How Does The Radio Ta Function Work?

[DrCez]

Hello, can anyone explain how the "TA" mode works on the Prius audio system? (I have a Prius Gen3 T3 so no touch screen but presumably the Gen 3 T4 is the same, plus any other Toyota models with similar audio systems). I've had a look at the manual but it doesn't give the level of detail I'm after.

This is what I think I understand:

If I select it while listening to the radio, CD or AUX input then what I'm listening to will be interrupted to allow traffic announcements to be played when they are received (typically at a louder volume).

IIRC the "TP" option is also available on radio modes which mutes the radio unless a traffic announcement is broadcast.

I can cancel announcements early by pressing "MODE" on the steering wheel.

This is what I don't understand:

It would be great to hear traffic announcements from any broadcaster, but this does not appear to be the case, e.g. sometimes I will only get BBC local radio, sometimes stuff from a local independent station. I don't think I've ever had a national radio traffic report come through.

To me it seems like the car can only pick up an announcement from the radio station it's tuned to, which begs the question: what's the point if you're alread listening to that channel?

If I'm using the CD or AUX input then it becomes a bit more useful, but it seems I still only get reports from one broadcaster. Would that be based on the FM radio station that the car was last tuned to? If I cycle through modes using the steering wheel button to select CD/AUX, does that mean FM3 will control the traffic announcements? Does the car remember the setting after it is powered off? What happens if you drive out of the range of a particular station? Am I completely wrong about all this?

If anyone could help me understand how the TA feature works I'm sure I could get more out of it, especially on long journeys (I'm aware many SatNavs have traffic info/subscription services but I don't have one available for the time being at least). Any ideas/advice gratefully received!

[Seamaster73]

My understanding is that you get RDS TA announcements based on where you are — the transmitters broadcast local traffic information — and irrespective of which station you are tuned to.

[Jan&tone]

On my gen 3 t-spirit, it set to pick up traffic announcements, TA, from Classic FM. So far, i've not been able to change it, but it works, so i'm not really worried! But the satnav gives me any problems on the route selected if I'm using it...

[johalareewi]

TA, TP

Traffic Announcement, Traffic Programme The receiver can often be set to pay special attention to this flag and e.g. stop the tape/pause the CD or retune to receive a Traffic bulletin. The TP flag is used to allow the user to find only those stations that regularly broadcast traffic bulletins whereas the TA flag is used to stop the tape or raise the volume during a traffic bulletin.

So TA allows traffic announcements on the current radio channel to cut in over the CD etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Data_System

[hertsnminds]

It would be great to hear traffic announcements from any broadcaster, but this does not appear to be the case, e.g. sometimes I will only get BBC local radio, sometimes stuff from a local independent station. I don't think I've ever had a national radio traffic report come through.

You should be receiving the traffic announcement from the radio station with the strongest signal. Usually the local BBC or independent station. This makes more sense as they will be giving local traffic information, not much point in hearing about the M25 if you are driving towards Manchester.

I sometimes find that the announcers at the local stations forget to turn the TA RDS signal on/off (which I assume they do manually when broadcasting traffic reports) as the radio stays on for 5 minutes or more after the traffic report.

What sort of radius from your home have you tested the system over? You need to travel to at least the next nearest county to get another set of traffic reports.

Some more info on RDS and the TA flag is here http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/rds.html

[Cyker]

I don't even bother to use it any more; On the few occasions when it does work, it only seems to take traffic info from BBC London and nobody else, and more often than not it switches to the local pirate radio station (Why do they always have such crap horrible music?!) and just stays there until I manually switch back to my xcarlink.

Now I just manually hit the preset for LBC. Must admit, I wish the highways agency traffic radio was available on FM and not just DAB :(

(Although for some bizarre reason you can pick it up on AM if you're in the Birmingham NEC car park! o.O)

[Grumpy Cabbie]

It would be great to hear traffic announcements from any broadcaster, but this does not appear to be the case, e.g. sometimes I will only get BBC local radio, sometimes stuff from a local independent station. I don't think I've ever had a national radio traffic report come through.

You should be receiving the traffic announcement from the radio station with the strongest signal. Usually the local BBC or independent station. This makes more sense as they will be giving local traffic information, not much point in hearing about the M25 if you are driving towards Manchester.

I sometimes find that the announcers at the local stations forget to turn the TA RDS signal on/off (which I assume they do manually when broadcasting traffic reports) as the radio stays on for 5 minutes or more after the traffic report.

One wonders if they do actually 'forget' or not! I've stopped using TA because of this. You're enjoying music on CD or another station and suddenly a traffic announcement blasts in for a town 40 miles away on some cheesy local station and then you end up listening to their commercials before remembering to switch off.

[hertsnminds]

Although for some bizarre reason you can pick it up on AM if you're in the Birmingham NEC car park!

I used to regularly travel from Edinburgh to Worthing via the A1/M1 and the TA announcements changed as I moved between counties. You get the Scottish stations until Berwick on Tweed then the North East stations followed by the Midlands batch then the London lot and finally the South Coast broadcasters. However, you do notice how some radio transmitters seem to cover much larger areas than the station names broadcasting on them suggest they should.

[DrCez]

Thanks all for your answers/discussion

So TA allows traffic announcements on the current radio channel to cut in over the CD etc.

I've done some tests on my Gen 3 T3 radio and johalareewi's reply seems to best fit what I experience, i.e. if you have TA/TP set then you will only receive announcements from the current radio channel. If you're using CD or AUX this equates to the last FM channel selected (the Prius can't pick up traffic announcements when tuned to AM).

If I listen to a national BBC channel (that would be Radio 2, 3 or 4 for Prius drivers ;) ), the traffic reports come from the nearest regional BBC radio station. I think this is reasonably effective when using motorways and trunk roads so I may make some use of this feature, plus as I mentioned before if the report isn't relevant or doesn't cancel correctly, it can be cancelled at any time using the MODE button on the (Gen 3) steering wheel.

Local radio stations are a bit more hit and miss, presumably when you drive out of range the radio re-tunes to the nearest (pirate :arrgg-matey: ?) station it can find. It's not such big problem where I live but I imagine could be annoying if the FM airways are crowded with different stations.

So in summary the traffic reports will only be picked up from the current/last selected FM channel and are unavailable on AM (presumably because the TA signal can only be picked up when tuned in to an individual FM station). In the case of BBC national stations the BBC regional traffic reports are intercepted.

[hertsnminds]

Do you mean the current radio channel or current FM frequency. Depends where you are in the country as to which station is where. If you also have the AF function active the radio will auto tune to the strongest frequency for the station you are listening to BBC Radio 2 can be anywhere from 88.1 to 90.2 and BBC Radio Cumbria broadcasts on 95.6, 96.1, 95.2, 104.1, and 104.2. BBC Radio Scotland broadcasts on the same frequency range as BBC Ulster and BBC Radio Cymru.

So it really does depend where you are in the country.

You can see all the radio stations and their broadcast frequencies here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_radio_stations_in_the_United_Kingdom

[johalareewi]

presumably when you drive out of range the radio re-tunes to the nearest station it can find.

You can influence the station it picks using the PTY button setting.

[Opifex]

I used to commute through Berkshire and Buckinghamshire tuned to national BBC and the local traffic news for Oxford, Berkshire, 3 Counties and London all broke in during the 90 minutes journey. All were BBC local radio stations. Oxford seemed particularly powerful as I never went anywhere near there. If I tuned to Classic FM I got the national

traffic news.

I was puzzled by Cyker's comment about Highways Agency traffic informeation only being available on DAB but have looked on the website and he is correct. Some motorways used to have signs advertising traffic info on 107.7FM Is this still available? When travelling through France we use the announcements on the motorways there which are also on 107.7FM. The French is very fast but they do make some of the announcements in English during the summer.