|
Technology Showcase C. Crane FM Transmitter By Ken Reiss |
||
|
One excellent application |
||
|
|
The C. Crane Company has introduced a very cool new gizmo. It’s an FM transmitter with a digital frequency control and external power adapter. This low-power wonder has all sorts of uses and is a rock-solid unit in operation. At a suggested price of $99 it’s a bit more expensive than other units, but the performance quickly explains the price! One of the features that make this FM transmitter unique is the complete control of output frequency. The transmitter range is 88.3 to 107.7 MHz, in 50 kHz steps! You should have no trouble finding an open spot on the FM dial and, more importantly, you’ll know exactly where to find it with your receiver. The FM Transmitter is very stable compared with many other models I’ve tested. FM transmitters have been around for a very long time. They’re allowed under part 15 of the FCC rules with extremely low power so that you can broadcast your own music or other things to a remote FM receiver. Of course, it’s the other things that immediately came to my mind when I saw this unit. I’ve been playing with MP3 players recently for audio books and Old Time Radio programs. One of the difficulties is getting the audio from the player to the car’s stereo, or even at home if you want to listen there. There are essentially two ways to accomplish this. One is to directly connect the player to a cassette adapter gizmo that pops into the cassette deck. This gives a good signal to the stereo, but the adapters make a certain amount of noise, and I’ve always had concerns about the wear and tear on the deck. Recently, a friend pointed out that his new car doesn’t have a cassette deck! Now there’s a major problem. The other method is to transmit the audio to the radio. I’ve tried about a dozen different transmitters and none of them has been easy to live with. The main complaint is that they tend to be a bit unstable and require constant re-tuning of either the car’s radio or the transmitter to keep the sound at a reasonable quality. Not so with the new transmitter from C. Crane. It’s very stable. The other problem with most of the FM transmitters I’ve tried is signal strength. Many of them just don’t put out a strong enough signal to give a full quieting signal in the receiver. Once again, the C. Crane transmitter proved admirable in this respect. |
|
