Slashdot Mirror
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."
Any rewards for turning people in?
How exactly will they enforce this? Will it be like a second degree offence, like seat belts are in some US states?
"What we have here is a failure to communicate"
The Warden, Cool Hand Luke
For all you people (like myself) who had no idea what iTrip is/was, here's the link from googles cache.
From the page: You are looking at the coolest iPod accessory in the world. The iTrip FM transmitter for the iPod can play your music through any FM radio in your car, at a party, wherever the mood strikes you - and you have a radio.
Walkie-talkies should be banned as their signals can be picked up by an FM receiver (at least my old action man ones could, although the range was about 3 metres)
What about the Neuros' built-in low-power FM transmitting capability? Are those illegal to use in the UK also? It all seems a bit excessive to me, considering the tiny range.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
This could/can be the begining of eclectic microstations. You can tune into a 24/7 iTrip at work/your building/bus stop etc., instead of listening to one of big conglomerate boring stations.
My other sig is an ambulance!
Simple.. wire in an in-line (through the antenna) FM transmitter.. Since you are only transmitting on a private wire, vs public airwaves you are fine.
Some early/mid 90's cars with cd players added in the trunk broadcast on like channel 88. something, which is what the user tunes to, to listen to cds.
(This is before 6 cd changers in-dash existed)
This is the same thing. Would these be illegal in the UK too?
Seems excessive, but if you lived in an apartment complex, you could have some serious fun with one of these things broadcasting to the station your neighbor happens to be listening to. :)
This law was written in 1949! Probably to stop people from setting up unlicensed radio stations (ie. commercial FM). These devices didn't exist!
On the one side, I can understand the Governments position:
Thou Shalt Not have Unlicensed Radio Transmitters.
This is important, because if just anybody set up shop, soon the radio waves would be a mess of people just putting stuff out, and nobody could hear the station they wanted too - just the one with the biggest pen- ah, broadcast antennae.
On the other hand, I think the range of this thing is - what - 10 to 30 feet? Watch out, Britian! Those pirate radios will be able to be heard from the other room! Anarchy and chaos as Julie tries to dance to Nsync while Dad's got his iPod broadcasting the Spice Girls in the other room! Mum - you'd best be keeping that "Black Mages" heavy metal to yourself!
This seems more like an issue of someone in beurocracy[SIC] getting a bug up their ass and not using common sense more than anything else.
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
So, like, is a Mr. Microphone illegal in the U.K.? And did I just date myself by mentioning Mr. Microphone?
It Is the Nature of Information to Transgress Artificial Boundaries
-Guess that makes me an outlaw, because you'll have to pry my iTrip from my cold, dead hands.
No, it would just take a uniformed constable. Let's not overestimate ourselves here.
GriffinTech should be paying for this spot because I never heard of this thing and I just plopped down my credit card! $35 + Shipping. It is the coolest thing around. I can't wait to use this....no more wires plugging into a tape deck!
Ignored Since 1973
Many years ago I remember reading a British electronics hobbyist magazine which had an article on how to build a metal detector. There was a warning that before using it you needed to go to a government office and get a pipe finders license.
This is no exaggeration. I had no TV for 6 years and those gits hounded me relentlessly. They kept sending me threatening letters warning of a possible 1000 fine for not having a TV license even though I didn't have a TV. They made me sign a form declaring that I had no TV set, which I did, and then they sent me another one, and another one, and I phoned them and told them and then they sent and inspector to my house!
When I moved house, they started sending the letters again, which I signed and returned. A week or two later a poster went up on the billboard across the road saying "3 addresses at Himalayan Way do not have Television Licenses. We know who they are."
I was so tempted to go out with a can of paint and write "At least one of them has no TV set" but I didn't. A year later I bought a TV and a damned license. Now I spend too much time as a TV zombie and not enough time writing code.
Television is a powerful opiate and population control machanism. I admire people who can control it. I'm succumbing again.
Stick Men
It seems like the legislature, the broadcasters, and the consumers, ought to be able to work out an exception provision to the existing laws.
Specifically, they ought to allow unlicensed transmitters below a certain output power (anyone know what the iTrip's broadcast power is?).
I mean, the spectrum licensees have a vested and understable interest in keeping their airwaves free of interference, but I don't think low-power transmissions like these had been envisioned when the law was codefied (receivers were a wee bit less sensitive and precise in 1949, methinks).
Xentax
You shouldn't verb words.
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
According to reports, two other countries - Austria and Iceland - have also stopped sales of the iTrip because of problems with radio frequencies.
I remember building FM/AM transmitters as teen, cool to be my own DJ...America still home of the free!!!
Wise men speak because they have something to say, Fools because they have to say something!!!!
Why is this marked as informative? It shows gross ignorance. The BBC is independent of the government via mandate. In fact, the BBC seems to institutionally take the stance when reporting the news that anything from the government must wrong, irrespective of whether they're left, right or centre. The BBC isn't owned, or controlled or funded by the government. The only possible hold the government has is over the renewing of the BBC's license (is the right term?), which is generally valid for longer than the maximum length of time the current government can sit before they have to call a general election.
How will I pick up the chicks? How will I karoake? How will I LIVE?!?!?!
The FM range 88 - 108 MHz has been used for wireless microphones for ages - how are these Griffin Itrips any different?
Video Game cheats, hints a
Why the fuss over low power FM? Because it allows anyone to become a broadcaster or content creator. By raising the specter of 'interference', broadcasters and others can FUD the legislatures into banning enabling technologies like this.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
"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."
This view seems to becoming more prevalent. An illegal action or device is banned or otherwise action taken against, and people just ignore it because it doesnt suit them. This device is illegal, and it hasnt even just been made illegal, its been illegal for a good number of decades, so under what premise do you think you should be allowed to continue using it? I bet you will be crying foul if you get caught!
Yes this device is low powered, but that doesnt matter. Under the aformentioned act, it is illegal, and if you want to use one, then please speak to your local MP! Do not start ignoring laws that inconvienince you, as this is where anarchy starts to creep in.
I can hear the cries for compensation for these now useless devices already, either from the UK government or the company that sold them. I dont think you should get a refund or compensation from either source, as they are covered under an already existing law, and you should have checked the legality of these items before you purchased.
Your best course of action now, to recover your costs? Ebay the suckers i think.
Indeed. I live in the US, I don't own a TV (CNN and Faux News? No thanks). I get much of my news from the BBC's website. Government-controlled? Is that why Blair and Alistair Campbell and friends are so upset with them lately?
Buy a cassette adapter. Here's one for example:
XtremeMac's iPod Cassette Adapter
Though any cassette adapter will work (there are many manufacturers).
The UK has *not* just passed a new law banning the iTrip specifically or deliberately, as half the posters on slashdot seem to believe.
The distributors of the iTrip, having taken legal advice, have decided that use of the iTrip probably constitutes a breach of an old law about FM broadcasting and have therefore chosen not to distribute it here.
Nothing has actually changed and British police are not about to start hunting down people with suspicious bulges on the top of their iPods.
erroneous: look me up in a dictionary
You would be correct if the BBC was the only game in town, but then we have a number of independant broadcasters as well. If you watch any of the BBC's output you will find the government has little to do with what the broadcast. In fact, if you are following the news at the moment over here, there is a major row going on between the government and the BBC over who said what over Weapons of Mass Destruction and the suicide of Dr. Kelly.
All countries regulate use of the wireless spectrum. It's just that in Britain the exemptions for low-power devices don't happen to cover this kind of device, unlike the USA apparently. Nothing to do with the music industry at all.
This has nothing to DO with the FCC. We're talking about the UK here.
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
A conversation a friend of mine who lived in W1 (Very central London) recounted having:
"Sir, do you have a TV license?"
"Nope."
"Do you have a TV?"
"Nope."
"We detected a TV from our van, inside your property."
"No you didn't. Must be a mistake."
"Sir, I can hear the EastEnder's theme coming from inside your appartment."
"You must be imagining it."
"Sir, if we need to, we can get a warrant to enter the premises and be back within the hour."
"No you can't."
"Yes we can Sir, the courts look very favorably upon our requests."
"They look even less favorably upon giving search warrants to enter property belonging to the Queen."
"Oh. Well... You really should get a license."
The joys of the royal family owning half the best properties in the city.
Few, if any, in-dash CD players also have cassette decks. Car stereos with cassette decks instead of CD players are a dying breed.
Hmm yes the Recording Industry Association of AMERICA traveled BACK IN TIME to post-WW2 Great Britain and wrote legislation to ban devices that make use of the FM spectrum so that 54 years later they could force a distributor of an iPod accessory in the UK via a mole they planted in the company to read the law and after speaking w/ the Radio Agency conclude that the device is illegal there.
Next they'll use their nifty time travel technology to go back and assure that Victrola loses to Eddison so that his proprietary cylindrical records become the standard instead of the easy to use flat Victrolas...
COME ON MAN, GET A GRIP
Maxim: People cannot follow directions.
Increases in truth directly with the length of time spent explaining them
In Britain.
In 19-frickin-49.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
In the UK if you operate a TV set or other device capable of recieving and decoding TV signals you have to have a TV licence to pay for the running of the BBC, including radio. Note, you don't need a TV license if you only have a radio, even though the BBC has several radio stations, one of which is excellent and far better than any TV station I've ever seen.
Stick Men
And from tower blocks on no-go housing estates! But that tends to be (c)rap / hip-hop.
The wireless telegraphy act makes sense. We're only a small country and a typical radio FM transmitter can cover a fair proportion (about 1/10-1/20) of the population. Just my twiddling a screw in most FM transmitters, you can get it to broadcast on any frequency, and (for instance) stick it in your local neighbourhood and broadcast something other than your local radio station on a specific frequency. Video senders (boxes that transmit video signals over UHF and FM bandwidths so a TV upstairs can pick it up) were banned for a while for similar reasons. They found a way to make them legal and everything was fine :-)
Christ , get up to date, that was back in the 60s!
These days you just get teenagers and other retards broadcasting from the top of a tower block
with a directional microwave link to the studio so they're harder to track down by the police.
There are plenty of licensed frequencies for things like that - 458MHz for starters (if my memory serves) - just they're not in the FM band. UK X10 RF controllers (eg, from www.letsautomate.co.uk) use 458MHz.
Come to think of it, I don't think garage door openers in the states are in the FM band either.
The US is more the exception than the rule; many countries ban transmission in the FM band - it's just the US has a get-out for very low power transmitters.
Common mistake. In the UK if you operate a TV set or other device which recieves and decodes TV signals Orignating from the UK you have to have a TV licence.
The money raised from the TV License goes to several areas, including the running of BBC TV and Radio, subsidising public service broadcasts on other channels (Channel 4), and running TVL.
Dating yourself is a tradition among slashdot readers, and...oh, you meant...I thought that you were talking about...never mind
How does this affect CD changers that use the same trick - namely transmitting a low power FM signal that your car stereo can pick up?
No, nobody is going to bother to enforce the law. It it doesn't cause a problem who cares? It is a complete non-story.
Like the ability of Freemen of London to heard sheep (or not) over London Bridge lots of laws lie around long after the environment they related to has changed out of all recognition.
I think the range of this thing is - what - 10 to 30 feet?
Excuse my ignorance - information please. Would the iTrip be broadcasting on frequencies that might be used by emergency services (fire, ambulance, police..)? This is usually one of the 'safety' reasons for being unhappy about illegal broadcasting that UK gov. gives when having a go at pirate radio stations.
What is the distance these things can broadcast to? In the UK, 30 feet can quite easily mean from your room right into the middle of the town high street (lots of UK towns still follow mediaeval street plans). So I guess if they *do* broadcast on channels the govt. wants to use, and they *do* broadcast 30 feet, the govt *will* be upset. Don't want dead spots down the street where old Bill can't pick up base station...
...not something that will ever catch on in the US.
stop ... makingfunof ... William. Shatner.
... inspiration. to ... us ... all.
Heisan
In the US, Part 15 of the FCC regulations governs unlicensed radio transmitters, and basically says two things: first, there are specific bands where you can operate unlicensed with specified power levels (like the 902-928 and 2.4GHz bands), and second, you can transmit anywhere else, including the broadcast bands, with much lower power levels (not specified in actual transmitter power, but in microvolts/meter of received signal strength at a specified difference).
Thus, all these very low power transmitters that talk in the broadcast bands are legal here.
Many other countries don't have nearly so liberal a policy about unlicensed transmitters -- that's why WiFi isn't technically legal in some places (like the Caribbean island that was the topic of an article a few weeks ago) and gadgets like this aren't allowed in the UK.
Although we like to bitch about "big gummint" in the US, at least in the communications arena US policies are far more open than in other parts of the world.
Another (off topic) example: radio scanner enthusiasts here like to complain because it's illegal to listen to cellular phone transmissions. But we can listen to damn near anything else, including police radio, while in many countries listening to any non-broadcast (or non-ham) radio service is strictly forbidden.
Section 1 of the WT Act 1949 forbids the installation or use of wireless telegraphy equipment (radio) in the UK mainland including Northern Ireland and territorial waters, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, unless:
- an appropriate licence has been obtained from the Secretary of State,
- there are in force Regulations exempting it from licensing.
Short range radio devicesMore and more convenience devices now utilise radio in their operation. Car alarms, wireless door chimes and garage door openers are common examples. Unfortunately not all of these are manufactured in accordance with the relevant technical requirements. The use of non-compliant equipment, is an offence and can lead to interference to authorised users of radio.
It is an offence contrary to the RTTE Regulations to place on the market non-compliant apparatus.
The whole point is spectrum is regulated in the UK and unless the equipment is licensed, then its illegal to use it.
If this thing worked at an exempt frequency, it would be ok, but because it uses the FM Broadcast bands, its not approved for use.
I would also presume the importer wont sell them simply because they could be prosecuted and would have zero defence.
In response to "you'll have to pry my iTrip from my cold, dead hands."
Your Proposal is Acceptable.
Now, where's a giant space cockroach when you need it.
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
You yanks just don't get it
The BBC is separate from government by issue of it's Royal Charter.
If you think they're government lapdogs, speak to Alistair Campbell.
--
This sig is inoffensive.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
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.
The author of this post asserts his moral rights.
In sweden, it would sound like this:
"Hello, we've noticed you don't pay a television license. Do you have a TV?"
"No"
"We detected a TV from our van, inside your property."
"No you didn't. Must be a mistake."
"Sir, I can hear [insert name of crappy US sitcom here] theme coming from inside your appartment."
"You must be imagining it."
"Sir, if we need to, we can get a warrant to enter the premises and be back within the hour."
"No you can't."
"Damn you right. We can't. But if you don't pay your license we'll taunt you again!"
The television license inspectors do not have the right to enter your house unless you admit them. And they would not get a warrant even if they tried. Only crimes above a certain severity can give them a warrant to enter your house.
Don't go OT here - Radio scanners are again not illegal to use provided you don't use them to listen to things you aren't licenced to use them for!
For example, with a radio scanner, I can:
Listen to CB/Ham radio
Listen to commercial broadcast stations
Listen to TV audio channels
See - there are non-infringing uses for RECEIVERS, which both radio scanners and traffic speed detectors are, not TRANSMITTERS.
As a radio amateur, I can own transmitters for the ham bands - but if you don't hold a licence for them, these are illegal to own.
David
Do you mean that actual pirates could be broadcasting on these pirate radio stations?
Ahoy, mate! Hand me that thar transmi'ah. I'll play a tune on me belly for all o' London t' hear!
--
Promoting critical thinking since 1994.
They sent an inspector to me too, but of course I was at work. So I wrote back saying they were welcome to inspect our place, but would they mind visiting after 6pm or on weekends since... surprise surprise, they never called back. I guess they're not _that_ keen...
At the time though I felt a twinge of sympathy for Saddam Hussein. The British government kept telling me that it knew I had banned equipment (an unlicensed TV set). When I denied this they told me they knew I was lying and were going to send in inspectors. And when I offered to cooperate with the inspectors (though on my terms - I'll be damned if I'll be subject to unannounced inspections of my home at any time of the day or night - though Saddam even agreed to that), they pulled them out.
Luckily for me the analogy stops there. Otherwise my flat would be occupied by government agents triumphantly brandishing my laptop as proof that I had a mobile TV-development laboratory that could be turned into a fully functioning device within 45 minutes by the addition of a simple TV tuner card, which they had documentary evidence that I was trying to purchase from Niger...
The author of this post asserts his moral rights.
The mini transmittors of which iTrip is an example, has NEVER been allowed or legal in UK or in the maority of European Union.
In practise you probably can bring an iTrip woth you there, or sell it to someone living in Europe, and he/she/you are not likely to get to trouble with it. But I can't recall the iTrip-type electronics EVER have been allowed there. So, why did it make to the news only now?
In America, it would sound like this:
Officer: Do you have a TV license?
Person: Nope.
Officer: Good, because we don't have those here like in some unfortunate countries.
Person: Damn right. You think they need licenses to read books too?
Officer: Probably. You know how much it sucks over there.
Person: Over where?
Officer: Who cares?
Person + Officer: Ha hahahah hahahahahhaha!!!
Person: Hey, wanna beer?
Officer: Whoa there! I'm on duty...so no more than two or three.
Just because the U.S. is the greatest country in the world doesn't mean we're superior...oh wait, yes it does.
Common mistake. You need a TV licence if you have equipment capable of receiving television signals and it is used for that purpose, eg. a detuned TV used for watching pre-recorded video cassetes or closed circuit televison would not require one. A televison monitor (not necessarily with a UHF tuner) connected to a satellite receiver pointing at a satellite which is not uplinked to from the UK and used for watching, say, high quality Swedish erotica would still require one.
Gareth
I bought an iTrip for use in my 2000 VW Golf GLS (no Raintronic, so no weird coating on the windshield). It doesn't work. It never has. The car's stereo can't pick it up, even if I hold the iPod up through the open sunroof so the whip antenna on the back of the car can see it directly without the sheet metal of the car in the way. I have a European radio retrofitted into the car but that should have no effect as the only difference in the FM band is that it will try to tune to even-numbered frequencies as well as odd ones. (Too bad transmitters won't broadcast on those freqs, as I guarantee no regular commercial station in the US will be licensed for an even numbered frequency.)
Anyone want to buy it? Seriously. I want to get rid of the thing. My solution is going to be hardwiring an adapter to the car's CD changer plug and adding a switch that lets me toggle between the CD changer (I got one used off another VW owner, cheap) and the RCA inputs.
And the other FM transmitter I have, a Belkin TuneCast, doesn't work either -- if a radio broadcast so much 'looks' at it crosseyed, it's static hell.
Low-power FM transmission is, in my experience, a joke and a marketing tool. It ranges from nonexistent to having more static than an interplanetary broadcast from Martians.
i am a soviet space shuttle
The inclusion of the mention of 1949 just drips with condescension, like spectrum management is some statist anachronism. Oh, those Evil Governments with laws almost as old as my Dad!
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!
Say hello to zMac.
yes, it is pointless and I like the bbc too. bbc is for pay and is high quality, just as american cable networks are for pay and are high quality. same phenomenon, just one is public sector and the other private sector.
This is unusual.
I'm not sure of the laws in practice here (perhaps I should have RTFA) but I do know that some short-range FM transmitters are allowed in the UK, depending on power and frequency. It is of course illegal to transmit anywhere in the FM broadcast band (87.5-108MHZ) and this seems to be where this iTrip is broadcasting. However it's power is such that it can only transmit 30ft, which I thought was legal in the UK, I mean the signal from this thing is not going to leave your house, and we've been able to buy FM hi-fi senders in the UK for years now (though mostly through mail order and thus probably not legally).
This law is not heavilly enforced, and I believe that it's outdated. The law should be changed to allow domestic transmissions of a certain power, though this will be difficult to do since what happens if you drive up the highway with your iTrip or take it to work, you're bound to interfere with what someone's listening to. Perhaps a domestic FM frequency at the top or bottom of the commercial broadcast band could be reserved for such devices, provided they do not exceed a certain power level. This would be a great solution to the problem and would allow a flood of currently pointlessly illegal devices to enter the market.
Thats right, just the world service has some sort of government funding. The rest is via TV licence and BBC worldwine profit.
Actually that's not true. There aren't 100 possible stations. The FM band is almost full as it is, since you have to put your station on a slightly different frequency in different parts of the country if your station is nationwide. This is to prevent cross-modulation or (interference as the carriers from two different transmission stations on the same frequency overlap when you're situated between them). This is why some stations say that they're on a frequency RANGE and not an absolute frequency (radio 4 is on 92-95MHz).
Also since the FM band is divided up into individual possible stations every 0.5MHz, there's actually only 41 possible stations (the band is 87.5 - 108 MHz).
> I mean, can't they ratify laws to allow low power FM devices access?
/.). If they want to lobby an MP, maybe they could get them to consider putting a private members bill to modify spectrum regulation of low power devices in the next parliamentary term - if they can find a sympathetic MP, and the MP wins a ballot giving them the right to propose legislation. Alternatively, they could go the more expensive route and lobby government directly, try to get spectrum reform into the legislative program.
Well, no. Not right now. The issue only really just arose because a distributor wanted to sell the iTrip in the UK, and has realised they can't (and posted a press release about it widely enough to hit the BBC, the Register and
Either way, with parliament just shut down for the summer, nothing's gonna happen until September.
Alternatively, the Radio Agency (the government body that regulates UK spectrum) could take matters into its own hands and modify the regulatory regime - but it'd need a pretty compelling argument to make it do so.
Except that the whole idea is to use th FM range so that you can listen to it in your radio...You should have RTFA before...
how long until
RTFA. Apple does not make the iTrip. Griffin makes it.
A product like this should be transmitting in an ISM band using spread-spectrum, like Bluetooth or WiFi.
Right, so you can use it to listen to your iPod on your car's FM radio without disturbing others...
Oh, wait.
-Ryan, with the unoriginal sig
I'd like to have an el-cheapo car stereo with a "line-in" function and an AM/FM radio. Why fool with klunky low power radios and cassette adapters? It's not like the interface is bulky or expensive -- look at cheap sound cards.
If anyone has seen something like this, please let me know.
GF
Lots of petrified grits
Here in NZ we seem to be somewhere between the UK and the US (as in many other things).
The top and bottom 1 MHz of the FM band is reserved for unlicensed transmission with an effective radiated power of less than 300 mW. So as long as you tune your iTrip to 88 - 89 MHz or 107 - 108 MHz you're fine.
I've been wondering about getting an iTrip once the version for the new model iPod is available (Apple changed the connectors on the top...), but my car's radio.casette has a line-in (marked "CD") on the front panel anyway, and that's better quality.