Japanese Stereo FM Conversion

[mdrive]

As you know all Japanese stereo coming with the vehicle has a different FM requency and for that matter, the radio won't work in Canada. We are know carrying FM frequency converter that plugs onto your antenna cable behind the stereo and you will pick up all FM stations.
Price $30.00,

[coach]

For Sale
1 Original Mitsubish Delica Stereo unit.

Includes funky "retro" cassette deck!

$5....OK, free to a good home, as long as you buy your own FM converter it should work great for anyone interested in building a totally stock Deli.

[Profister]

We are know carrying FM frequency converter that plugs onto your antenna cable behind the stereo and you will pick up all FM stations.
Price $30.00,

Just to let you know that it is not possible to make ALL local FM station working on the original Delica FM receiver. Japanese FM has a 14 MHz window unlike 20 MHz in North America.

[coaxial]

maybe if you built a big enough antenna you could just listen to radio stations from japan

[Profister]

What stations you loose depends on the frequency shifted downwards. If you want to get more technical go here:
http://www.autospeed.com/cms/A_2267/article.html.
Some companies offer several modifications depending on what stations you can give up on.
http://www.edl.co.nz/ConvertersHP/PRODUCTS.html

[Bandexpander]

I have been manufacturing Radio FM Band expanders in NZ since 1992 and this product is the ultimate unit, a result of exhaustive research and development in RF reception over the years in Car Audio.
Please, have a look: http://bandexpanders.comze.com/1_2_Products.html

[mararmeisto]

maybe if you built a big enough antenna you could just listen to radio stations from japan

Not enough residual signal strength after all the distance across the Pacific.

Besides, why spend 30$ to use the radio you've got when you can spend hundreds of dollars to install a radio that will work WITHOUT the frequency expander?

[marsgal42]

maybe if you built a big enough antenna you could just listen to radio stations from japan

Not enough residual signal strength after all the distance across the Pacific.

From quieter (in the radio sense) parts of B.C. like the west coast of Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlottes, it is entirely possible to pick up Japanese AM stations at night. Japanese FM would require double-hop sporadic E propagation, a pretty rare occurrence.

While digital TV works well with the relatively steady signals of tropospheric ducting, I wonder how well it would work with the erratic signal strength of sporadic E. When I was in high school up north VHF TV was routinely clobbered in the summer by stations from North Dakota to northern California...

...laura

[jwfchase]

... Japanese FM would require double-hop sporadic E propagation, a pretty rare occurrence.

While digital TV works well with the relatively steady signals of tropospheric ducting, I wonder how well it would work with the erratic signal strength of sporadic E...

I often lie awake at night wondering the same thing

[mararmeisto]

maybe if you built a big enough antenna you could just listen to radio stations from japan

Not enough residual signal strength after all the distance across the Pacific.

From quieter (in the radio sense) parts of B.C. like the west coast of Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlottes, it is entirely possible to pick up Japanese AM stations at night. Japanese FM would require double-hop sporadic E propagation, a pretty rare occurrence.

...laura

Way to go laura! You ruined a perfectly good laugh at the expense of the ignorant masses by spouting off technological truths.

However, I'm not sure you're exactly correct because FM stations are in the UHF range and due to the properties of the Earth's own EM field, the requirement for specific atmospheric conditions, and the limitations of Snell's Law, it is generally only HF transmissions which are likely to be subject to the effects of ducting.

That being said, it is generally easier to pick up a Mexican AM radio station, usually because they aren't limited to 10kW transmission output power in the same way American or Canadian radio stations are.

[marsgal42]

Way to go laura! You ruined a perfectly good laugh at the expense of the ignorant masses by spouting off technological truths.

However, I'm not sure you're exactly correct because FM stations are in the UHF range and due to the properties of the Earth's own EM field, the requirement for specific atmospheric conditions, and the limitations of Snell's Law, it is generally only HF transmissions which are likely to be subject to the effects of ducting.

At the risk of hijacking a thread (who, me?), there are three propagation phenomena here.

The usual shortwave radio propagation is due to ionization in the F layer of the ionosphere. At sunspot maximum this can reflect signals up to 60 MHz or so back to earth. At the moment we're lucky if we make it up to 15 MHz during the day, 5 MHz at night. This is what thwarted my attempts to record the leap second off WWV New Year's Eve, though I got a recording of it from somebody else who had better luck than me.

Sporadic E propagation is due to patches of intense ionization in the E layer of the ionosphere. The exact mechanism is not well understood, but Sporadic E (so-called because it comes and goes very quickly) can handle signals up to 100 MHz, over 200 MHz if it is unusually intense. This covers VHF TV and FM broadcast, and is the mechanism I had so much experience with up north. If we're ever going to hear Japanese FM in B.C., this is how we'll do it. F2 skip doesn't go that high.

Tropospheric ducting occurs when there is a sudden change in the refractive index of air at radio frequencies in a layer above the ground, usually associated with an inversion. This acts like a microwave waveguide and can propagate signals, depending on the size of the duct, from VHF to SHF. Hams have communicated from California to Hawaii this way on frequencies up to 5.7 GHz. The Seattle TV stations often come in a lot stronger in Vancouver in the spring and fall due to ducting along Puget Sound.

That being said, it is generally easier to pick up a Mexican AM radio station, usually because they aren't limited to 10kW transmission output power in the same way American or Canadian radio stations are.

Yup. Try XETRA 690, Tijuana, next time you're far enough away from Vancouver that they they don't get swamped by CBU. If you hear French on the frequency you're picking up Radio Canada (Première Chaine) from Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan.

...laura, radio nerd

[mararmeisto]

Laura:

Do you actually 'sleep' at night like the rest of the carbon-based lifeforms on this planet, or do you just regenerate for the requisite time in your own collective-pod?

And yes, at this point, I think we've COMPLETELY hijacked this thread.

[jwfchase]

And now I have to spend even MORE time Googling and Wikipedia-ing

[marsgal42]

Laura:Do you actually 'sleep' at night like the rest of the carbon-based lifeforms on this planet, or do you just regenerate for the requisite time in your own collective-pod?

Like you, I require periodic regeneration cycles. All my systems go offline, but I still experience some residual, chaotic neural activity.

All intelligent creatures dream. Nobody knows why...

...laura

[knight]