Just picked up some NRG & BW RDS gear.

[MiXiN]

Hi Necks,

I've just picked up a bit of clobber from an old friend clearing his loft, & amongst it is an NRG Pro II with 40W amplifier & a Broadcast Warehouse RDS unit that I'm not familiar with.

It's a while since I had any NRG gear, but this one uses a BLY93C as the final, and it's driven by a 2N3553.

On the rear of the NRG Transmitter, there's a variable Resistor which connects to "VR2" on the PSU board and this is used to control RF power from 5 to 40W. Seems a bit crude, not sure, so does anyone know if this is a DIY job?

Also, does anybody recognise this Broadcast Warehouse RDS unit? It has a few parameters on the LCD, some I'm not sure about.

[mpx]

The power adjust pot looks legit. Just makes it easier to adjust from outside the box.

I used to have one of those BW RDS units. They do the job well. What parameters are you unsure about?

[MiXiN]

The power adjust pot looks legit. Just makes it easier to adjust from outside the box.

I used to have one of those BW RDS units. They do the job well. What parameters are you unsure about?

If you look on the RDS display, the upper left characters next to PS appear to be the station name which is easy enough, and the bottom right PTY would appear to be the music genre.

Do you know what S at the upper right, and the PI means on the lower left part of the display? The first letter & all numbers can be altered on the lower left.

I've had a look around on Google images & can't find this RDS unit, so finding a manual is impossible.

[mpx]

S is for Service Type, in this case the options are Speech (SP) or Music (MU) iirc
PI is the Program Identifier code used to identify the station and is what RDS radios look for when switching to alternate frequencies for a station

[3metrejim]

The RDS coder is from around 20 years ago, probably the rig too. The rig certainly looks like an NRG, the small boards grounded to the case and the amplifier on an angle bracket bolted to the back are definite characteristics, also very neat construction. Could have been a VFO re-fitted with a PLL board - an early one without out of lock power down. Maybe the RF power adjust because it was used on an RSL? Power and co-ax loss adjustment (covered to prevent adjustment from outside).

You can take a look at the old BW page, here: https://web.archive.org/web/20040209212 ... -Kit?pid=6

Unfortunately instructions only with purchase, so need to find someone that still has them after this time. Take a note of the settings on screen (pretty much did that by taking a picture) and press and play to see what the buttons do.

[MiXiN]

Thanks for the replies & links guys.

I'll get this hooked up in the next few days & have a play around when the Phono leads I've ordered arrive.

Just to clarify, it's stereo encoder MPX output into the RDS input, then output of the RDS into the the transmitter?

If anybody knows of a list of program identifier (PI) codes, that would be great. I'd be interested to know exactly what "C595" denotes.

[montaylor]

any chance you can post some more pictures of the 40w amp? both sides if possible please

[MiXiN]

any chance you can post some more pictures of the 40w amp? both sides if possible please

Without unbolting & unscrewing the PA section, it's impossible to get a view of the underneath. I tried to have a look at the bottom of the board myself, but I couldn't.

I'm sure someone on here will have a schematic, though.

[montaylor]

no worries MiXiN

[3metrejim]

Regarding the PI code, you can find what it means in the EN50067 RDS standard. It's in appendix D. It shows the breakdown of the 4 digit HEX PI code. The first digit is the country code, second digit is coverage area, and the last two are meant to be a unique programme code.

If you know anything about hexadecimal and binary coding (each hex digit represents 4 binary digits), it should be easy to understand.

You can currently find a copy of the standard here: http://www.interactive-radio-system.com ... andard.pdf

The standard has been updated since, but much of the information is the same for backward compatibility reasons.

[yellowbeard]

http://mkmbroadcasting.blogspot.com/sea ... p%2045watt

[MiXiN]

Regarding the PI code, you can find what it means in the EN50067 RDS standard. It's in appendix D. It shows the breakdown of the 4 digit HEX PI code. The first digit is the country code, second digit is coverage area, and the last two are meant to be a unique programme code.

If you know anything about hexadecimal and binary coding (each hex digit represents 4 binary digits), it should be easy to understand.

You can currently find a copy of the standard here: http://www.interactive-radio-system.com ... andard.pdf

The standard has been updated since, but much of the information is the same for backward compatibility reasons.

Thanks for the reply bud.

That link doesn't work for me, but I'll have a Google around for "EN50067 RDS" and see what I can dig up.

[Vinylizer]

I picked up this nrg 40w not long ago is it a original?
Also I've had another 40w amp for some years someone asked for a picture both sides hope this helps

20230509_125004.jpg

20230511_163227.jpg

20230511_163233.jpg

[Albert H]

Could have been a VFO re-fitted with a PLL board - an early one without out of lock power down.

The earliest PLL Pro II grew an out-of-lock power down very early on (Stephen and designed it one weekend). In the earliest instances, we made them on little pieces of Veroboard, and they were fitted beneath the logic side of the big PCB, with wires flying to the necessary points underneath the board. A little later, I did a batch of add-on PCBs for the OLPD circuit, and there were also some of the voltage regulator and some lowpass filter circuits on the same PCB sheets - we guillotined them when they arrived to provide a stock of the little boards that were always needed for the RSL rigs.

[montaylor]

I picked up this nrg 40w not long ago is it a original?
Also I've had another 40w amp for some years someone asked for a picture both sides hope this helps 20230509_125004.jpg20230511_163227.jpg20230511_163233.jpg

thank you mate. ill post my attempted at it soon!

[radium98]