Data Radio Channel

Data Radio Channel (DARC) is a high-rate (16 kbit/s) standard for encoding data in a subcarrier over FM radio broadcasts. It uses a frequency of 76 kHz, the fourth harmonic of the FM radio pilot tone.

DARC was approved as the All-European standard ETS 300 751 in 1997.{{cite book

|last=Rembovsky

|first=Anatoly

|title=Radio Monitoring: Problems, Methods and Equipment

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2ra1lg9MCLgC&q=%22Data+Radio+Channel%22&pg=PA167

|year=2009

|publisher=Springer

|isbn=978-0-387-98099-7

|page=167}}

Applications

DARC is well-suited to distributing traffic information because of its higher speed. In Japan, the VICS (Vehicle Information and Communication System) service has operated since 1996 in the Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka metropolitan areas. In France, DARC has been tested for traffic message channel services.

In the United States, it was used to deliver stock market quotations by Digital DJ beginning in 1998.{{cite press release

|url=http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Digital+DJ+Provides+Continuous+Real+Time+Stock+Quotes%3B+Affordable...-a019962876

|title=Digital DJ Provides Continuous Real Time Stock Quotes; Affordable Portable Offers Stock Quotations On Wireless Data Receiver

|date=November 10, 1997

|access-date=17 January 2013

|archive-date=4 April 2014

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140404153424/http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Digital+DJ+Provides+Continuous+Real+Time+Stock+Quotes%3B+Affordable...-a019962876

|url-status=dead

}}

In Munich, DARC is used to transmit public transport data to battery-powered signs in bus and tram stations.{{citation |url=https://apollo.open-resource.org/mission:log:2014:08:08:darc-side-of-munich-hunting-fm-broadcasts-for-bus-and-tram-display-information-on-90-mhz

|title=The DARC side of Munich

|access-date=6 December 2016

}}

{{citation |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB_poxX0_PY

|title=The DARC side of Munich Talk at Easterhegg 2015

|access-date=6 December 2016

}}

Similar technologies

Other data broadcasting technologies include RDS and Microsoft's DirectBand.

References

{{Reflist}}

  • Dietmar Kopitz, Bev Marks, RDS: The Radio Data System. Artech House Publishers, 1999. Sections 7.6.2 and 13.3.2.2.
  • Data Radio Channel (DARC) System, Electronic Industries Alliance, 1999. 41 pages