Why doesn't my RDS work??

[Mikeyboy]

Can anyone tell me why the RDS for Radio Friendly (Galway) doesn't work on my car stereo, but does on any other car stereo I've checked? The displays for the other stations work.

[Mike]

It could be something to do with the level the 57KHz RDS signal is being transmitted at. If its too low some radios may have problems locking onto it

[021]

Or they are probably using one of the Broadcast Warehouse budget RDS encoders (the type with basic RDS functions which are set using 4 yellow buttons on the PCB)
It seems to be acknowledged they do not work on 100% of all RDS radios!

Mikeyboy what type of car radio do you have, it must be one of the fussy ones?

[Mikeyboy]

It's a VDO Dayton (CD 2202), works a bloody charm. Thinking about upgrading to one of their CD/MP3 players, but they're €700. Dunno if its worth it for the amount of time I spend in the car (very little).

[Nick]

I have heard that some car radios don't like the RDS unless it is locked to the stereo (19khz) pilot tone. I'm not sure why this is, as far as I'm aware, the synchronising of the two tones is to cut out the whirring sound caused by them being out of phase with one another.
I have never experienced a problem like yours, even with cheaper RDS units, and very basic RDS radios.

Could be that the radio is just too smart for its own good!! :-)

If you do source the problem, please let me know.

Cheers...

[Mike]

If stereo is being used the RDS signal is supposed to be synchronised to quadrature (90 deg) of the third harmonic of the pilot tone.

Most of the kit based RDS units used by the pirates dont do this.

[Nick]

There is one available for about £60 that does, but its getting a stereo coder that has a 19khz sample output.