RDS decoding, National alphabets

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ukdx
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RDS decoding, National alphabets

#1

Unread post by ukdx »

An interesting decode yesterday from an Egyptian station but the PS was a jumble of odd characters which makes me suspect it was using Arabic (I've seen similar on signals from Morocco and Jordan). Is there any way of ascertaining what they are trying to display from their ascii codes which can be displayed using the group analyser in RDS Spy?

I went as far as installing and switching to Arabic on the PC hoping Spy would pick up on the coding but no joy. There is some mention of the problem of National alphabets here https://pira.cz/rds/rdschars.pdf

Anyway, here's the video.

Radio 9090, Egypt.


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G0OFE
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Re: RDS decoding, National alphabets

#2

Unread post by G0OFE »

I seem to remember this has been discussed before some years back, with European accented characters.

Is that the former ElRadio (F090) that I had in 2017?

You did well to get through the wall of Italy.. suspected during that opening that a few exotics were hidden.. if only Italy would chuff off.....
Jim, Bournemouth IO90BR
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Simon G4ELI
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Re: RDS decoding, National alphabets

#3

Unread post by Simon G4ELI »

Please send me the IQ recording via Dropbox or similar. The RDS data contains character set info which I've never received here.

I am sure I can display this correctly if you give me the recording.

BTW - nice to see RDSSpy and Console decoding at the same time.
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ukdx
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Re: RDS decoding, National alphabets

#4

Unread post by ukdx »

Jim, I'm not sure if this is a change of station but its location remains uncertain according to Thanos in Greece. I tentatively logged it as Ismalia because there's a weaker Arabic signal on 96.7 that could be Radio Ismalia, the other three signals I got are all transmitted from both Ismalia and Mahalla. I've never had an Egyptian opening quite like yesterdays, in fact I'm keeping the IQ files for further investigation out of season as Turkey was also in the mix along with a multitude of Greek stations. Italy did its usual takeover throughout the opening but each time it dropped back was when the goodies appeared.

Simon, as soon as I've found somewhere that will accept 98GB files I'll upload it (DB seems limited to 50GB each file), Degoo might work so I'm looking at it now but I think the process involves compressing the file before upload, the drive sounds like it's working overtime as it 'prepares upload'.
The decoder in Console is superb, Spy is just there these days as belt and braces for the odd occasion it grabs a PI before Console.

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Simon G4ELI
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Re: RDS decoding, National alphabets

#5

Unread post by Simon G4ELI »

I can probably add you to my 2TB Dropbox allocation. Compressing 98GB will take a long time, you can always run the Data File Editor and cut out a 1MHz segment!

Ribbon Bar, Rec/Playback, Data :: Playback, Datafile Editor.
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Re: RDS decoding, National alphabets

#6

Unread post by Simon G4ELI »

Simon G4ELI wrote: Sat Jun 26, 2021 12:26 pm I can probably add you to my 2TB Dropbox allocation. Compressing 98GB will take a long time, you can always run the Data File Editor and cut out a 1MHz segment!

Ribbon Bar, Rec/Playback, Data :: Playback, Datafile Editor.
Click 'Help' at the bottom.
Attachments
DFE.pdf
(615.29 KiB) Downloaded 24 times
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Re: RDS decoding, National alphabets

#7

Unread post by Simon G4ELI »

ukdx wrote: Sat Jun 26, 2021 11:55 am Jim, I'm not sure if this is a change of station but its location remains uncertain according to Thanos in Greece. I tentatively logged it as Ismalia because there's a weaker Arabic signal on 96.7 that could be Radio Ismalia, the other three signals I got are all transmitted from both Ismalia and Mahalla. I've never had an Egyptian opening quite like yesterdays, in fact I'm keeping the IQ files for further investigation out of season as Turkey was also in the mix along with a multitude of Greek stations. Italy did its usual takeover throughout the opening but each time it dropped back was when the goodies appeared.

Simon, as soon as I've found somewhere that will accept 98GB files I'll upload it (DB seems limited to 50GB each file), Degoo might work so I'm looking at it now but I think the process involves compressing the file before upload, the drive sounds like it's working overtime as it 'prepares upload'.
The decoder in Console is superb, Spy is just there these days as belt and braces for the odd occasion it grabs a PI before Console.
Please see https://www.sdr-radio.com/data-file-editor for info.
Simon Brown :shock:
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Do not send me direct e-mail, thank-you!

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ukdx
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Re: RDS decoding, National alphabets

#8

Unread post by ukdx »

Every day I learn something new, I will eventually RTFM so thanks for the link :lol:

This should be a 35MB 30 second recording of the signal with the RDS.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HVr509 ... sp=sharing

If anyone is feeling more adventurous this is a longer (11GB) 2 minute file. The Egyptian RDS kicks in around 23 seconds and it was an interesting period of reception. I think I counted Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, Turkey and Egpyt on this chunk.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bA9sSf ... sp=sharing

Paul

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Simon G4ELI
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Re: RDS decoding, National alphabets

#9

Unread post by Simon G4ELI »

ukdx wrote: Sun Jun 27, 2021 12:21 pm Every day I learn something new, I will eventually RTFM so thanks for the link :lol:

This should be a 35MB 30 second recording of the signal with the RDS.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HVr509 ... sp=sharing

If anyone is feeling more adventurous this is a longer (11GB) 2 minute file. The Egyptian RDS kicks in around 23 seconds and it was an interesting period of reception. I think I counted Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, Turkey and Egpyt on this chunk.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bA9sSf ... sp=sharing

Paul
Grabbing the 11GB file now...
Simon Brown :shock:
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Simon G4ELI
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Re: RDS decoding, National alphabets

#10

Unread post by Simon G4ELI »

OK, downloaded, see the same text, looking at this while listening to the Max & Lewis F1 show.
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