XI
186
A U D I O a n d T E L E M A T I C S
AUDIO-VIDEO
What is RDS? RDS station following T r a f fi c i n f o r m a t i o n f u n c t i o n
Your radio automatically checks
and selects the best frequency
for the radio station to which it is
tuned (if the station broadcasts on sev-
eral transmitters or frequencies).
The frequency of a radio station covers
approximately 30 miles (50 km). The
change from one frequency to another
explains the loss of reception during a
journey.
If the station to which you are listening
does not have several frequencies in
the region in which you are currently lo-
cated, you can deactivate the automatic
frequency following.
Radio Data System (RDS) func-
tion on the FM waveband permits:
- tuning to the same station while
travelling through different regions
(if the transmitters of this station
cover the area through which you
are travelling),
- t e m p o r a r y t u n i n g t o t r a f fi c i n f o r m a - tion announcements,
- display of the name of the station, etc...
Most FM stations use RDS.
These stations transmit non-audible
data in addition to their programmes.
The data transmitted in this way allows
you access to various functions, mainly
displaying of the name of the station,
t e m p o r a r y t u n i n g t o t r a f fi c i n f o r m a t i o n
announcements or automatic station
following.
RDS allows you to continue listening to the
same station by means of the frequency
following. However, in certain conditions,
this RDS frequency following cannot be
provided throughout the country. Radio
stations do not cover the whole country,
which explains the loss of reception of the
station during a journey. T h e T r a f fi c P r o g r a m ( T P ) f u n c -
tion permits automatic and
temporary switching to an FM
s t a t i o n b r o a d c a s t i n g t r a f fi c i n f o r m a t i o n .
The radio station or the source that you
are listening to at this point is paused.
O n c e t h e t r a f fi c i n f o r m a t i o n h a s e n d e d ,
the system switches back to the radio
station or the source that you were lis-
tening to initially.
Regional following mode Some stations are organised in
a network.
In different regions, they broad-
cast different or shared programmes
depending on the time of day.
You can follow:
- a regional station only,
- the entire network, with the possibility that you will be listening to a different
programme. Programme types
Some stations offer the option
of listening to a themed type of
programme as a priority, select-
ed from the list available below:
NEWS, AFFAIRS, INFOS, SPORT,
EDUCATE, DRAMA, CULTURE,
SCIENCE, VARIED, POP M, ROCK M,
EASY M, LIGHT M, CLASSICS, OTHER
M, WEATHER, FINANCE, CHILDREN,
SOCIAL, RELIGION, PHONE IN, TRAVEL, LEISURE, JAZZ, COUNTRY, NATION M,
OLDIES, FOLK M, DOCUMENT.
