Has anyone tried this AM/FM reciever

**inniss777** · 05-30-2005, 04:06 AM

I am thinking about getting this AM/FM reciever but can not find any users with it. Does anybody have one? I have not heard of any other AM/FM reciever other than the radio shark which I can not find any good results.

**Scouse Monkey** · 05-30-2005, 04:25 AM

looks like the D-link or gemtek radios to me. Only with a serial interface (which would help with the USB driver problems coming out of hibernation)

**rando** · 05-30-2005, 09:24 AM

Do a search, the Radioman AM/FM has been discussed many times here. I have one, and it performs poorly just like the others.

**Rafster** · 05-31-2005, 07:52 PM

Well, here's a problem I see right off the bat... Is it XP compatible? Look at the page. Win3.1-Win95.

Peace,

Rafster

**rando** · 05-31-2005, 11:35 PM

It's a serial radio and will work under any operating system. The supplied software also works under XP but you probably wouldn't want it in a car. If you want to write your own SW, do a search in the forums. The protocol was reverse engineered and posted way way back.

**inniss777** · 06-04-2005, 01:41 AM

rando

I have one, and it performs poorly just like the others.

What antenna did you use? Have you tried it with the stock vehicle antenna?

**rando** · 06-04-2005, 10:21 AM

I tried the supplied antenna and my stock 4runner antenna. Either way, it performed poorly. The problem isn't the ability of the tuner to pull in a signal. It did that adequately. It's the ability of the tuner to filter out adjacent channel noise, spurious RF noise from your alternator, HV power lines, the sun, and the various switch mode power supplies floating around your car PC -- all of which change rapidly while in motion. To put it simply, these tuners were not designed to perform well in a mobile automotive environment.

Automotive grade radio tuner and signal processing circuitry contain significant technology to combat these problems. If you do a bit of checking in the forums you'll find that all of the 'PC' radios perform similarly poor. For now, it seems our only hope is one of the open hardware radio projects (see forum FAQ) being developed by several members here. These projects all rely on automotive grade tuner and signal processing components and have already demonstrated markedly better performance than any of the PC radios. None of them are available for purchase yet.