Low-power FM Transmitters Banned in UK

Acey writes "The BBC News is reporting that the Griffin iTrip falls foul of the UK Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949 (PDF). In short, the iTrip is an unlicensed FM transmitter and that's not allowed. The UK distributor, A M Micro, have pulled the iTrip. More ominously they warn that "Use of the iTrip in the UK therefore constitutes an offence and can lead to prosecution of the User". Guess that makes me an outlaw, because you'll have to pry my iTrip from my cold, dead hands."

Comments

Re:How will they enforce?

[ebcdic]

No-one's ever going to be prosecuted for using one, any more than if you use wi-fi channel 12 in the USA. They just won't be for sale here.

Re:regulation of the airwaves

[Liquorman]

Pirate radio stations broadcast towards England from ships off shore, outside of English legal jurisdiction. Here is some historic info: http://www.offshoreradio.co.uk/spotday.htm

Re:How will they enforce?

[dontod]

I'm in the UK and recently bought on of these. It's an almost identical product called an FM 'Linker' but basically you plug it into any headphone socket et voila you're a radio station.

They say the range is about 5M (therefore just for personal use) but it is well over 100 metres. So I'm waiting to get busted when I broadcast web radio stations around my house (and over a small portion of town).

Don

------
There's a 4:30 in the morning now?

Re:How will they enforce?

[SaturnTim]

They actually enforce this kind stuff. My company brought a bunch of 802.11b stuff over there for an event, and the day we set it up someone from their department of silly walks and radios showed up to talk to us about it.

In the end we had everything in order, and a large 802.11b installation will probably draw more attention than a fm transmitter speeding down the road, but they do watch.

--T

Re:Government-controlled media

[misterpies]

In Briatin you have to pay for a license for anything which lets you watch a TV signal.

As to whether that sucks...IMO what really sucks is having TV shows, movies, even sports games interrupted every 10 minutes for a 5 minutes commercial break. In return for a 190 annual fee, Brits get 2 free-to-air TV stations and 5 national radio stations with NO COMMERCIAL BREAKS. And we're not talking marginalised, underfunded US style public broadcasting - they're the most popular stations in the UK, with rights to most major sporting events, movies, music etc. So you can sit down and watch a 3 hour movie (with stereo sound) right the way through, just like in the cinema. Or a 5 set Wimbledon final, without missing any shots. Not to mention all those original BBC geek classics like Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, Red Dwarf, Hitchikers Guide (originally a BBC radio show), Dr Who...Oh, and the BBC also has several (free) digital radio and TV channels as well.

Another bonus is that because of the competition with the ad-free BBC, commercial broadcasters in Britain restrict themselves to one commercial break every 15 minutes, so even on the 3 free-to-air commercial stations you can follow the plot of most shows without being constantly interrupted by life insurance salesman. Plus they have to compete with the BBC on breadth and quality, meaning that they can't get away with the endless repeats of Frasier and Seinfeld that seem to define primetime on most major US networks.

Now what I don't understand is this: the BBC can put out about 6 TV channels (including the digital ones) and dozens of radio stations (including local radio) for a charge of only 190 per year per household -- without needing any advertising income. This is far less than the cost of most cable or satellite TV subscriptions - and yet cable stations usually have as many commercials as free-to-air stations, and the programs rarely better BBC quality. What do they do with their money?

I guess it just goes to prove that with the right management and funding, publically owned services can outperform the private sector. Although actually I don't have a TV anymore...a DVD player hooked up to a computer monitor supplies the movies without me needing a TV license, radio and the net gives me the rest.

Re:Interface options

[Van Halen]

Like some people already said, you have a couple of options. In the vast majority of cases, the quality will be far better than using something like the iTrip. On Apple's discussion board many people have reported major problems just finding an open frequency in populated areas. Anyway, your alternatives are:

• Use a cassette adapter, which you can get pretty cheap at any place like Best Buy, etc. The quality is pretty good, but you definitely get some tape hiss type of noise. I use this daily in my truck and am quite happy with it.

• Hook it up directly to the antenna input using an FM modulator. Unlike the iTrip, this is a direct-wired connection that goes in between the radio's head unit and your car's antenna. The quality is pretty much the best that FM can be, as if you were parked right outside a radio station with a powerful transmitter. And with this, you don't have to worry about interference from existing stations because the iPod's signal overrides the antenna when it is in use.

• Hook it up directly to the head unit's auxiliary input, if one exists. This will give you the best quality if you can do it. Many stereo head units have a CD changer input in the back, even if the car didn't come with a changer. You would need some sort of converter for this type of input. Some stereos actually have RCA inputs in the back (or front) and some even have a 3.5mm stereo jack in the front, in which case all you need is a simple cable.

I ended up going with the third option for my wife's 2002 Nissan Altima, since it has no tape deck and I didn't want to mess with an FM modulator. It has a CD changer input in the back, but the place linked above doesn't have anything for the Altima. I found a guy who makes custom cables for it, so I ordered that along with a switch to put the radio in aux mode. Installation was pretty easy and actually kind of a fun project, especially drilling the hole in the dash to install the switch. ;-)

So as you can see, there are plenty of options. Of course what would be the best is a little dock that provides power, line out, and steering wheel remote controls. Just slide the iPod in and off you go!

Re:How will they enforce?

[palfreman]

Modern wideband / spread spectrum technology flat out contradicts what you've just said. See the artical of a few weeks ago. Multiple overlapping transmission and reception with intelligent tunerless radio equipment. Just as one doesn't need ownership of the colour green in order to distinguish individual blades of green grass, you don't need ownership of a particular radio frequency to communicate effectivly. You might also like to check out the GNU Radio project, where these technologies are already being implemented in an open source project.

I don't normally flame people on Slashdot, but IMO your knee-jerk pro-authority attitude is the root cause of all our problems in England. Having people with your sort of attitude around is a real drag. The kind of things you want don't make anyone safer, they make life harder and more dangerous for everyone.