Radio traffic reports

[Voitek]

Can someone expalin what do these icons on the radio display mean?TRAFAlso has anyone in Canada get the traffic report to work while playing CD (as per owners manual?). Which station did work?

[Sputnik]

Someone told me that this feature doesn't work in Canada. Can anyone confirm that? I've never gotten anything when trying it.

[Fast Eddie]

This info, traf feature does work in Canada. The only problem is only a few stations have up graded their technology to broadcast the signals for this to work. I know CHUM-FM in Toronto has this system going.

[Sputnik]

Thanks very much Fast Eddie! Now I can tell my friend they were wrong!

[Voitek]

Thanks Fast Edde. Will try. Still would appreciate if someone deciphered these , TRAF and on the display

[Voitek]

Tried it today. CHUM FM in Toronto. Does not work! (Traffic reports do not interrupt CD).

[shenandoah24]

What I have found is that when I am playing the radio--not the CD player- if I hit the Traf button, it scans all the stations until it finds a traffic report. After it scans all the stations-if there is no traffic report on, the display says "no traffic". It's a pretty cool little feature....

[LavaTroll]

The same thing goes with the enhanced FM feature (participating stations send out song title and call letter info which will display on your Vibe's LED readout): there are no stations in Tampa which participate.

[Sputnik]

I think there is 1 station in Ottawa where you get the call letters - maybe its Chez? I can't remember.

[shenandoah24]

I pushed the info button one time not too long ago and info about a contest that the radio station was running started scrolling across the LED display. It freaked me out. But it was cool. The only other thing I have seen was Call letters.

[Shadow Realm]

I know it works in the States. Down here in Florida, there are several stations that broadcast the RDS signal. Disney area has an info station that I picked up when I was down there last time.

[ragingfish]

I think RDS is one of those things that just never did, and never will, catch on...there's like one station in all of Jersey that I've found broadcasts RDS info, and it's had the same message on their station for 2 years...(had several RDS-ready radios)...it's a great idea, but something tells me XM is gonna knock RDS off the chart...as for the traffic thing...seems even the RDS stations don't bother to do that whole traffic thing.

[EddieandtheVIBE]

RDS is pretty popular in Europe. I've rented cars in several European countires and the majorrity of the stations were broadcasting the extra info. I haven't seen much of it here in the NYC metro area, save for the NY Times classical music station.. Because of that, the pressing the traffic button does not yield anything, and I know of at least *three* news stations that report on traffic regularly. It seems that RDS may be more uselful for non-residents, rather than residents, since for the most part a resisdent would know what stations are available pertaining to their musical prefernce, whereas a non-resident could benefit from RDS info since they'd be able to scan the dial and save the stations of their liking.

[ragingfish]

I used to rely on RDS on my trips back and forth between Boston and Jersey...always was hoping RDS would save me when I hit traffic...quickly learned no stations in between the two destinations satsified my needs!

[camthecanuck]

I found the traffic reports in Europe helpful. I don't think that there is much consistent traffic reporting of this type in Canada. Ironically, traffic is well covered by Toronto and Hamilton TV. How do the commuter drivers manage to watch???

[TheSlave]

quote:I think there is 1 station in Ottawa where you get the call letters - maybe its Chez? I can't remember.The only Ottawa station that I have encountered that offers the "Info" feature is 106.9 The Bear. It only gives you its call letters, and it slogan. Nothing else. No traffic (TRAF) in Ottawa (though all of the stations give regular traffic reports throughout the rush hours).

[MA-VIBE-FAN]

Guess we are lucky here in the Boston area. There are about a dozen FM stations broadcasting in RDS here. Only 92.3PRO-FM in Providence RI will light the "TRAF" indicator. My understanding of the "TRAF" system, is that when a "TRAF" station goes to a traffic report, it is preceded by an alert that the RDS radio can pick up. If you have activated "TRAF" (the would show on the dispaly), the radio will go to the "TRAF" station for the report. When you hit the "TARF" button the RDS sysem searches for a RDS station that indicates "TRAF" mode. The "none found" is not for no trafic reports, but no RDS stations in "TRAF" mode found.Several of the stations use the 64 character display for Artist, Song Title, and Year. Makes great "name that tune" fun in the car. Also I think this info when used is better then the XM info I have seen.

[Myself]

The Radio Data Service (RDS) has only caught on in some areas, but cost seems to be the only reason not to run it. RDS is simply a subcarrier transmitted along with the audio on an FM station. It can carry all sorts of information, and the specification is long and detailed. Usually you'll find it used for 3 things:1) Station call letters. This just looks cute on your display, it doesn't alleviate the station from their FCC mandate to verbally announce their callsign every 30 minutes. I think the radio stores this in memory, since it's only transmitted every few seconds but it pops up immediately when I change stations.2) Song name. If you're listening to a station and the call letters appear, watch your display for the "info" indicator to light. Then try pushing the Info button. Some stations put their slogan into this space, and it never changes. An example is "wdetfm.org, a different kind of radio" Other stations have their RDS encoder connected so that it shows the artist and trackname of each song as it's played.2a) Easter egg: On at least one station I've found, the RDS stream begins transmitting the name of the song BEFORE the music starts. So while the DJ is doing the intro blurb, you can say "hey, look over there!" and get your date to look out the window while you check the Info button, then say "I think they're gonna play Spark next" and sure enough, 2 seconds later...3) the Traffic bit. Supposedly a station will set this to 1 while they're giving a traffic report, and 0 the rest of the time. Unfortunately there's nothing preventing them from setting it 1 all the time. WOMC does this, causing any RDS-equipped radio to land on their station whenever you hit TRAF, despite the fact that they're playing the Beach Boys. *******s. I wish the receiver had an option to "blacklist" a station and ignore it while searching for traffic reports.One day I found the Info string from WOMC was simply displaying "Inovonics model 711" all day. Apparently their encoder got reset and nobody reprogrammed it for a while. A little googling reveals that Inovonics makes all sorts of studio electronics. Things you never knew you didn't know...

[ragingfish]

RDS is gonna die with the influx of XM...IMHO...especially considering it neve really caught on...

[nate66]

Hopefully XM will force radios stations to start using RDS to stay competitive.

[esjones]

1. I don't consider XM Radio (or Sirius) to be competitors to RDS. XM is a subscription programming service (which apparently includes some RDS-like features) while RDS is just a free-form data channel for stations to use or not use as they see fit. Both are heavy on gadget-appeal, but I don't see them as competitors in the usual sense.2. Canadians... check this out: www.radiotext.ca

[PieBoy]

I just purchased a vibe with the GPS nav system(dealer demo....made the cost of the GPS more reasonable....pick it up tomorrow, yay). The RDS in it works really well. During a test drive I tuned into 107.1 in Toronto. The display randomly changed from name and artist of song, traffic, weather, news headlines, and even (to my eventual dismay I'm sure) an ad for advertising over RDS radio (can't remember the url right now, but I'll let you know tomorrow after I pick it up!). With the exception of the ad, and the fact that the weather was current conditions, duh, I thought it was great.

[ragingfish]

I hear Toronto does a great job with their stations integrating RDS...her ein Jersey, I know of maybe two stations that do it...one recently stopped though.

[ColonelPanic]

I've always thought RDS was a neat feature - it's been around for quite some time, I always wanted a receiver that did RDS. Now that I have one, I can't use it. Shame it never caught on. Only two stations here broadcast RDS.I know what you mean about the traffic feature... There's a station here that TRAF displays each time you tune to it. And the radio stops at that frequency when scanning for traffic. I've had the TRAF feature enabled since day one and have yet to hear an interruption from the radio for traffic info. Has anyone had luck with setting their clock via RDS? I've tuned to one of the RDS-enabled stations, held down hour/min, and the clock was then in sync. But I haven't been able to do it sice, getting 'NO UPDATE' each time.

[ragingfish]

quote:Has anyone had luck with setting their clock via RDS? I've tuned to one of the RDS-enabled stations, held down hour/min, and the clock was then in sync. But I haven't been able to do it sice, getting 'NO UPDATE' each time.Never have been able to do it here, even on RDS stations...

[Myself]

Most RDS encoders don't bother encoding the time signal. There are a handful of RDS stations here in Detroit, and only one of them (WDET 101.9) has a time signal in their RDS stream. It's great when driving across timezones, even before I cross into Central, I can just tune a Chicago-based station and hold hr+min for a moment.PieBoy, you say that the display randomly changed itself, without you pushing a button? That's explicitly against the RDS specification, and I'd encourage you to call the radio station and complain. The display shouldn't change more than once every few minutes (when the song changes), as frequent changes are considered distracting to the driver. The spec (available from http://www.rds.org.uk) states: The Program Service name is to be used only to identify the station or station program. This text may be changed as required by the station, but shall not be scrolled or flashed or altered in a manner that would be disturbing or distracting to the viewer (i.e. not more frequently than once per minute). The fact that they're advertising in the RDS stream really worries me. I don't think our radios have the ability to ignore RDS data, do they? The last thing I want is spam catching the corner of my eye while I'm driving. Looks like another piece of black electrical tape might find its way onto my dashboard.The other alternative, of course, is to wrap your Vibe around a tree and say you were so distracted by the frequently changing info on your radio, you didn't notice the edge of the road coming. One lawsuit would send the spamming scum station back to the drawing board.

[PieBoy]

Well, I got my vibe, yippee. That's interesting about the changing data. I haven't checked your link, but I will. The screen randomly switches from Traffic to Weather to news, as I said, but it doesn't do it quickly. Usually pauses at each one for at least a minute, maybe longer. It also alows me to scan for specific content. In the RDS menu I can select all content, no content or individual item (ie: I only want to scan for sports, weather, traffic, R&B, Country etc). It works really well, and with the big screen I don't have to push a button and watch the information scroll. It will display 2 lines of text that I can read in a one second glance. I've attached photos.I'll take a look at the spec link you posted to see if there is some problem

Attached files

[PieBoy]

Sorry, couldn't figure out how to send two photos at once.

Attached files

[joatmon]

Around the DC area, there are a number of stations that use RDS somewhat. Some will come up with their call letters or slogan, but not info, others will have some token info like "the best station there is" or some other useless stuff. Some sill light up the traffic button, but it seems like they broadcast the signal to turn on the TRAF all the time, and not jsut when they're doing traffic reports.What I really wanted was the XM style RDS, where it tells you the titel/artist that their currently playing, but haven't been able to find a station that does that, so I don;t know if the stock radios support that.In the mornings, all the stations around here go into this group talk mode, where they might play one song between 10 minute intervals of talk and commercials, so I go to CDs then. The radio environment around here is a really good justification for XM/Sirius.

[ragingfish]

It is all dependent on the station. If they choose to send info such as title and artist, they do...but it certainly is not something that is or is not supported by the radio. It's just dependent on what the station opts to transmit. i've only had one station ever do that, and it was up in Boston somewhere...

[esjones]

quote:It is all dependent on the station. If they choose to send info such as title and artist, they do...but it certainly is not something that is or is not supported by the radio. It's just dependent on what the station opts to transmit. Right you are. We had a Cincinnati station that did title/artist for a while but then they dropped it. When I was in Cleveland a few weeks ago, there was a station broadcasting the message, "If you see this on your RDS radio, give us a call at....xxxxx". Guess they were trying to see who was seeing their text messages!

[Jahntassa]

I keep checking for RDS stations when I move around...there's a few in the NJ area, haven't looked in the Atlanta area yet.

[ragingfish]

Only NJ one I know that does RDS is NJ 101.5. Also, 96.5 ThePoint does, but that's outta Philly I believe...