Hello all

Well, I am still waiting for the correct pricing info on the microtune modules. I spent a considerable time on the phone to a bloke in Germany yesterday, discussing the available options. The problems seems to be that the module used in the original empeg tuner system is sold mostly (99.999 recurring %) to a very large OEM in the US, and as such is subject to constant design changes and modifications, without notice.

They're happy to sell them to me, but the situation is such that they couldn't guarantee that the modules I received would be identical, either physically or electrically, from order to order. Obviously, not a particularly good solution.

However, they also now do a standard range of modules, with a slightly different set of characteristics, which DON'T change willy-nilly. There are several alternative modules in the range, all of which are pin and software compatible, but differ in price and intended application. We narrowed it down on the phone to 3 different units, and I am waiting for the data sheets and prices so I can pick which one is best.

The three modules are:

The ETSI version for europe, which is optimised for FM performance and low cost, at the expense of AM reception (not used all that much around here) being slightly inferior to:

The North American, which has performance-optimised AM and the US-style FM tuning spacing, but at a somewhat higher price, which is in turn eclipsed by:

The world standard module, which has excellent AM and FM, works in Japan etc as well, and has weatherband on around 165ish MHz. This is the most expensive of the modules, but the most versatile.

The problem with selecting the right module is one of stock control, more than anything. For cost reasons it would seem best to do the ETSI version with european kits and the US version with NA kits. However, this would require different kits to be produced in relatively smaller quantities, two sets of tuners to order, etc.

If the costs aren't too prohibitive, my personal feelings are that the technically best solution would be to use the world module, thus ensuring that not only would the tuner work everywhere, but only one type of module would need to be ordered. The downside to this is that it might raise the final cost of the kit slightly, although you would get weatherband thrown in.

Anyway, until I get the prices and datasheets I can't make a more informed decision, but I thought you might be interested in the progress I'm slowly making towards making all your lives that much more fulfilled

Patrick