard to the automatic station switch.

> The traffic announcement facility can be switched on or off at
> will.

GM and Chrysler don't let you shut those alerts off, at least not in
the vehicles that I have.

> Shame you don't see more of the system's use your side
> of the pond.

Yeah, I would certainly welcome more of its use here in the
US...although I'm sorry to say that I've kind of given up on radio as
a whole. It's hard to find what I'd like to hear anyway...and ever
since I hooked up an iPod set to shuffle play in the truck, I've found
it hard to look back.

No commercials, no station fade, and any song I want to hear...

As it is, I found that nearly all the commercial RF modulators
available for iPods are seriously deficient in some way or another, so
I went for a better approach:

http://greyghost.mooo.com/2003s10/radio.htm

But that's another thread entirely...

William
From: Jeff Liebermann on 18 Feb 2010 12:46
On Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:41:50 -0800 (PST), "William R. Walsh"
<wm_walsh(a)hotmail.com> wrote:

>It's hard to find what I'd like to hear anyway...and ever
>since I hooked up an iPod set to shuffle play in the truck, I've found
>it hard to look back.
>No commercials, no station fade, and any song I want to hear...

Same here. I like classical and although there is a good local
classical FM station KBOQ, I'm at the fringe area of reception. So, I
listen to MP3's on my iPod Touch and other assorted MP3 players.

>As it is, I found that nearly all the commercial RF modulators
>available for iPods are seriously deficient in some way or another,

Some are better than others, but nothing beats a direct connection. If
your radio supports it, controlling the iPod Touch from the radio
display and controls is very convenient.

>so I went for a better approach:
>http://greyghost.mooo.com/2003s10/radio.htm
>But that's another thread entirely...

Bah. Who's afraid of topic drift? Your next upgrade will probably be
a car computah. Instead of the radio in the dash, and LCD touchscreen
display running a PC under the seat or in the trunk. The computah
internet access, videos, TV, games, navigation, ODB monitor, rear view
camera, etc. See:
<http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/show-off-your-project/>
for examples of what others have done while waiting for the
manufacturers to do it all wrong. Some enterprising vendors have
machined adapters and frames for installing LCD panels on DIN rail
mounts. The TV/FM is usually handled by a USB dongle, which is
usually installed at the base of the antenna, to minimize cable
losses, and connected to the computah with a USB cable. A USB hub in
the trunk also handles the backup camera, NAS storage, secondary Wi-Fi
bridge, etc.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl(a)cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
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