I bought one of these this week for £1.98 off eBay.

Its an fm transmitter to allow one to play mp3s in your car via your radio. I was having a bit of fun with it last night. Plugging it into my computer I started broadcasting streamed music from the internet (Soma FM if you want to know, its an old favourite of mine. Go check it out). I then tuned the radio on my phone into my broadcast and basically started walking. I made it to the other side of the flat without any interference, I even made it down two flights of stairs to my front door with perfect reception. Pushing my luck I then preceeded down the street and was mightly impressed that I could still pick it up 100 metres away.

This gives me a greater area than I imagined and with the option of extending the aerial to further increase the range, it just keeps getting better. It also got me thinking, this is ample sufficiency to cover the majority of plot holders down the allotment. As this device works off two AAA batteries and a small MP3 player just the one, thats a total of 4.5v needed to be generated. 10 of these should do it. This would then allow me to broadcast music etc from my shed without the need to replace batteries to the other plot holders - how cool does that sound? Everyone sitting in their sheds listening to the sounds of Allotment Radio.

Unfortunately, under the Wireless Telegraphy Act of 1949 it would be illegal to do such a thing without the necessary licence but I see here that the BBC reported recently that it might not be the case for very long so don’t go touching that dial.