I found a cool app that lets you tune in to any live radio stream worldwide.

So all these things do is gather the online streams of all the radio stations. They are not re-streaming the literal broadcast; that is not legal by the FCC even if it's the station doing it.
 
amptramp said:
Love it! Now I really am wondering about my large collection of radios and tuners...
Click to expand...

I've always been PC based for my music playback; so the only tuners I've had were in the car or portable. That being said, I jumped on the Software Defined Radio bandwagon a couple of years ago and now this little black box connected to antennas has literally replaced any and every kind of tuner I could possibly want. AM, FM, shortwave, weather...this thing literally tunes from 100khz to 1.2ghz continiously and all demodulation is handled by software. So...it's not pure analog; but the DSP that can be applied to the signal both before and after demodulation is outstanding. I mean having gentle noise reduction on an FM MPX difference signal creating a completely noise free stereo image is just...wow.

I mean..it's a complicated way to listen to the local FM or AM stations....but at least when I listen to the local AM classic hits station I can do so with a full 20khz channel width. :)
 
dewdude said:
I've always been PC based for my music playback; so the only tuners I've had were in the car or portable. That being said, I jumped on the Software Defined Radio bandwagon a couple of years ago and now this little black box connected to antennas has literally replaced any and every kind of tuner I could possibly want. AM, FM, shortwave, weather...this thing literally tunes from 100khz to 1.2ghz continiously and all demodulation is handled by software. So...it's not pure analog; but the DSP that can be applied to the signal both before and after demodulation is outstanding. I mean having gentle noise reduction on an FM MPX difference signal creating a completely noise free stereo image is just...wow.

I mean..it's a complicated way to listen to the local FM or AM stations....but at least when I listen to the local AM classic hits station I can do so with a full 20khz channel width. :)
Click to expand...
This Software Defined Radio intrigues me. A friend who is an rf engineer talked about designing one but I didn't know that they are already available. How can one find one with good rf performance for FM? A Google search turns up a lot of information but it's a bit overwhelming because of all the applications these radios can be used for.
 
So....SDR performance is a bit of a interesting thing.

The main thing that matters is the dynamic range of your ADC. Cheap cheap ones are maybe 8 bit. For under $200 you can get a device with 14 bits. For a few grand you get 16 bit.

The thing about FM is that you don't necessarily need Dynamic range. Carrier is a constant amplitude. Sure...more range gets you more signal above the noise.

That being said....I was always impressed with even the cheap dongles for FM. Picked up a lot of stuff with ease.

Its not user friendly though. If you're looking for simple...stick with a traditional tuner. If you want something that looks cool let...SDR is it.

I will say the actual quality of FM...though digital (though no pure analog FMs are out there) is QUITE fantastic. https://dewdude.ath.cx/fmmpx.flac
 
This should be a sticky. Otherwise I will just have to keep replying in order to keep it on the front page.
 
I tried the link but can't figure it out. Where is the search function? How would one use it to find a station playing music one likes?
 
Wow, this is a ton of fun! I just loaded it into my iPad and it worked perfectly. I think I’ll visit Tahiti next!
 
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