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U.S Radio's Sound funny in Europe....(WHY)

M

Mid West Clubber

Guest
Ive heard from a few people that a U.S Analog radio will work in Europe, but that the stereo seperation standards are different, leading to unusual sound quality...... After the reading about the different TV methods, I thought I would bring this up, see if anyone has any first hand experience.
 
I've never had any unusual sound problems with FM radio in Europe on any on my receivers...it's always sounded normal to me. I believe there is a different in FM standard deviation between Europe and the US but through my listening, any difference isn't noticeable.
 
A US radio receiver (I guess that's what you mean) will work in Europe. The only problem is that in Europe the pre-emphasis is 50uS and the US uses 75uS. Also the entire FM band is used in Europe, so no 200KHz spacing like in the US where only odd frequencies are used (95.1, 95.3, 95.5, 95.7, 95.9 etc). A typical digital car receiver (I once had a Ford based carradio where this was the matter) can not pick up all FM frequencies like 96.0, 96.2, 96.4, 96.6, 96.8 etc because it will skip these or will not be able to receive them at all.
 
I know Europe uses all the frequencys,,, I once had an old JVC receiver in the car that would tune to odd numbers too, I guess it was a universal model.
 
Most US car radios go in odd number frequencies only, but most walkmans, transistor radios and even home stereos (not boom boxes) cover both odd and even frequencies and some even have an option for 50 kHz spacing (in some European countries, there may be stations on frequencies like 100.05, 106.75, etc.).

Additionally, the European FM band starts at 87.5 and ends at 108.0. Most walkmans, transistor radios and home stereo systems also seem to cover that range, while car radios and boom boxes seem to start at either 87.7 or 87.9 and end at 107.9.

Additionally, there's differences in the AM dial as well. The European AM (or more commonly here, MW) dial goes from 522 to 1611 kHz, in 9 kHz increments instead of 10 kHz in North America.

Finally, in some Eastern European countries, the old OIRT band is still in use, though now parallel to the 87.5-108.0 FM band. That band goes from 65.8 to 74 MHz. Obviously, most US radios would not cover that range, though I am sure that one probably exists. I once had a Sony Walkman, purchased here in the US, that covered both the conventional FM band and the Japanese 77-90 MHz FM band.
 
I didn't have any trouble with my DX-398 (ATS-909) when I was in Spain and Morocco.

Some notes to keep in mind regarding differences between U.S. and European FM radio:

* European countries use at least 0.1 MHz spacing, rather than 0.2 MHz. As far as I know, some (Italy?) even use 0.05 MHz!

* Callsigns do not exist. Many, if not most stations are simply relayers of a centrally-programmed network and nothing more.

* This is not a universal rule, but station powers tend to be lower than in the U.S. In Spain, most stations ran less than 10 kW, with 1 kW being common (and much less often used for "community" stations). As a result, the stations you receive in one area may be very different than those just 20 miles down the road.

* In some European countries, such as the U.K. and Scandinavia, the FM band is sparsely populated, consisting largely of public broadcasters (NRK, SR, DR, BBC, etc.) and some commercial stations, which may have national networks. Boring? Yeah. On the other hand, Spain (and Italy is the same way, Greece, too, I think) has an abundance of FM stations, ranging from national broadcasters (RNE) to several national commercial networks to regional stations to little local / community stations. For example, if you do a search for all stations within 40 km / 25 mi of Madrid, you'll find 150! When I was there, I remember hearing stations just 0.2 MHz apart. It helps to move your antenna around, too, since their relatively low-powered transmitters may be located in different parts of town or suburbs. You can "DX" local stations there.
 
neo11 said:
Most US car radios go in odd number frequencies only, but most walkmans, transistor radios and even home stereos (not boom boxes) cover both odd and even frequencies and some even have an option for 50 kHz spacing (in some European countries, there may be stations on frequencies like 100.05, 106.75, etc.).

Additionally, the European FM band starts at 87.5 and ends at 108.0. Most walkmans, transistor radios and home stereo systems also seem to cover that range, while car radios and boom boxes seem to start at either 87.7 or 87.9 and end at 107.9.

Additionally, there's differences in the AM dial as well. The European AM (or more commonly here, MW) dial goes from 522 to 1611 kHz, in 9 kHz increments instead of 10 kHz in North America.
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I've heard that many factory US car radios can be switched to world tuning specs by clipping a diode or changing a DIP switch.

Consider that the US territories of Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariannas all use 9 khz AM spacing, though FM spacing is still .2 Mhz-odds.
 
kc0ltv said:
* European countries use at least 0.1 MHz spacing, rather than 0.2 MHz. As far as I know, some (Italy?) even use 0.05 MHz!
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Yes, it's 0.05MHz in Italy, even 0.025MHz occasionally, although it's gradually being phased out by broadcasters (even where it reduces interference), largely because you don't want to be on a frequency that a large number of imported receivers can't tune to. It also doesn't work properly with RDS frequency switching on networks.

On the other hand, Spain (and Italy is the same way, Greece, too, I think) has an abundance of FM stations, ranging from national broadcasters (RNE) to several national commercial networks to regional stations to little local / community stations.
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It's true that it varies a lot from country to country. Italy, Greece and Turkey have no real licencing systems, with the result being total chaos (especially in Turkey). There are licencing systems in Spain and the French-speaking part of Belgium, but for various reasons they are usually ignored by the broadcasters.
 
Chad-Stevens said:
Consider that the US territories of Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariannas all use 9 khz AM spacing, though FM spacing is still .2 Mhz-odds.
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though at least two stations out there have, in the past year, filed to move to channels that fit the mainland 10kHz plan.

(every 10th channel fits *both* spacings - 540, 630, 720, 810, 900, 990, 1080, etc...)

(then again, someone else filed for 1017KHz on Guam earlier this week...)
 
Some time ago (mid-70s), the Canadian Forces Radio affiliate in Baden-Sollingen (Germany) used the 101.125 MHz frequency.

I always found it to be a little odd .. a frequency with 3 decimal places, when all the radios back only had analog tuners. Announcers were required to say the frequency with the odd 3 decimal places.

Around the time that digital FM receivers were commonplace, they changed to a "normal". 96 or so MHz, if memory serves me correctly.
 
Definitely unusual, though not completely unheard of, even to this day. I believe there's still some Italian FM stations that broadcast on such frequencies with three decimal places, and even more commonly, in Italy and some other countries, stations with two decimal places (e.g. 101.55). Many digital tuners sold in Europe tune to 2-3 decimal places, and I once even had a Sony Walkman, purchased in the states, that had three tuning options...changing from odd FM frequencies only for North America, to odd/even, and to odd/even in .05 MHz intervals. The AM would also change from 10 to 9 kHz intervals as well.
 
Several of the Walkman radios I have purchased within this decade can be set to tune FM like this as well (200/100/50 kHz.) Even a Walkman CD player I bought about a year ago can do it! (Incidentally it can help to set it to 50 kHz here in the States....a couple of the Portland FMs I listen to get a little drifty sometimes.....)

Someone mentioned the OIRT band. It is, in fact, possible to purchase an "OIRT-capable" receiver here in the USA and (possibly) Canada, in the form of a VHF TV compatible radio. One only has to switch it to the low VHF section to tune stations in this band.

That was how I did it some years ago while on vacation in Russia!

(Sorry to dredge up this old thread. Needed to point this all out...)
 
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