Info on radio/cd players

[anglo_saxon]

On my old boat i had an American digital display radio/cd player which dose not pick up Uk stations. Is there a player which would be better suited to crusing Europe, USA and beyond, and are they expensive.

 

[PlanB]

We recently bought a Pioneer car CD/radio from Halfords for about £150 which wired into our existing speakers easily, doesn't have flashing lights or complicated controls, and does the job perfectly (AM/FM/LW)

 

[BrendanS]

If you are talking about a standard AM/FM radio, there is no reason why a 'US' radio won't pick up radio stations in other countries, there is no difference between them, just needs retuning to the appropriate stations, and check the aerial

 

[jerryat]

Entirely agree. Fitted a Pioneer DEH-P3600MP CD/Tuner just last week. 4 x 50w, plays computer ripped CD-R, CD-RW, MP3 and God knows what else. Love the very few buttons and other 'must haves' I never use too. Excellent sound and am delighted with it.

Cheers Jerry

 

[Trevethan]

There is some difference with AM tuning. UK tuners jump 9 kHz at a time, while in the US its 10 kHz a go, which could make some AM transmissions a bit off -- for example Radio % could come in a little poor.


FM tuning should be fine.

 

[Ships_Cat]

I can back you up on that Nick, and some other countries also have the same channel spacing as USA on AM too.

Don't know about the UK but in most other places most radios/tuners are switchable to either 9 or 10 kHz channel spacing (either by a conventional hardware switch or a key combination - eg power turned on while holding another key(s) down).

John

 

[bugs]

I bought a Pioneer Radio/CD unit in the USA this year. With FM the US use odd numbers, eg 90.1, 90.3, 90.5. Europe uses even, 90.2 etc. However the European sets scan all the frequencies while the US only scan the odd numbers. Therefore the US sets are only useful in US locations while the European sets can be used everywhere. Pioneer told me the set could not be adjusted. So much for my bargin buy

 

[Ships_Cat]

That is worth remembering as I had assumed their FM radio receivers tuned in 0.1 Mhz steps too so was not an issue for elsewhere.

I wonder if the 0.2 Mhz tuning steps is common just for USA automotive radios? - we recently specified the entertainment systems for 2 boats for North America with USA sourced domestic radio tuners and they tuned every 0.1Mhz so worked everywhere.

Here in NZ we seem to use both the odd and the even FM channels, and Australia is the same.

John

 

[Trevethan]

pretty sure the stereo fitted in the Ford Taurus my girlfriend had when I lived in Maryland jumped 0.1 MHz a go

 

[ShipsWoofy]

My last car was a grey import from Japan. It had the original Japanese radio installed. Did not check the AM / LW as I quickly changed it after realising the FM band went from something like 75MHz to 88MHz. Useless in the UK.

Don't know how bad it would be if sailing into Japan and not being able to receive their broadcasts though?

 

[Ships_Cat]

As you are probably aware Woofy One quite a lot of second hand Japanese cars here.

I think that maybe they change the radios in most of them before sale but they sell "band expanders" which spread the FM coverage out, I assume to the usual. They fit between the radio and the antenna, 12 v powered. I assume that the frequency readout is then completely up the pole though, perhaps like "This is Radio XYZee 98.2 FM but 76.3 if you drive a second hand Japanese import" /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif.

John