RDS Traffic Reports

mickeyboymel

I was driving up around the roads of Louth yesterday listening to BBC Radio 2 on FM in the car,and found BBC Radio Ulster and the local commercial station in Newry(Its Name escapes me) cut through the R2 transmissions with local traffic reports.

Are any of the stations in Ireland using this technology on FM transmissions or will we have to wait for DAB to become the standard?

marclt

mickeyboymel wrote: »

I was driving up around the roads of Louth yesterday listening to BBC Radio 2 on FM in the car,and found BBC Radio Ulster and the local commercial station in Newry(Its Name escapes me) cut through the R2 transmissions with local traffic reports.

Are any of the stations in Ireland using this technology on FM transmissions or will we have to wait for DAB to become the standard?

I know that South East Radio does use the Traffic Flag on RDS, but don't think it is allowed to cut into RTE programmes for example.

BBC local stations in the UK do and if you're listening to a BBC national station, you'll often find local reports popping up as you travel aruond. I'm not sure how or why the commercial station was able to cut into the BBC EON.

Richard

marclt wrote: »

I'm not sure how or why the commercial station was able to cut into the BBC EON.

That second one does sound a bit strange. The Radio 2 broadcast will include a signal to switch radios to Radio Ulster if they have Traffic Programme enabled. I'd be surpised if the BBC broadcast a signal for a commercial station. Usually, signals are only broadcast on another station if they are part of the same company, though a station may broadcast a signal on its own frequency which will cut in if you're playing a tape or CD.

mickeyboymel

I may be mistaken on the local signal of commercial (Five FM) cutting in, as at various times I was scanning the band to see what was coming in.Settled on Radio 2 and only then noticed the RDS kicking in.

It is a really useful feature though and would be good in the South for me as one who travels a lot for work and prefers to listen to music stations or Cds as opposed to more talk orientated stations which carry regular traffic reports

zilog_jones

I've tried turning on RDS TA before to see if anything happened. I found if I was using my MP3 player (through a tape adaptor) it would stop the tape and tune into Limerick Live 95FM (a station I wouldn't normally listen to, but was set as a preset) when there was a traffic report. I don't know how it decides which station to receive these from - maybe it just checks all preset stations?

The TP (Traffic Programme) flag is properly used in Ireland - any station that does do traffic reports will display "TP" on your radio (if supported).

marclt

zilog_jones wrote: »

I've tried turning on RDS TA before to see if anything happened. I found if I was using my MP3 player (through a tape adaptor) it would stop the tape and tune into Limerick Live 95FM (a station I wouldn't normally listen to, but was set as a preset) when there was a traffic report. I don't know how it decides which station to receive these from - maybe it just checks all preset stations?

The TP (Traffic Programme) flag is properly used in Ireland - any station that does do traffic reports will display "TP" on your radio (if supported).

If the station is in range, it will cut off your tape/cd or whatever and go into the traffic broadcast. I don't think the national stations use this facility?

It's all the same AA roadwatch stuff anyway...

zilog_jones

I was wondering how the radio knows which station is local though. Does it compare signal strength or something? In Limerick city I get pretty good reception of Clare FM and other regional stations, though the signal is certainly stronger from Live 95 (Clare FM comes from the same place on 96.4 but IIRC it's directed more north towards Clare).

marclt

zilog_jones wrote: »

I was wondering how the radio knows which station is local though. Does it compare signal strength or something? In Limerick city I get pretty good reception of Clare FM and other regional stations, though the signal is certainly stronger from Live 95 (Clare FM comes from the same place on 96.4 but IIRC it's directed more north towards Clare).

I think it is based on signal strength. I've been in an area where there are two overlapping BBC local stations and I've ended up getting traffic news from both.

It depends on whether the other stations use their Traffic Flag. Some stations play beeps that start the Traffic flag with another that switches the flag off. Others (on digital playout systems) have the flag which is switched through a electronic signal to the RDS encoder. In some situations it depends on whether the presenter plays the beeps or sends the signal if they aren't included in the traffic jingle/bed.


FROM WIKIPEDIA:

Travel Announcements (TA), Traffic Programme (TP). The receiver can often be set to pay special attention to this flag and e.g stop the tape/pause the CD or retune to receive a Traffic bulletin. The TP flag is used to allow the user to find only those stations that regularly broadcast traffic bulletins whereas the TA flag is used to stop the tape or raise the volume during a traffic bulletin.

DMC

As I understand it, the Radio Ulster travel jingles contain the TA flag signals.

marclt

I think BBC Radio Wales have use one of the producers, because whilst it always comes in on time, they have often gone into something else before the flag is disabled. They don't use a jingle.

Richard

DMC wrote: »

As I understand it, the Radio Ulster travel jingles contain the TA flag signals.

Do they? They didn't used to. Do you mean an inaudible signal? I've always heard the DTMF tones on commercial stations, not the BBC. Or am I getting confused?

zilog_jones

RDS data is transmitted on a sub-carrier, i.e. the signals are not heard. Maybe there is some other system that uses DTMF tones? Actually I recall some older car radios (late '80s/early '90s) that had some some traffic programme button but no other RDS features or any indication of RDS support.

DMC

Richard wrote: »

Do they? They didn't used to. Do you mean an inaudible signal? I've always heard the DTMF tones on commercial stations, not the BBC. Or am I getting confused?

Its something that I've not looked into in great detail, but someone mentioned to me that they think this is how its done, and I think they referred to an inaudible signal.