More tuner features: RDS | 06 |
Chapter 6
More tuner features: RDS
An introduction to RDS
Radio Data System (RDS) is a system used by most FM radio stations to provide listeners with various kinds of information — the name of the station and the kind of show they’re broadcasting, for example.
One feature of RDS is that you can search by type of program. For example, you can search for a station that’s broadcasting a show with the program type, JAZZ.
You can search the following program types:1
NEWS – News | FINANCE – Stock market |
AFFAIRS – Current Affairs | reports, commerce, |
INFO – General Information | trading, etc. |
SPORT – Sport | CHILDREN – Programs for |
EDUCATE – Educational | children |
DRAMA – Radio plays, etc. | SOCIAL – Social affairs |
CULTURE – National or | RELIGION – Programs |
regional culture, theater, | concerning religion |
etc. | PHONE IN – Public |
SCIENCE – Science and | expressing their views by |
technology | phone |
VARIED – Usually talk- | TRAVEL – |
based material, such as | travel rather than traffic |
quiz shows or interviews. | announcements |
POP M – Pop music | LEISURE – Leisure interests |
ROCK M – Rock music | and hobbies |
EASY M – Easy listening | JAZZ – Jazz |
LIGHT M – ‘Light’ classical | COUNTRY – Country music |
music | NATION M – Popular |
CLASSICS – ‘Serious’ | music in a language other |
classical music | than English |
OTHER M – Music not | OLDIES – Popular music |
fitting above categories | from the ’50s and ’60s |
WEATHER – Weather | FOLK M – Folk music |
reports | DOCUMENT – Documentary |
Displaying RDS information
Use the DISPLAY button to display the different types of RDS information available.2
•Press DISPLAY for RDS information. Each press changes the display as follows:
•Radio Text (RT) – Messages sent by the radio station. For example, a talk radio station may provide a phone number as RT.
•Program Service Name (PS) – The name of the radio station.
•Program Type (PTY) – This indicates the kind of program currently being broadcast.
•SEARCH – PTY search (see below)
•Current tuner frequency
Searching for RDS programs
You can search for a program type listed above.
1Press the TUNER button for the FM band.3
2Press DISPLAY repeatedly until SEARCH appears in the display.
3Use / to select the program type you want to hear.
4Press ENTER to start the search.
The system searches the station presets for a match. If it finds one, searching stops for five sec.
5If you want to keep listening to the station, press ENTER within the five seconds. If you don’t press ENTER, searching resumes.
Note
1In addition, there are three other program types, TEST, ALARM, and NONE. ALARM and TEST are used for emergency announcements. You can’t search for these, but the tuner will switch automatically to this RDS broadcast signal. NONE appears when a program type cannot be found.
2• If any noise is picked up while displaying the RT scroll, some characters may be displayed incorrectly.
•If you see NO RADIO TEXT DATA in the RT display, it means no RT data is sent from the broadcast station. The display will automatically switch to the PS data display (if no PS data, the frequency is displayed).
•In the PTY display, NO DATA or NONE may be shown. In this case, the PS display is shown after a few seconds.
3RDS is only possible in the FM band.
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