I thought it might be useful to provide some more information about VHF weather broadcasts. I travel often between the USA and New Zealand and use my two MK2a players in both. I would definitely favor the use of the worldwide chip in the tuner since it would allow me to use the tuner module with my empeg in North America, New Zealand and Australia. Yes, the AM capability and weather reception would be very nice additions.

VHF Marine radio frequencies are used for ship to shore and shore to ship communications around the world. They are also used for continuous weather information broadcasts in the USA, Canada and New Zealand. In the USA VHF transmitters have been installed to provide weather information and severe weather alert warnings to much of the country. Marine VHF frequencies are used in many countries for periodic broadcasts of marine weather information and warnings in coastal areas.

Marine VHF frequencies are usually referred to by a channel designation. Unfortunately these channel designations for a particular frequency are not completely consistent between the USA and the rest of the world. This has resulted in most marine radios having a selector switch between US and International (INT) channels. In the chart below I have shown the channel designation (CH), whether a USA or International (INT) designation (USE), country where continuous weather information is available (Location) and the frequency assigned to the particular channel designation (Frequency (MHz)).

CH______USE__ Location________ Frequency (MHz)

Ch 20___ INT__ NZ_________________161.600
Ch 23___ INT__ NZ_________________161.750
WX1____USA_ USA/Canada_________162.550
WX2____USA_USA/Canada__________162.400
WX3____USA_USA/Canada__________162.475
WX4____USA_USA_________________162.425
WX5____USA_USA_________________162.450
WX6____USA_USA_________________162.500
WX7____USA_ USA________________162.525
WX8____USA_Canada/NZ(VHF ch 21)_161.650
WX9____USA_Canada______________161.775
WX0____USA _???________________163.275

Because of overlapping geographic coverage by VHF transmitter sites many channels are required to provide complete coverage without interference. To be completely useful a weather receiver needs to be capable of being manually switched to a particular channel or it can scan the channels stopping on the first one providing an acceptable signal. Some scanners select the strongest signal available but provision must be made for manual selection or step scanning to tune a particular channel in an area with more than one channel available. Sometimes two channels are available in a particular location but they provide different weather information depending on their intended geographic area coverage.

Michael

PS -- I would like two of the tuner kits. Thanks for your extraordinary efforts.

PSS--How do you make a table on the BBS?

PSS--How do you make a table on the BBS?

HTML is not allowed, so you can't use the <table> tag.

However, if you simply need columns of aligned numbers, you can use the UBB "Code" tag to create a <pre> section and then space everything out with ascii monospacing. This is covered in the BBS FAQ (link near the top of this page).

Thanks Tony. I will give that a try next time. I did look at the BBS FAQ. I am not a programmer and the opportunity to surround the text with pre tags did not mean anything to me.

If you outlaw scanners, only outlaws will have scanners.

sorry, couldn't resist.

*cough*

In reply to:

---

For the record, using a police scanner in the car is about as illegal as putting your trash out on the wrong day of the week.

---

In which country/region? It depends (a lot) on where you are. I'm pretty sure that intercepting (or interfering with) police communications is a prosecutable offence here in the UK. Whether the CPS will actually go for a prosecution is a separate matter, of course.

Nope, don't think so.

Here in Norway it was not allowed to own a few years back.
Now after some EU regulations, (some of them apply to Norway, even we are not
a member) we can own but don't use.

Again, who said anyone is going to use it...

TommyE

In the US, it may vary from state to state.

What plans are there for the Sony stalk input and tuner ID select on current modules? Would those two features be in the new one for sure, or probably not?

(Just asking, haven't seen it asked yet by anyone else, I have no real use for the stalk support)

In the UK it's covered by the Wireless and Telegraphy Act 1949 which basically says you are not allowed to listen to transmissions to which you were not the intended recipient. In practice people use scanners for listening to airband, fire, police, ambulance, taxis etc. with little problem *but* if you are silly, following the police etc.) you would be in big trouble. The main method of establishing guilt is if the freq. is programmed into the scanner, otherwise you are ok. Some police forces use encrypted radios now, Bournemouth is definately one of them but it is a pretty expensive thing to do and it will be a few years before they are all converted.

Gareth

<quote>I'm pretty sure that intercepting (or interfering with) police communications is a prosecutable offence here in the UK</quote>

My friend's old amp picks up the police radio just dandy, with no FM tuner present. I guess its something in the pre amp stage or wot not?!?

*bump* to keep it up front.

And a question to legitimize my bump.
Any idea yet how large physically the tuner will be?
Will be installing my Empeg soon and would like to prepare for the tuner.

Probably at least a little bigger than the official one, due to the through-hole components. Of course, there's enough space behind my dash for a large sandwich, so I'm not concerned.

Alex

Of course, there's enough space behind my dash for a large sandwich, so I'm not concerned.

Hope it wasn't pastrami with mayo. A couple of days in the sun and you'll never get the smell out of your car.

The stalk input and the ID select will be present, although the ID may be reduced to allow only four codes rather than 16 to free up a couple of digital IO lines for other purposes.

Patrick

I would just point out that in the US, tunable VHF receive capability would be _very_ handy. If your going to do the WX band (which I'm willing to pay more for) - it would be awesome if you could make the VHF band tunable within the range available by the module.

I operate in both HAM radio and Commercial VHF band near the marine band. I would love the option to tune in a specific VHF FM frequency. I would pay $$$ for this feature.

Plus sign me up for two tuner modules - thanks Patrick!

=-Clarke

Hi.

Well, I have started receiving the information I need on the tuner modules. I've got the datasheets and a preliminary price quote, and am waiting for leadtime info and a couple of samples.

The price is higher than I expected, but lower than I feared. The irritating part is that there is an MOQ (minimum order quantity) of 72 units, which is rather a larger investment than I really wanted in one go. So if this goes ahead I'm counting on you guys to not let me down and suddenly decide that no one wants a tuner.

The good news (and a bit of a puzzle) is that the quoted price for the weatherband module is slightly cheaper than the universal module, even though it tunes more frequencies! I'm querying this, and I need to check with Hugo that this will cause no problems. However, assuming everything checks out, it looks like the extended frequencies will be standard.

Now all we need is some way of using them...

pca

Many persons proposed to make a pre-payment for the tuner modules.

I think you can have almost the 72 pre-order ....
Count me in.


I wanted to know, about the stalk, you said 4 commands and not 16 the rest for something else, what's this something else ?

I wanted to know, about the stalk, you said 4 commands and not 16 the rest for something else, what's this something else ?

This wasn't about the stalk, but about the tuner ID switch. In the current design it uses 4 bits of digital IO, giving 16 possible IDs. I want some of those digital IO lines for more useful things, so I'm going to change it to a pair of two position links, giving 4 possible IDs.

The stalk system will be unchanged.

pca

You answered more clearly to my question than I asked.

Thanks, Patrcik.

I'll pay you now for two tuners, just let me know.

TommyE

i will pay now for 1 tuner - to include uk shipping. Please let me know

What was the approx price on the component..Range?

Also, what uses do ya think you could use something like this for in the Empeg...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1347730303

The only use for that is to play your empeg through a stock stereo that doesnt have aux-ins. Other than that it is pretty useless.

Many persons proposed to make a pre-payment for the tuner modules.
and you can count me among them for one tuner pre-payment of ~$150
I'll be installing my Empeg in the next few weeks and I know I am going to miss NPR and some other stations, but I'll be delighted to get rid of the excessive advertising, chit-chat and gain control over the music I hear.

If you decide to accept pre-payments, and the price is not raising too much, I would happily contribute with the amount of two (possibly three) kit-units.

My empeg shows a smile already... :-)

Alberto

I am happy to prepay for a tuner kit if it is not more than $150

Will need it shipping to UK though - hope this is not a problem.

Geoff

Will need it shipping to UK though - hope this is not a problem.

That Somerset to UK shipping could be a big problem!

Rob

Yup, those postal clerks would probably send it off to UKraine...

/Michael

I too am willing to prepay for two kits. The weatherband option sounds interesting, but I would be happy with just FM. If you are still looking for extra input ideas -- how about an input for an external dimmer signal? My factory (Toyota) headunit's display would adjust when the dash lights were adjusted. It would be nice to restore that feature. Just a thought ... thanks for taking on this project. I will dust off my soldering iron in anticipation.

P.S. If you decide to create a full blown police scanner model I would be willing to pay even more (say $250), and still prepay two tuner plus shipping.

Scanner laws, state by state in the US:

http://www.afn.org/~afn09444/scanlaws/

_owen