I’ve been seeing rather a lot of this sort of thing on eBay recently, their coined as a “home monitoring transmitter” but we all know the truth don’t we - they’re really for 007 wannabes. I decided to buy one of these but one at the bottom end of the pricing scale and for a few quid didn’t think I would get much for my money.

It arrived today and after finding an old 9v battery to hook up to it found that it worked really clearly round the flat, after all it is a “home monitoring transmitter”. However it took me ages to retune the thing to an FM wave length at the end of the range so that I wouldn’t cause people listening to radios in my block any grief but after I did so I decided to modify the aerial in a bid to increase range.

So out I go again, radio in hand on one of my all too familiar range checks and quickly passed the marker I left when I was testing the solar transmitter last week. I kept going into the park where I had originally planned to broadcast to and I could quite happily hear the music being played in my living room. Onward and I nearly made it into the centre of town before the signal went hazy and eventually disappeared.

This was only a quick bodge job but I’m certain I can get further. Unfortunately, although the law was relaxed regarding low powered transmitters like the iTrip for use in cars I think I’m over stepping the mark slightly and may have to do some reading up before going any further. Fun to do though.