Jed asked about the Belkin TuneCast FM transmitter in a comment to my last post. That reminded me that I'd been meaning to post some kind of review of it. So, without further ado:

It's a cute looking little gizmo: oval shaped white plastic, a couple of inches long. It has a compartment in the back that takes two AAA batteries, a station selector switch along one side, and a big round on/off button on the front face. There is a also a little length of cord for plugging into your iPod. The cord clips into a holder on the side of the device to keep it out of the way when you're not using it.

Using the thing is pretty simple. Plug the TuneCast into your iPod. Select one of the four FM frequencies (88.1, 88.3, 88.5, or 88.7) with the station selector switch. Then tune your radio to the same frequency. Push the on button on your TuneCast, and then start your iPod playing, and turn up the volume until you get good clear signal.

Belkin's documentation (yes, I read the manual. For a device that has one switch and one button. Laugh all you like.) suggests turning up the volume mid-way. Personally, I find I don't get signal until I turn the volume up nearly to maxmimum. (I was using max volume for a while, but that tends to produce slight clipping on loud rock tunes.)

The biggest problem with the Belkin is that measly selection of 4 frequencies. Any talk radio addicts reading this will know that 88.5 is NPR in the Bay Area. Their signal is strong enough that it spills over to a significant degree into the 88.7 band, and to a somewhat lesser degree into the 88.3 band. 88.3 in Berkeley has a local jazz station on it - it's a weak signal, that pretty much vanishes outside Berkeley limits. 88.1 features a Christian station which is difficult to pick up in Berkeley, but whose signal seems to grow steadily stronger as I drive south.

So, in short: 88.5 and 88.7 are completely useless. 88.1 works pretty well in Berkeley and North Oakland, but during my last trip out to the airport, I had to contend with odd bits of Paul's Letter to the Ephesians busting into my Missy Elliot mix. 88.3 is usually my best bet - once I get outside Berkeley city limits, I can drive clear to San Jose with good reception. (I can even get good reception inside Berkeley city limits, but only if I'm touching the iPod.)

Reception is a bit finicky. Sometimes changing the relative orientation of the iPod and TuneCast seems to help. On some days, NPR seems to broadcast more strongly than others (atmospheric conditions, maybe?), and I just give up on trying to get clean signal. I've debated the merits of getting some kind of cord extender, and tossing the TuneCast in the back seat, where it would be closer to the car's antenna. I'll be sure to report back if I try it.

So, the TuneCast is usable, but for purposes of playing music in my car reliably, I might have been better off with one of those adapters that goes in the car's cassette deck.

The other purpose for which I got the TuneCast was to give me a simple way to play the iPod through my home stereo system without having to mess with cables and so forth. That works pretty well, although I have to put the TuneCast right next to the receiver unit, because I never did actually put an FM antenna on my receiver. In actual fact, though, I don't find myself spending a lot of time playing the iPod through my home stereo system.

The other model of FM transmitter made for the iPod is Griffin's iTrip. (Who comes up with these names?) These are currently available for the old style iPod, and shortly to become available for the new style iPod. Unlike the TuneCast, the iTrip can be set to any FM frequency, which might give improved performance over the TuneCast. The iTrip also powers itself from the iPod rather than using batteries, and turns itself off automatically. But nothing I've read about the iTrip (or the TuneCast) seems to give any hard info about its signal strength/range. I'd probably want to find a way to test-drive one before I bought it.