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Japanese Stereo FM Conversion

Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 1:52 am
by 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,

Re: Japanese Stereo FM Conversion

Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 11:31 am
by 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.

Re: Japanese Stereo FM Conversion

Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 10:29 am
by Profister
mdrive wrote: 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.

Re: Japanese Stereo FM Conversion

Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 11:13 am
by coaxial
maybe if you built a big enough antenna you could just listen to radio stations from japan :-)

Re: Japanese Stereo FM Conversion

Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 12:28 pm
by 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

Re: Japanese Stereo FM Conversion

Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 9:23 am
by 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

Re: Japanese Stereo FM Conversion

Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 10:26 am
by mararmeisto
coaxial wrote: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?

Re: Japanese Stereo FM Conversion

Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 11:02 am
by marsgal42
mararmeisto wrote:
coaxial wrote: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

Re: Japanese Stereo FM Conversion

Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 4:15 pm
by jwfchase
marsgal42 wrote:... 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 :wink: :roll: :shock: :?:

Re: Japanese Stereo FM Conversion

Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 5:36 pm
by mararmeisto
marsgal42 wrote:
mararmeisto wrote:
coaxial wrote: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.

Re: Japanese Stereo FM Conversion

Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 7:02 pm
by marsgal42
mararmeisto wrote: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.
:-D :-) 8-) :shock:

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.
mararmeisto wrote: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

Re: Japanese Stereo FM Conversion

Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 7:25 pm
by 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.

Re: Japanese Stereo FM Conversion

Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2009 12:26 pm
by jwfchase
And now I have to spend even MORE time Googling and Wikipedia-ing

Re: Japanese Stereo FM Conversion

Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2009 12:54 pm
by marsgal42
mararmeisto wrote: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?
8-) 8-) 8-)

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

Re: Japanese Stereo FM Conversion

Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2009 3:53 pm
by knight
:o :?