International FM Receiving

Thread Starter

lauramye

Joined Dec 16, 2008
2
Can anyone answer my question or point me in the right direction? We are manufacturing a product that will RECEIVE FM signals. Internationally, different countries have different laws regarding transmitting on the FM band, are there any restrictions on RECEIVING FM?

We are looking to make our FM receiver open to Japan, US, UK etc...which would mean we would have to open the FM band (Currently we only receive US and JAPAN).

I cannot find information on restrictions RECEIVING FM signal. We would not be transmitting - only receiving. Ideally we would like to have one receiver that would work in the UK, Japan, US etc....

HELP.
 

beenthere

Joined Apr 20, 2004
15,819
There are restrictions, but they're political. Don't expect to sell many in Cuba, North Korea, Burma (Myanmar), and possibly some Islamic states.
 

ScareCrow

Joined Dec 11, 2008
5
Most all of the design restrictions deal with electrical interference for receivers. In other words as long as it doesn't cause harmful interference on other systems and will not cause any harm to people or property if interfered with (meaning it won't burst into flames) then pretty much anything goes. The United States FCC website is the best place to start researching. Most other nations follow their lead.


"image frequency rejection of 38 dB" is the only restriction I know of and I believe this deals only with scanners that could possibly pick up or interfere with cell phone signals. There is a privacy issue with cell phones.

Let us see some pictures of the receivers.


-
 
Last edited:

Thread Starter

lauramye

Joined Dec 16, 2008
2
Our Receiver is either 800 or 900MHZ and we built in an FM receiver, this is used primarily in health clubs, fitness facilities so members can plug into our 800/900MHz receiver and listen to televisions hung on the wall. However we want the option to have FM radio and we have an FM receiver built in. We use this product in the US, Canada and Japan (we have US and Japan FM frequencies programed in).

We want to open up the FM band to FM: 87.6-108MHz so our customers in the UK, EU, Saudi Arabia etc... can tune into radio. Different countries use different parts of the FM band, just having a difficult time finding out if it's Illegal to keep the RECEIVER band open.

I'll check the FCC website - thanks for all the responses.
 

italo

Joined Nov 20, 2005
205
Whisfull dreams. The FM band is 800mhz carrier how do you expect to recieve anything from other country like japan without having repeaters or satelites acess. So to use those repeaters there must be some consent from the installers of repeaters. I don't know but I would sugest that you investigate that problem.
 

DickCappels

Joined Aug 21, 2008
10,152
lauramye,

What you are looking for is the kind of information that few, if anybody is the world really has at his fingertips. You will either have to find and hire one of the few (if any) who know this, or more likely, have your marketing organizations in each country research the issues for you. Or do it yourself. You are not going to find definitive answers in a message board such as this.

Having worked on many "world-wide" products, I might advise to keep to a few major markets. Thank goodness for the EU and harmonization among most large countries, or you would be looking at an even more complicated mess.

BTW:
Preemphasis will be an issue,but it could be taken care of with a simple set-up switch, the same with channel spacing.
 

Audioguru

Joined Dec 20, 2007
11,248
Canadian and American FM broadcasting was first and unfortunately the pre-emphasis was selected to be too strong. Europe began broadcasting FM later and used a reduced amount of pre-emphasis. I don't know about Asian, African, Arab and South American countries.
 

flat5

Joined Nov 13, 2008
403
Thanks guys. I vaguely remembered there was a difference.
I think the US is 75us and Europe ie 25us or 50us...maybe.
 

Audioguru

Joined Dec 20, 2007
11,248
Yes.
An American FM radio in Europe will sound muffled with reduced high frequencies.
A European fM radio in America will sound harsh with boosted high frequencies.
 
Top