Steven J. Gross
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If so, does it work with iTunes or anything besides Napster? TIA!
Does Anyone Here Own The Napster Samsung portable player?
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Ah am so steel een luv weeth yoo
That Napster "thing" only works with Napster. It doesn't work with anything else. I'd never get it because Napster is terrible. One is much better sticking with iTunes and the iPod instead.
Ed
Ed
Moderator note: Steven - since the Napster thing is not officially an "iPod" I changed the title of your thread appropriately.
Steven J. Gross
Well-Known Member
You know, I've had it since '03 or so, and it workd very nicely with Napster. I called the company to ask this question soon after I got it, they said in a 'round about way that it is for Napster only, but left me unclear.
This is what I was afraid of. Dang it!
One thing that really was disappointing is the FM transmitter, which never worked at all hardly. Are those adapters ususally any good?
This is what I was afraid of. Dang it!
One thing that really was disappointing is the FM transmitter, which never worked at all hardly. Are those adapters ususally any good?
When satellite radio first came out, the modulators (FM transmitters in portable units) were not too good. (Probably about the era of your Napster unit.) But they improved dramatically in the past couple of years.
This led to a problem: It seems people are complaining to the FCC because they keep getting interference from other radios near them on the highway or apartment buildings etc. So some modulators are being severely weakened in transmitting power so they don't "step on" the airwaves where they're not welcome.
Each sat-radio company has their own unique solution to the problem. XM has come up with a thing called "SureConnect" in which there is a wire running directly to the car's antenna for the signal to feed directly into the antenna, thereby negating the need for a broadcasting FM modulator. Sirius's solution has been to lower the power of their modulator as described above. I haven't heard either of the "new" systems yet, but it sort of makes sense that XM's solution would be better sounding, although not as convenient.
This led to a problem: It seems people are complaining to the FCC because they keep getting interference from other radios near them on the highway or apartment buildings etc. So some modulators are being severely weakened in transmitting power so they don't "step on" the airwaves where they're not welcome.
Each sat-radio company has their own unique solution to the problem. XM has come up with a thing called "SureConnect" in which there is a wire running directly to the car's antenna for the signal to feed directly into the antenna, thereby negating the need for a broadcasting FM modulator. Sirius's solution has been to lower the power of their modulator as described above. I haven't heard either of the "new" systems yet, but it sort of makes sense that XM's solution would be better sounding, although not as convenient.
It's a fact that if you ride around in heavy traffic in the morning and tune to 88.1, eventually you'll hear a bit of Howard Stern from nearby cars with Sirius units rebroacasting the signal to their own radios and spilling the signal to all around them. Since these units tend to operate in the lower FM band where many non-commercial stations reside, a lot of these stations have joined forces to do something about it.
Harry
Harry
Mike Blakesley said:
I don't see what all the big deal is about: all three of our receivers have the transmitters, and since they are tuned to unused, empty channels, nobody is going to pick it up anyway. Must be some clueless users out there who don't know how to change the channel on their transmitter. Plus, XM did ship out sets of ferrite beads to put on the wires to eliminate the problem (no charge), but fortunately, I only would need to do this in the car and not in the house. I have the MyFi portable located in the middle of the house, and any radio in the house can pick it up. And unless I have a portable radio right near a door or window, I can't pick it up more than a few feet around the perimeter of the house. The Roady2 does have a better transmitter. The MyFi even operates the transmitter when it's out of its cradle, but doesn't transmit more than a dozen feet or so (unobstructed) in any direction...and weakly at that.
I had a Sony car CD changer that had a "direct wire" type of FM transmitter that plugged into the antenna cable. It sucked--it was so weak that it had to be connected behind the radio, although they said it could be connected anywhere in the line (as I'd tried to hook it up in the trunk).
I also had a transmitter that plugged into the lighter socket so I could play my MiniDisc portable in the car: it had an analog tuner and drifted all the time. 
One of my favorite electronics kit makers, Ramsey Electronics, sells a couple of FM transmitters for "personal" use. And while they don't exactly advertise it as such, you can also buy one of their "linear amplifiers" to boost power up to one watt, so it would broadcast for a few miles. I have an older analog-tuned transmitter of theirs. It worked OK, but drifted slightly. But, it was fun when someone was working on the house behind ours, and had their boom box tuned to some obnoxious station. It was easy to tune to the same channel and send my own obnoxious music over it...
It's a matter of interfering with the public airwaves. Licensees go through lots of hoops to be able to legally to use that part of the radio spectrum and are understandably upset when other gadgets try to latch onto what is their only livelihood.
True that these devices are supposed to be using empty channels, but what about the guy who tunes his radio adapter to say 88.1, unused in his area, and drives 50 or 60 miles in his commute and begins stepping on a station in that other town?
The biggest problem seems to be Stern himself. His show is uncensored on the satellite, and being re-broadcast on the regular public frequencies.
Harry
True that these devices are supposed to be using empty channels, but what about the guy who tunes his radio adapter to say 88.1, unused in his area, and drives 50 or 60 miles in his commute and begins stepping on a station in that other town?
The biggest problem seems to be Stern himself. His show is uncensored on the satellite, and being re-broadcast on the regular public frequencies.
Harry
Harry--what I've noticed with the transmitters, even the ones in our XM units here, is that if there is even a *weak* signal on the channel, the XM's transmitter is still not strong enough to override it. Where I live, for instance, I'm between two or three FM markets (Detroit has their spots, then Ann Arbor and Toledo are offset from those), and I do get some faint hits at 0.2 and 0.4MHz off of our local stations. If there is even a faint signal, I can't anything usable out of the XM unit. I've heard of some people being able to pick up their Sirius or XM units on house radios when the unit is in the car, but I've tried it, and I can't even get a clean signal into the open garage, let alone the house.
From what I read, though, the FCC's Part 15 rules allow low-powered FM transmitters, legally, for "hobbyist" use. I believe the limit is 10uV/m, which allows for an unobstructed range of about 60 meters.
From what I read, though, the FCC's Part 15 rules allow low-powered FM transmitters, legally, for "hobbyist" use. I believe the limit is 10uV/m, which allows for an unobstructed range of about 60 meters.
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