MP3 Transmitters Now Legal In the UK

SilentOneNCW writes "From December 8th, it will be once more legal to own and operate an MP3 Transmitter in the UK, primarily used to convey music between an MP3 player such as Apple's iPod to your home or car stereo. The device was originally banned because their transmissions can override and interfere with legal radio stations, which is prohibited by the Wireless Telegraphy Act of 1949. Strong consumer demand for the devices and pressure from Liberal Democrats were among the primary motivators for the amendment."

Comments

Here in the US

[Mazin07]

I believe that in the US, only devices that broadcast over a certain range are regulated and need licenses. Was it different in the UK?

Re:Here in the US

[Nasarius]

That's the point; they broadcast on a frequency that can be picked up by your car radio. But the power is so low that it's unlikely to travel far outside your car.

Re:That's Too Bad

[ISurfTooMuch]

No, most all of them can be tuned to any frequency in the FM band. The ones like the Belkin TuneCast and the iTrip are within the legal power limits. Units made by companies like Ramsey (do a search for Ramsey FM10) are theoretically legal, as long as you don't use a transmitting antenna with too much gain. So, if you really wanted to, you could get one of these, add the proper (or improper) antenna, and easily exceed the allowed power output for an unlicensed transmitter. Not that I'm recommending this, you understand. I'm just saying that it can be done.

Part 15

[Kadin2048]

It's a power-level issue. The FCC allows unlicensed transmitters under Part 15; the maximum allowed varies with frequency. You can see the limits on this page. For example, above 960 MHz, unlicensed devices can transmit a field strength of up to 500 microvolts/meter, measured at three meters from the radiating device. (Those units seem a little odd to me, but that's what the table lists.)

Part 15

[EricJ2190]

In the U.S. these FM transmitters are allowed by Part 15 of the FCC rules. The power output of the transmitter must be very limited to prevent interference. I am not sure what other countries have equivalent laws.

other uses/yay!

[entartete]

I'm thrilled about this and I don't live in the UK. I use fm transmitters like this to do audio installation art and performances of electronic music.I have a dozen tiny fm receivers and a few transmitters so i can route signals out from laptop/battery powered effects/violin/cheap mp3 players playing loops/home made gadgetry through the speakers that i can spread out through the place i'm performing, it's not particularly loud but i use the electronics to augment not replace the sound of an acoustic instrument usually. It's cheap, highly effective and portable, i can turn any place i like into a performance space, since a lot of places with interesting acoustics often don't have electricity available and aren't suitable for running a bunch of cables around for a large multichannel system this opens up a lot of performance opportunities to me. (also the far away radio transmission sound works for the music I do and the interference between transmitters is fun to exploit as a sound source, especially when i use a couple receivers to feed the output back into the system. people's movements within the space i'm performing change the behavior of the system as well which can be nice as well, makes the whole space responsive) and now I can do this sort of thing in the UK as well. yay!

Just what we need

[alunharford]

I can't wait! I can just imagine the converstation on channel 16 when somebody releases a buggy one.

"Mayday Mayday Mayday. This is RMS Titanic, RMS Titanic, RMS Titanic. We are sinking. Over."

"When you walk through the storm,
Hold your head up high,
And don't be afraid of the dark ..."

(Or the (less interesting) equivilent in DSC)

Re:holy cow

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, I was more impressed that Zonk posted something news related.

Re:As a UK resident

[ISurfTooMuch]

Actually, the BBC has a story on it. That's where I read about it. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/617782 0.stm

It's an FM transmitter, not an MP3 transmitter

[Animats]

At first I thought this was something for transmitting MP3 files around, but it's just a low-power FM audio transmitter to transmit to nearby FM radios. Those things have been around for decades, all the way back to 8-track players and drive-in movie theaters. All the TVs at my gym have one, transmitting on different frequencies.

If you're in a major metropolitan area where all the FM broadcast slots are in use, you may not have much success with one of these things.

Re:It's an FM transmitter, not an MP3 transmitter

[linuxci]

In the UK we're phasing out analogue radio and TV (including FM). Radio will be replaced by DAB.
Therefore as far as I know there's no new permanent FM licenses granted, altough the occaisional short term licence may be granted for special events.

This means that in the UK you're unlikely to be in a place where the FM range is full. Even in London you can find a few gaps. Although I didn't know of any drive in cinemas in the UK. Because of the law mentioned in this article, gyms tended to not transmit on FM either, I've seen two solutions to the problem, some gyms have headphone sockets on the pieces of equipment and others have special receivers that transmit on a different band, they give you a receiver when you enter the gym so you don't need your own. This is why FM radio is not exactly a big selling feature on MP3 players over here (well it's not in the US either considering the popularity of the iPod, but in the UK if someone launches a device with built in FM the first response is 'what no DAB?')

It will be a while before FM disappears entirely, their first priority is getting analogue TV off the air. Why is it the government is forcing this? I don't know, it should be up to the market to decide.

Re:It's an FM transmitter, not an MP3 transmitter

[arkhan_jg]

Good points about the FM transmitters. As far as TV goes, there are a couple of reasons they're forcing the migration to digital. At the moment, the analog TV (and a little more from analog radio) takes up a LOT of the most useful frequency spectrum, plus its very vulnerable to interference. Most digital TV transmitters are broadcasting at very low power (around 4%) so they don't swamp the 5 analog channels. Digital can give better broadcast quality, can fit in many more channels in the same bandwidth, and much more resistant to interference. The fact that it works at all, given the tiny power budget and spectrum its squeezed in round the analog channels is pretty impressive.

DAB radio is in much the same boat. The complaints about getting a signal and low quality would go away if DAB could crank it up, spread out a bit and not worry about overriding FM transmitters.

With the analog channels off, the digital transmitters can boost the power (i.e. better range) and use some of the huge amount of freed bandwidth so they don't have to compress so much (i.e. less blocky artifacts). Even better, they can start broadcasting the free-to-air HD channels over freeview, which they just don't have the free bandwidth to do now. Regions are switching over to digital TV only from 2008 to 2012. I for one can't wait. TV signal with good reception, lots of channels and HD to boot? Given I live in the wilds of Dorset, my analog signal is barely watchable, and I only get about 2/3 the multiplexes. Improving that has got to be good.

Oh, one last thing. The public owns the airwaves, thus the government gets to allocate their use on the public's behalf. Given digital TV is so much better, and they can't really coexist, its a choice between digital or analog. It's not one the market can decide, as you'll just end up with a bunch of legacy equipment that won't go away for 30 years and stops the new equipment working properly, while private companies profit excessively at the cost of the public. Just look at the huge mess having two systems of weights and measurement has caused.

Re:What about the Vorbis files, insensitive clods?

[linuxci]

I've learned to just sigh and say "the general public is so confused" when I hear mainstream media talk like the iPod is the only portable music player.

I hate it too, I mean sometimes they just act like the iPod nano and iPod shuffle don't exist :(

I think you'll find...

[Gordonjcp]

... that in the UK, laws are generally less restrictive than in the US. Not only that, but unlike the US, where everyone blindly obeys every law no matter how ridiculous it may seem, in the UK we obey laws that are locally convenient, not too intrusive, and not plainly a bad idea. The rest are so commonly flouted that it's basically more trouble than it's worth to do anything about applying them.

Re:I think you'll find...

[AndyboyH]

> we obey laws that are locally convenient, not too intrusive, and not plainly a bad idea unfortunately far too many don't have decent judgement when obeying those three rules. More and more people aren't stopping for amber and red lights, I note. :( Nevermind lane discipline, behaviour at roundabouts, etc :(

Re:I think you'll find...

[Tim Browse]

I always think of it as removing a decision I have to make from the otherwise possibly very complicated business of moving a 1 ton block of metal around in a place where soft squishy people might be. Light is red - I stop. End of story.

I feel the same way about safety margins. Sadly, too many people seem to think that safety margin means, e.g. "Ooh, I can get there a bit quicker/be a bit closer to that car, and it's still safe."

Low power signal

[ning]

Yup. I've tried tuning in outside the car - travelling in convoy, and instructing the other driver to tune his radio to mine - but unless you're really tailgating the car in front, there's no way you can pick up that signal. You can tell how low the power is because 'proper' stations interfere with it if you accidentally stumble on their frequency. So there's really no incentive to try to create a 'pirate' station - it just won't get picked up.

So it's great news - a new piece of legislation actually 'for the people'. Brilliant!

Incidentally, you should retract your aerial if you want to improve reception - or get an FM modulator (that's wired into your aerial) rather than a transmitter. Or get a head unit with a line-in port (although that's more expensive).

Only some of them will be legal!

[HuskyDog]

As it says in the BBC article, only some devices will be legal.

Now certain FM transmitters, which can be tuned to spare frequencies, will be legal from 8 December.

However, many devices currently on the market will remain illegal as they do not meet the legally required technical specifications and could interfere with radio broadcasts.

All approved transmitters will carry a CE mark indicating approval for sale in the European Union.

So, as I see it, legal transmitters will not only have to meet strict power limits, but also be tunable only to certain spare frequencies in the FM band. I spent some time searching the Ofcom web site to try and find exact details of the regulations (e.g. which frequencies exactly), but without success. If anyone else can find them then I for one would be interested.

Re:Wireless Telegraphy Act of 1949

[julesh]

The main point in there being "1949". Yeah, it was over 50 years ago when that was done, time to GET WITH THE TIMES me thinks

Because, of course, the fundamental nature of radio interference changed in the 1980s.

Detach car antenna for better reception

[mrb000gus]

My FM transmitter broadcasts on 88.2-88.9. Driving between midlands and London, in the UK this is Radio 2's regional frequency range, so throughout the journey Radio 2 kept kicking in and forcing me to change the FM transmitter's frequency and adjust the car radio.

One way to fix this is to detach the aerial from the roof of your car, it should still receive your FM transmitter's signal but not get interference from FM radio stations.