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command to update the software to the headers mode once
more.
Remember, the ‘no headers’ mode is available only when using
a serial (RS-232) connection to communicate with the encoder.
THE ODA ‘FREE FORMAT’ GROUPS
Under the RDS and RBDS Standards, the Radio Data System is
able to transmit unspecified data groups for in-house remote
control, song-tagging, traffic conditions (TMC), power grid load
management, restricted paging or similar proprietary applica-
tions. These data can be static, with the same information
transmitted repeatedly, or controlled by an external application
as a dynamic function, or scheduled by time, day or date.
As a point of reference for this discussion, consider this dia-
gram of a ‘generic’ RDS packet:
RAW=
Certain ‘free data’ groups are specified in the RDS and RBDS
Standards. The 730 Encoder addresses these as a generic
‘RAW’ data group consisting of three hexadecimal ASCII blocks
(or packets) of hexadecimal values; that is, three groups of four
hexadecimal characters, which comes out to 3 x 16 bits. To en-
ter data into these groups, send:
RAW=bbbbccccdddd
. The
blocks represented by bbbb, cccc and dddd are the RDS/RBDS
B, C and D data packets, which are described in the relevant
Standard and shown above as Blocks 1, 2 and 3. RAW= sends
the data in these packets only once, as soon as the command is
uploaded to the encoder.
RAW(n)=
The 730 Encoder offers a useful variation of the RAW= com-
mand: RAW(n)= , where (n), a number larger than 1, corres-
ponds to the number of times RAW= will be sent in quick suc-
cession, up to 9 times. (RAW1= would be the same as RAW= .)
This redundancy helps ensure that data will be received. Thus
the command RAW6=(data) will send (data) on six successive
transmissions of that group.
Certain hexadecimal values in RDS/RBDS packets are already in
use for RDS functions supported by the 730 Encoder. Block A,
for instance, which precedes packets in the RAW group, con-
tains the PI code, which is programmed into encoder memory.