Car Radio tuning

[Steve G]

A friend recently bought a sony cd/radio on ebay. The radio is american and doesn't conform to the european tuning interval. It goes up in odd numbers, eg 95.1, 95.3 etc, so he obviously can't tune to stations like Capital FM - 95.8. Is there any way the radio can be modified for the UK? It'a a Sony CDX-F7000. I'd appreciate any help. Cheers. Steve G.

[AllYourBase]

A frequncy shifter can be used. This is a small device which is plugged in between the aerial and the aerial socket on the radio and 'shifts' the frequency by a prescribed degree. I had one in my Japanese Subaru as th factory radio used Japanese frequecies, which go from about 76-99 FM or something like that, but considerably different to that of the UK. The results were OK, though you have to think a bit when looking at the frequency dispaly, as that cannot be changed. RDS also won't work. What I would suggest is to try looking for an American car importer somewhere in the UK, as they will face this problem and probably install one of these devices into all their cars. If you can't find one of these, speak to a Jap car importer (there are milions everywhere these days - check the autotrader under Subaru or Mitsu or Toyota) who may be able to tell you where they get theirs from, then follow this up. I'd imagine Maplin electronics will have something - they always do! Once you have the device, pull out the stereo, pull out the aerial, plug the device into the aerial socket and plug the aerial into it. There may be some newsgroups relating to car modding that might help with a reprogram, but I'd think it would be tricky. Google the model number and trawl through the repsonses (may take some time)

[Kev_UK]

I have the same problem with the radio in my Chrysler Laser as it has the original radio. Sometimes a radio station transmits on 2 different frequencies so the other may be work. I rarely use a radio while driving but when I do I find another station that does end in .1 .3 .5 etc. Both of my Chevy camaro's have had uk in car entertainment fitted. SimonC has good advice about the freq shifter from maplins or somewhere. There are msn groups for american car owners. I would think a competant person (i.e radio amateur) could adjust the radio inside (usualy tweaking a pot or variable capacitor) to change the frequency. It may be possible to fit a small switch (poss exteral) to switch between the odd and even numbers.