How Can I Listen To Your Broadcast In Better Quality On My Stereo OR Better Still Throughout My House?

 

Many of our listeners have asked how they can listen to our broadcast over their home stereos or better still “through out the house”. With this in mind and in connection with the front page comment by DJ Rick Wrigley I shall try and list a few ways this can be accomplished.

 

Wired – Now being in the business of computers and technology I can tell you that wiring devices together is always the best way to go. Wireless opens you up to potential interference from outside sources. Your hand held telephone extensions could be running on the same frequency as the wireless (900mHZ for old phones, 2.4gHZ for newer and 5.8gHZ for the latest phones). So if your computer and stereo are within close proximity of each other, say pc on a desktop and stereo on top unit or next to PC desk, then this is the way to go. To hard wire your PC to Stereo you will first need a splitter cable. These have a 3.5mm (1/8”) male jack on one end and two RCA jacks (male) on the other.

Now on this arrangement, the single jack (3.5mm) plugs into the sound card connection where your PC speakers would plug into, better still plug it into a headphone jack for better sound. The PC jack is usually in the back of your PC and in most cases is that green jack shown here at the bottom. Just watch which jack you unplug from and plug back into the same.

   Your headset / headphone jacks can be in the front of your PC, on the speakers themselves in some cases or if you have a laptop it is usually the only output jack available.

 

Next you will need cables to go from this “splitter cable” to your stereo. Of course if you are within the 6’ that this cable is in, then just plug into your stereo.

Any pair of jacks that are marked input will work. So if you have a set of jacks marked phono and you are not using them, plug the red and black jacks from you “splitter” into the phono jacks marked L and R. Then set your stereo to Phono on the front controls and you are “monitoring” the Phono jack inputs. I suggest you plug your PC speakers back into your PC, tune to our station, and listen to what is playing. Now unplug speakers and plug back in the “splitter” and voila, you should be hearing our station through your Stereo. To listen to normal radio, just switch your stereo from Phono to Tuner and you are back they way it was.  If you need to extend your cables a little further, two of these will do the trick.

That is a female RCA jack to male RCA.

 

Wireless – If you would like to do the same but do not want to run wires, then a wireless FM transmitter will work. This device transmits the sound from your computer over a low or high band FM frequency. Once the transmitter is plugged in, any FM radio (within range) can be tuned to the unused frequency in your area (typically 80.x to 88.x low or 107.x high)  and you are now listening to our station over ANY FM radio within range. Now range is the big thing here. Most of these devices are made to listen to your Ipod type device over your car stereo and so they only have a 10 foot range. Some are rated at 30’ range. These should work well in your house or if you stereo is on the other side of the wall from your PC. A range of 12’ through a wall is different then 30’ through clear air.

Be fore warned. Since most of these are made for your auto, they run on either battery only or have a cigarette lighter adapter. This one took me awhile to find and seems to come with an AC adapter for better sound and of course continuous play. It is the Belkin® TuneCast II Mobile FM Transmitter (recognize that small 3.5mm jack that plugs into your PC sound card speaker or headphone out?).

 

Now before you spend the $39.99 for this unit with a 10’ to 30’ange, consider these two options.

This on is available from C. Crane ( http://www.ccrane.com/radios/fm-transmitters/fm-transmitter.aspx ) and is said to cover 40’ to 70’ range (less of course through walls). The specs look good and the pricing is really nice at $69.95.

 

Another on is from Whole House (http://www.wholehousefmtransmitter.com/ ).

 This one boasts a 150’ range and with 4 power features is really a nice unit. I know the Whole House brand and as it states on their website, you get 100% guarantee. At $99, it would make a nice Christmas gift. With this unit you should be able to listen to any and all FM radio throughout your house.

 

Well I hope this info has helped. If you have any questions, feel free to ask using our Contact Us menu choice. Just use the drop down to JimmyB and ask away.

 

JimmyB