Japanese stereo frequencies to Irish FM frequency table?

The-Game

I have a japanese imported Honda that comes with a decent spec double DIN head unit with a lot of functionality included.

I did get a FM Band Expander so I can find Irish Radio stations even though the Japanese FM signals go from 76-90 MHz so the stations still show up under those frequencies.

Before going through every variant from 76.0 to 90.0 I wonder has anyone come across a table of these or does anyone who has gone through the pain have a list of what frequencies match what stations?

I.E.
JDM 78.4MHZ = IRL 2FM

If not I'll spend some time searching through the frequencies to tune!

corks finest

I’ve had 3 imported jap cars each came with their own short fm band stereo etc, used an expander in one , and in my current insight I changed to a double din pioneer unit ,well worth it for Spotify: Bluetooth etc etc,you can get proper fascia fittings etc on eBay, mine looks factory fitted including steering wheel controls

zg3409

An expander usually has a fixed offset,

76 -> 90 Mhz (add 14)

90 -> 104Mhz (add 14)

Exact frequencies vary by area. RTE 1 is normally 88-90, 2FM 90-92, TodayFM 100-102, Newstalk 106-108 ( might not be covered by expander)

As you travel across country you need to retune unless "AF" is shown on radio station where it attempts to auto find sane station on nearby frequency when signal is weak.

So there is not a simple answer, the real solution is probably put in a decent radio with Bluetooth and MP3 options. DAB is dead in Ireland so don't pay for that premium. Rewiring plug and play kits are available for most cars, making change over easier than old days.

JimmyCrackCorn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117664351#Comment_117664351

You go band expander once.

Then you give up and get a new radio. all my imports ended up with a new stereo as band expanders suck.

Iv gotten good at fitting stereos over the years.

corks finest

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117779026#Comment_117779026

I went down cheapo route and it cost me, not technically able to do my own so paid for it but absolutely delighted with my unit, Bluetooth / CarPlay etc , saved several hundred euros by not going the Halfords route

The-Game

Thanks for the replies, I'm slightly reluctant to go the replacing the head unit route, as it has a fully loaded japanese system already with integrated bluetooth functionality and the option for a soundcard (HDD in the stereo for recording CDs to) as well as FM radio and GPS function.

Will work through on the basis of +14 and see how I get on!!

corks finest

Perseverance works bud, good luck with it

JimmyCrackCorn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117817381#Comment_117817381

You could have a second radio installed in parallel.

I did that before on a civic with some mad tv thing.

Car got stolen before I ever figured out how to hack the tv screen to take a video input.

Oops!

Anybody got a link to the FM band expander they used please?

corks finest

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118495935#Comment_118495935

Better off going on eBay and search as a lot of companies will be able to verify if it’s suitable for your car or not

Ozziej

I am now in same boat. Got an a6 jap import and garage must have put in a band expander. It works fine driving around Dublin (albeit with no station names) but when I took down the country for a drive it dropped stations and reception. Is that the deal with the extra resistance of expander causing reception problems?

any other solutions for this type of car? I assume the models going to Japan have the Japanese radio hardware so the functionality isn’t buried in the dash somewhere waiting to be activated?

TherapyBoy

Is that the deal with the extra resistance of expander causing reception problems?

No. Car radios made for our market (Europe) will follow the station, Japanese car radios won’t.

If you tune in RTÉ 2fm in Dublin & drive to Kerry a European car radio will constantly change the frequency you’re tuned to (without you knowing) in order to keep you listening to 2fm. A Japanese radio in a Japanese import car will keep you tuned to the same frequency unless you manually change it as you go.

The way around this is to install a European car radio in your imported car, might not be easy in an Audi A6 depending on what kind of system is fitted in it currently. Best take the car to your local in-car specialist & ask their advice.

Biggest issue is RDS (Radio Data System) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Data_System is broadcast with FM radio stations in Ireland and throughout Europe, but is not used in Japan.

FM broadcasting uses lots of small, low powered transmitters on different frequencies. So if you're driving along 2FM might be on 90.4 then 91.3 then 92.2 then 90.5.. and so on. Any modern car radio with RDS is able to seamlessly jump to the strongest signal as you drive a long. In older radios you could see this happening as they'd go into 'searching...' mode but on anything produced in the last 15 years it's usually utterly seamless. In hilly areas like say Cork City for example, you can find multiple frequencies in use in quite a small geographical area, and radios will hop to whatever transmitter's providing best reception at any given moment.

RDS will display the station name, but also carries 'radio text' which will display the programme name or sometimes even the track being played on air, depending on what the station has setup.

You can't adapt a Japanese radio to do any of that. All you're doing is using a downconverter to drop the frequencies. There's an issue too with the carrier bandwidth in Japan being narrower - 14Mhz instead of 20Mhz so you'll get issues with sound quality, frequency lock and all sorts of stuff.