Car FM radio for overseas use?

Question

Living in the US, I want to purchase a car Radio/CD player unit to be installed in an car in Israel.

A few years ago, I bought a cheap MP3 player w/ FM tuner to use there (not a car unit, just one of those small personal players), but it came out that the FM station's center frequencies in offset to those in the US, so no station could be actually received.

So, before heading to the store to buy a unit, should I be concerned about the radio frequencies? Is there something to check before buying, to make sure I don't have a problem there?

Answer 1

Throughout the world, the FM broadcast band falls within the VHF part of the radio spectrum. Usually 87.5 to 108.0 MHz is used, or some portion thereof, with few exceptions: In the former Soviet republics, and some former Eastern Bloc countries, the older 65–74 MHz band is also used. Assigned frequencies are at intervals of 30 kHz. This band, sometimes referred to as the OIRT band, is slowly being phased out in many countries. In those countries the 87.5–108.0 MHz band is referred to as the CCIR band. So long as the radio unit can scan FM frequencies in the range of 87.5 to 108.0 MHz and can pick up centre frequencies in 50kHz multiples, it will work fine in Israel. You can tell this by checking if the frequency selector has 2 decimal places i.e. 87.50 to 108.00 and steps from 87.50 to 88.00 to 88.50 and so on. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_radio_stations_in_Israel for specific frequencies and check the radio can at least tune in on the relevant frequency despite the lack of a broadcast where you are.