Re: quattro-digest V3 #797

[Robert Houk - SMCC Bos Desktop Hardware <rdh@UrQ.East.Sun.COM>]

   >Hi again, I'm wondering if I have a problem with the Bose stereo in my A4.
   >I always have RDS activated, but recently I've seen two odd things occur.
   >First, I live in the Boston area.  Suddenly over the weekend, 106.7 started
   >to list on the RDS doscplay as KHOP, which would indicate a station
   >somewhere west of Mississippi (I don't think I've moved, and the radio
   >station still calls itself WMJX).  Also on Sunday, we were up in Maine still
   >receiving 107.9, but the RDS was not displaying the call letters.  It has
   >since returned to displaying the correct call letters.

   Certainly not.  The problems you are seeing are problems of the sending
   station.  Here in Chicago one of the local classical stations was
   sending the "light country" type identifier for some time, before it
   figured out how to run the equipment.

   I've yet to see anybody in the US use the RDS stuff properly...

I'm initially inclined to agree -- probably "user error" at the station
level (hard for the driver to "misconfigure" his radio to cause that
particular error).

Then again, we are talking "Audi" and "electric" in the same paragraph
here!

Of course there's always the, um, "playful student" who is broadcasting
(read: "jamming") with some other signal . . . not that *I* admit to
having ever engaged in such blatantly illegal behavior in any previous
lives . . .

   RDS is certainly "distance sensitive".  If you have RDS turned on and
   you get too far away from the station you are listening to, RDS will
   search for another station sending the same identifier!  This is it's
   main purpose, displaying the station ID is a side benefit.  It will be
   ...

That's the "PTY" (Program TYpe) feature,  I think; been awhile since I
read up on RDS. Depends on your radio; my Denon is selectable whether
you want it to automatically switch when it thinks the current signal is
poor, or you want to manually scan for another "copy" of the program,
or just not switch at all. I have it turned off on mine, and from my ex-
perience, the music signal has deteriorated far before the radio fails
to lock on the RDS subcarrier. Of course, I still have several surviving
feet of original Audi antenna wire left in my car . . .

I know other alleged features include automatically setting your car
clock from the broadcast signal, but never been able to get that to
work (I presume 'cuz never found anyone broadcasting the time...at 
least not when I was trying to recover from having lost power again...)

					-RDH