A very innovative RDS tool became available in early 2015.
RX014 - RDS receiver evaluation tool
RX014 is a high quality tool intended to receive and analyse FM broadcasts which transmit audio and also carry RDS/RDS2/RBDS data.
RX014 is ideally suited as a reference receiver during road tests. An ultra-fast scanner can do a full band scan in 1 second on a 100 kHz grid to show a full RSSI picture of the entire FM band, so signal conditions can be monitored continuously. The locations of alternative frequencies are shown simultaneously.
RX014 is a powerful tool to monitor and fully decode broadcast RDS/RDS2/RBDS data. The data is presented in an easy to understand way and includes statistics on received data quality. All received data can be stored in a file and played back later for further analysis.
DS016 docking station
New since autumn 2017: the RX014 can be used without a computer with the DS016 docking station. Using the RX014 had required a PC, but many users preferred a stand-alone remote monitoring solution. The DS016 docking station turns an RX014 into a sophisticated self-contained data gathering tool. The RX014 control program was updated to fully support the DS016.
TRX011 - RDS Transceiver
A second innovative RDS tool was first presented to the RDS Forum 2012. This universal RDS transceiver can receive and decode all RDS transmissions worldwide. The received data can be stored, analysed in a convenient way in an .xls file, and can also be transmitted at low power for other tests.
With supplied control software, RDS signals can be composed according to the most recent RDS standards. All RDS features such as ODA, RT+ and TMC can be constructed according to the latest specifications. The TRX011 connects to the host via USB, requires no additional power, and the software runs on Windows platforms without drivers.
UTF-8 coding and decoding
Both the RX014 and TRX011 support UTF-8 character coding and decoding. Many latest RDS features described in IEC 62106:2018 were already implemented in both units, such as LPS, eRT and eRT+, and decoding of tunnelled RDS data transmitted on upper RDS carriers.
TRX011 screen with LPS with UTF-8 character coding.
RX014 screen with eRT using UTF-8 character codes.
RX014 screen with LPS using UTF-8 character codes.