Tutorial FM radio with RDS

The simplest signal to start with, and a good test of your antenna.

What you need

Any radio that tunes 87.5 to 108 MHz (an RTL-SDR is plenty) and a wire or telescopic antenna.

Steps

1. Choose FM in the mode list (group Broadcast radio).
2. Open the Scan tab and run the FM band scan. The scan lists the stations it finds; since 0.2.6 it covers the band from 87.0 MHz or a custom from / to range. A full RDS option waits for the whole station name, radio text and PI before it moves on.
3. Press Start, then choose a station from the Stations list, or type a frequency (87.5 to 108 MHz) in the box.
4. Open the Radio tab. The Stereo and RDS lamps show what the receiver has locked; the table shows the sound (stereo or mono), the pilot level and the RDS state with the percentage of good RDS blocks.
5. Read the RDS data: station name, radio text, programme type and traffic flags. The plots show the multiplex (pilot, L-R and RDS) and the RDS symbols.
6. (0.2.6) Press Save station to put the frequency and the live RDS name in your own list of Saved stations; click one later to tune to it. The list is separate from the band scan.

Tips

• On a weak station a Mono switch (0.2.6) gives cleaner sound than a noisy stereo decode.
• With a live radio, FM no longer jumps to a stronger station nearby (fixed in 0.2.3).
• RDS-TMC traffic messages are decoded since 0.2.4.

Related: FM mode page, Settings and files.