fm band expander for usa stereo?

x in the city

hi folks

i got a pioneer p80 deck from the states, can i get a fm band expander anywhere ? and how much are they

tks

ezza

blastman

You don't need one for a US radio (and it won't do anything for you even if you do fit one). In US radio, the FM band is the same as Ireland except that the tuner moves in increments of 0.2Mhz instead of 0.1MHz as they do here. You may not be able to pick some stations that are on an even frequency clearly e.g. FM 104 on 104.4MHz (some people would say that's a good thing!)

5500

As above a band expander will make no difference at all.

Buying a radio from the Usa is one thing id advise against no matter how cheap or loaded with features it is unless your never going to listen to the radio.I myself had one before and even though i rarely listened to the radio it was a major pain only being able to recieve two stations if i was lucky

Eoin

blastman wrote:

You don't need one for a US radio (and it won't do anything for you even if you do fit one). In US radio, the FM band is the same as Ireland except that the tuner moves in increments of 0.2Mhz instead of 0.1MHz as they do here. You may not be able to pick some stations that are on an even frequency clearly e.g. FM 104 on 104.4MHz (some people would say that's a good thing!)

I thought it would be a good thing, but as I have said before the only thing worse than shìte Dublin radio stations is only having half of them to choose from. I got a lovely Sony CD/MP3 player from the states (damn you eBay), but I can't get a load of stations, so probably just going to ditch it and get an Irish one instead

WizZard

Isn't there a code that can be entered in some of them to unlock the increment to European standard?
I vaguely remember one being sold on boards before that had been unlocked this way..

<edit>See here</edit>

stevenmu

WizZard wrote:

Isn't there a code that can be entered in some of them to unlock the increment to European standard?
I vaguely remember one being sold on boards before that had been unlocked this way..

Yep, many of them do, googling the make and model should turn something up.

Eoin

WizZard wrote:

Isn't there a code that can be entered in some of them to unlock the increment to European standard?
I vaguely remember one being sold on boards before that had been unlocked this way..

I posted a thread about this - the concensus seemed to be that there is probably either a firmware upgrade or switcher that can be changed to increase the frequency increase - if the stereo is sold outside the USA. If it is only available in the US, then they probably wouldn't bother. It could still involve opening the unit though

blastman

Some of them can be, most likely if the model was available the US and Europe. Otherwise (as I found out with my US-only Pioneer), you can forget it.

Oh, and the American versions won't have RDS. And probably no AF. Technologically advanced, my ass!