Inovonics AARON 650, Installation & User Manual

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mation such as the station’s Web address, phone number, etc.
Now many stations provide playout (artist and title) infor-
mation in the Radio Text field, even though not all radios are
capable of displaying it.
The AARON 650 allows only static messaging in the Stereo-
Regen mode, so the Radio Text field should probably be used
for its original purpose: station or program contact or promo-
tional information. Enter data in the manner previously de-
scribed, ending with a Save command.
RDS Flags
RDS offers a number of ‘housekeeping’ features. Some tell the
radio how to decode certain programming; others help a re-
ceiver keep track of a primary station and its translators.
The AARON 650 supports four housekeeping ‘flags.’ Three of
these may be found at the bottom of the
RDS Data
data-entry
menu.
The utility of the
M/S (Music/Speech switch) and the DI Decoder
Information) functions seem to be lost in RDS history. Both tell
the receiver what it might expect in the way of programming;
that is, either
Music
or
Speech
(speech-only), or a
Stereo
or
Mono
broadcast. As best we Inovonicians know, no radios being
manufactured today utilize these flags. But in the interest of
consistency you might as well maintain the factory-default Mu-
sic
and
Stereo
selections, unless you are fulltime monaural or an
all-news station.
The TP (Traffic Program) flag is associated with an RDS feature
that seems useful in concept, but has proven insidious in appli-
cation. The TP flag tells the RDS radio that the station is one
that broadcasts traffic alerts on a regular basis. TP is used in
conjunction with an accompanying TA (Traffic Announcement)
flag to re-tune a listener’s radio to a different station when that
station is broadcasting an important traffic-related message.
When the AARON 650 is programmed to
Re-encode RDS
, both
flags will come through and the feature will function. But the
AARON 650 cannot generate a TA flag on its own, so in the Ste-
reo-Regen mode all the TP flag can do is let the radio know
that, once it’s back in the range of the station’s main signal, it
will be primed for a traffic alert. So if your station performs a
legitimate news function and reports major traffic snarls and
accidents, set the TP flag On . Otherwise leave it Off .
PS Scroll
Speed
As mentioned earlier, the PS field can display only 8 characters
at a time. Messages that exceed 8 characters must be ‘parsed’
and scrolled in the PS field. This means that the entire eight-
character block must be reparsed and retransmitted (refreshed)
at a rate of once per second or so.
Actually, the PS field was never meant for scrolling messages,
and some consumer radios cannot cope with a PS field that is
refreshed at a fast clip. Highlight the
PS Scroll Speed
menu and
push the knob to show the Speed slider, push the knob again to