I bought an iPod system for my wife at Christmas: the iPod, 200 iTunes credits & an FM Transmitter for her car.
The problem was that in the 2+ months since Christmas, she got so frustrated at the FM Transmitter (not working properly) that she’s stopped using it!
Looking into the problem, it appears that static (or more powerful radio stations) were drowning out the iPod music. This didn’t seem right because this was the latest Belkin, with their fancy technology to find clear frequencies to minimize/eliminate interference! When I Google’d this problem, most people seemed to say that it couldn’t be helped, especially for newer cars where the radio antenna is “built” into the rear windscreen.
Playing around with it myself, I discovered that I could push buttons on the Belkin to find a clear frequency, but when I changed the FM dial on the radio to that frequency, it often had static or worse yet a radio station! How could this be? Was my Belkin broken and not able to correctly identify a clear frequency?
Interestingly enough, as I reached to the Belkin again, to attempt to find another frequency, I could hear the Ipod clearly. As long as I held my hand on or very near the unit, the iPod music was coming over the car’s speakers loud and clear! This got me thinking that, because I was touching the Belkin, I was acting as the antenna for it to determine a “clear frequency”. But if my hand wasn’t near the unit, the car’s antenna over-powering whatever internal antenna the unit had.
So in short, I pressed the button for the Belkin to search for the clear frequency. And then quickly moved my hand away from the unit (allowing it to search without using me as the antenna). Once it locked onto a good frequency, I set the radio to the same, and the iPod music came through clearly. I drove over 20 miles (around town) and was able to perfectly hear the iPod music without having the change frequencies once!
It’s such a simple solution (to an otherwise frustrating situation). I’m really surprised that Belkin didn’t put it on their instructions. And I’m even more surprised that this information wasn’t more obviously published on the Internet!
[...] Gil wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptOnce it locked onto a good frequency, I set the radio to the same, and the iPod music came through clearly. I drove over 20 miles (around town) and was able to perfectly hear the iPod music without having the change frequencies once! … [...]
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