Thread: FM Transmitter for home stereo

Originally Posted by silentC

I've got an idea to use my old PC and some sort of FM transmitter so that I can take a boom box to anywhere in the house and tune in to MP3s, Internet radio etc. Does anyone know if that's viable and what's available in the way of transmitters. I'm after reasonable quality, but I don't expect HI FI quality of course.

There are heaps on ebay, jaycar, dock smith, etc. make sure you can change the frequency manually because the preset frequency could be used by a local station. This is also necessary when travelling and using it in your car

They often don't have a great range though... How far do you want to transmit it?

This is the next thing in home entertainment - your PC wirelessly controlling the receiver ...TV, stereo, vibrating water bed...

Well, the wired home tech bed is here

Originally Posted by AV Elec

There are heaps on ebay, jaycar, dock smith, etc. make sure you can change the frequency manually because the preset frequency could be used by a local station. This is also necessary when travelling and using it in your car

They often don't have a great range though... How far do you want to transmit it?

Yeah I was hoping there might be something a bit more high tech than those little plug in dongles. The missus has just picked one of them up on the way to Wollongong, so I guess I'll give it a try when she gets home. It would be great if it would work out to 10 or 20 metres. I know the little ones are really designed to be used right on top of the receiver.

I had look at Sonos but it's $1,800 or so. That's why I thought of FM because then any radio can be a remote receiver.

Originally Posted by tameriska

Well, the wired home tech bed is here

Bloody Hell Bill Gates has stolen another one of my ideas.....

I invented window BTW.

there are some 2.4Ghz av senders about that do the job very nicly as long as you place isnt steel or concrete block or internaly sarked in foil.

there are some smaller domestic jobs that go 20 30 metres fine and have fixed antennas, stereo & video and lots of them have a remote control extender as a back channel.

then you can move up the range to the commercial ones that have removable antennae... although some of them are mono.

I had a play with one of those and got 500 metres out of it with 6db antennae and a clear open padock..(1/2 the main straight down at a race track)..... you can do what you like on the reciever but 6db on the transmitter is a bit naughty.

forget anything on the FM radio band....PITA.... and the FM band is pretty full these days.

cheers

Originally Posted by soundman

there are some 2.4Ghz av senders about that do the job very nicly as long as you place isnt steel or concrete block or internaly sarked in foil.

Yeah, 2.4GHz is an option, but you will need a dedicated receiver at the other end, not just use a radio to receive it. It is also becoming pretty full, and they don't like microwaves.

5.8GHz doesn't get effected by microwaves. They are actually illegal to use, however jaycar does sell them...

Yeah I looked at those. It defeats the purpose a bit because I'd have to buy a receiver for every radio in the house.

The one the missus brought home is actually pretty good and you can power it off the USB port, so no need to change batteries all the time. The range is pretty good too. I grabbed my little radio walkman and went for a wander outside last night. Pretty surprising considering the size of it, but it was $70 which is exy for these gadgets. It allows you select any channel in the FM range.

The only problem with it is that the sound quality is not that great when the transmitter is not sitting right next to the receiver as it would be in the car. I get a lot of that whistling sound at night and there's a fairly high level of white noise in the background. It disappears when you turn it up. Certainly not Hi Fi sound, but then I don't expect that.

There's no worries about finding a free FM channel here. That's part of the problem I'm trying to solve - we can't pick up a decent radio station.

I found a transmitter in the US called the WholeHouse FM Transmitter, which gets good reviews, so I might pick one of them up.

Yeh if you but a 2.4Ghz styyem you do need a dedicated reciever.....but most of the systems come as a set of transmitter and reciever..... and lots of the suppliers sell seperate recievers.
the audio (and video) quality on these baby microwave rigs is pretty good if used within specification.

if you arent in inner suburbia and especilay if you don't run a wireless network you shouldnt have tooo much of a problem with finding a slot.

As you have found the performance of the broadcast band FM transmitters is pretty pedestrian......

if you are having difficulty getting good FM reception think about connecting your FM tuner to your TV antenna.... that brings a whole world better signal strength....unless it has been specificly filtered out there will be FM radio in yourTV antenna system. especilay if you have some VHF television in your area.

If AM is the problem you will need to run a seperate coax to the roof and rig a dedicated antenna.....I genelraly use a CB base & whip mounted of a mirror bracket either on the tp of the bast or on a jib off the side.

It will then depend on the reciever what you have to do to get the signal into it.

Yeah it's FM that's the problem. Hadn't thought of the TV antenna - we have both UHF and VHF stations here.

I suppose I could get one of those microwave setups for the back deck sound system and use the FM for the little portables, clock radio etc where quality isn't as important (cause they sound like crap anyway with the pissy little speakers and cheap electronics).

Are they line of sight, or do they work around corners? I know the microwave link we had at Commbank in Burwood was line of sight to a building in the city.

line of sight more or less......thin walls and soft materials dont matter unless you are pushing the range.

Most people don't make the connection between TV & FM radio......most of the FM transmitters are sited at the same places as TV transmitters... which helps.....
If you are close to the transmitters of you have an strongly amplified antenna system you may have to attenuate the FM slot...... but mostly just split it and away you go..........Dont bother with TV/FM diplexors...particulrly the ones on a wall plate thay are as lossy as a straight two way split.

of course you could have two bob each way with the links.
remember you can squirt video with the audio if you want and you can get a remote control extender in the deal too.


cheers

Thanks for the info.

There are plenty of elaborate solutions here, but what is wrong with an ipod or similar and a dock? Far less complicated, you can choose what you are playing on location, and take it with you wherever. If Internet radio is of particular attraction, use stream ripper and download in advance, or perhaps get a cheap secondhand laptop to play music instead.

These look like interesting devices. I have been interested in them since before logitech bought them out.

http://www.lordpercy.com/logitech_wi...tem_review.htm

http://www.slimdevices.com/

http://www.cnet.com.au/wireless/stre...9280539,00.htm