Hak5 has recently posted another video continuing their easy to follow series on GNU Radio and the RTL-SDR. In this video they talk about Radio Data System (RDS) and explain how it is a digital signal that is embedded in broadcast FM signals. They then download GR-RDS, a GNU Radio based RDS decoder program and use it to decode a local RDS signal.
GR-RDS is a GNU Radio program which can be used for the decoding of FM RDS data with the RTL-SDR. It has recently been updated to support GNU Radio 3.7.
RDS is an acronym for Radio Data System, which is used in FM radio transmissions to embed information such as radio station and programme/song information. Some conventional FM radios display this information on an LCD screen.
One the authors of GR-RDS has also recently posted a video on YouTube showing it in action with an RTL-SDR source block.
Wavesink Plus, the paid version of the trial version of Wavesink has been released on Google Play. Wavesink Plus is an Android app which has FM+RDS, DAB+ and DRM+ receiving and decoding capabilities when connected to an RTL-SDR dongle via a USB OTG cable.
We gave Wavesink Plus a test today on a HTC One X Android phone and were pleased to discover that it works perfectly. The user interface has been tidied up from previous versions, and DAB+ has been added. There is now also auto tuning functionality, which will automatically find a station.
In further testing we found that the latest version of Wavesink was fast and snappy and was able to load DAB+ stations quickly, and decode them with clear audio. FM radio also sounded clear and RDS information loaded quickly as well.
Download the trial version here and buy the full version from this link.
On YouTube user pe1etr shows us a video where he uses his RTL-SDR combined with HDSDR, Virtual Audio Cable and RDS Spy to decode a distant RDS signal. RDS Spy is a free advanced software program capable of decoding weak RDS signals contained in many broadcast FM radio stations.
RDS stands for Radio Data System and is a digital signal embedded into broadcast FM signals. It is used by radio stations to display the name of the radio station and current song playing on an LCD screen.
DangerousPrototypes.com have brought to attention a GNU Radio RDS decoding project from the website at Anotherurl. Check out the original post here. Anotherurl uses a GNU Radio Companion flowgraph and a .NET program to decode FM RDS messages. RDS is an acronym for Radio Data System, which is used in FM radio transmissions to embed information such as radio station and programme/song information. Some conventional FM radios display this information on an LCD screen. The popular SDRSharp SDR receiver also has RDS decoding built into it’s FM receiver already, but a GNU Radio implementation is very useful for learning how RDS works.
