bjorn@alberta.UUCP (01/09/87)
A friend of mine is about to buy a stereo system which he plans to take with him to Europe when he finishes his studies here. He is debating whether or not he should buy a frequency synthesizing (eg. Quartz Synthesizer) tuner. I seem to recall a discussion here a while back about the tuning increments used on European tuners of this ilk being different from those in North America. As far as I can tell the tuners here have the following characteristics: FM: increments: 0.2 Mhz start-off: 0.1 Mhz (eg. 90.1 Mhz -> 90.3 Mhz) AM: increments: 10 Khz start-off 10 Khz (eg. 630 -> 730) I presume the following: 2) The increments are tied to the conventions employed in assigning radio station frequencies. My questions then, are: 1) Are the increments and start-off points the same in Europe? 2) If answer to (1) is no: Will a tuner with the above mentioned tuning increments be able to tune in all FM stations in a given area in Europe. 3) Does it matter? Are there frequency synthesis tuners that will lock in stations more finely than their displays indicate?. Do most of them? As an example the frequency of the AM station at the Iceland Defense Force base in Keflavik, Iceland is 1485 Khz, so even the AM section of a made for North America tuner may not be able to receive it optimally, even if you'd have a hard time hearing the difference B-). Thanks, Bjorn R. Bjornsson alberta!bjorn