Next RDS Forum meeting in October 2026 at Geneva
RDS Forum - the association of RDS users
Here you can download an article (PDF of 1.4 MB) that describes the development in broadcasting traffic information since the seventies. RDS is a milestone in this development with special features for spoken messages and RDS-TMC for coded messages still very widely used for navigation systems on all five continents. RDS2 has the potential to offer a much-increased capacity without changing anything in the already existing international standards. The future trend is however to distribute coded messages over the mobile internet using TPEG. The advantage is that information needed for the messages can then also be collected over a feedback channel directly from the devices used in modern cars.
E BOOK (PDF) ON RDS
NEW VERSION - 2020
This eBook was updated in April 2020. It was compiled from contributions of a team of RDS Forum members who have been closely involved in the RDS development for over two decades. Readers will learn about the possibilities, seen from within the RDS Forum, of the very best possible way to use this well proven, and frequently updated FM radio technology. In doing so it takes into account the new possibilities offered by RDS2. This book gives a general description of the RDS system and all RDS features, it explains the UECP and how to monitor and generate RDS signals on air, the use of RDS in the automotive world, the principles of RDS-TMC and the possibilities for using the extension of RDS2. In conclusion it makes a prediction for the future use of FM radio and RDS. This book is a "must read" for everyone interested in the subject.
ISBN 978-2-940536-20-7
Now available for free downloading (2MB) from here