Picking up radio stations from abroad

[Charlietp]

I am moving to France and want to pick up radio stations in the UK. What sort of radio do I need and where is the best place to get one?

[Ethel]

A wifi internet radio is just the job.

http://www.acoustic-energy.co.uk/Product_range /WiFi_radio/WiFi.asp

[SteveD]

I live in Belgium and all we can get on an ordinary radio is BBC Radio 4 Long Wave (198) or the World Service on Medium Wave.

If you go to

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/

you can use the BBC Radio Player to listen to all BBC broadcasts plus repeats.

I have a small FM transmitter attached to the PC which can send the signal received by the PC to other radios in the house.

[Machecoul]

http://www.ogormans.co.uk/shortwav1.htm#Eaton% 20E1

There are others on this site.

We haven't found much difference between our �180 Sony (now broken ) and its �30 Sony replacement - for listening to Radio 5 during the day and Radio 4 on LW. (we stay just south of Nantes) Also been able to listen to World Service on SW. No FM unless near the coast - sitting waiting for ferry at St malo we can get FM stations from England on car radio.

[Ethel]

Or just listen to it on your pc.

[Machecoul]

In our case we are staying in our caravan and don't take laptop with us for obvious reasons.

Not always convenient to use a PC / laptop although SteveD's suggestion sounds good.

[SteveD]

This is the FM transmitter which I have (although I think that there is a later version available now which gets power from a USB port of the PC). This one uses three AA batteries and is fine as long as you remember to switch it off after use (it has a little red "on" light).

http://www.addonsworld.co.uk/product.php/22043 /0/

There is a cable with a jack plug. I got a two-way jack plug adaptor which fits into the audio out port at the back of the PC. Into this go the transmitter's jack plug and the one for the PC speakers.

The transmitter allows you to set one of four possible frequencies (I use 88.2). On your PC, you choose the radio station you want to listen to, switch on the transmitter and tune your (portable) radio or Hi-Fi elsewhere in the house to the same frequency.

As suggested in the product description, you can also use it to transmit the output of an MP3 player or CD player to a radio receiver (including in your car).

[Machecoul]

Fantastic - I knew you could do it in a car - didn't even think about doing it to an ordinary radio in the house. I'll get one of those.

Thanks for info.

[whowhatwhy]

I have had one of these Linex Transmitters for 2 years now and it has proved to be sketchy at best...and plain rubbish at worse! Best check that there are no other radio stations anywhere near the bands that the linex transmits on otherwise you will just get static and poor mono sound. If you do get a very clear band of at least 1-2 MGHz either side then you'll get a pretty good reception.