We record a lot of radio broadcasts here, for later playback on portable mp3 players. We normally have been getting them from internet streams of the radio stations, and more often than not from the CBC RadioOne online stream.

The problem with this is that our DSL line(s) sometimes lose sync mid-recording, and the programme episode is then ruined.

So this week I did something about it. I got a AR1010 FM Receiver Breakout Board from Sparkfun.com, along with another of the ubiquitous FT232RL Breakout Boards that I've used before for various projects. Put the two together with zero glue, and voila.. a very sensitive FM Radio for connection to a PC soundcard "line-in" jack.

We can now get the CBC recordings easily from the real radio broadcasts, no longer relying on our sometimes intermittent DSL connections.

That same AR1010 chip/board could also fit easily inside an empeg. And interfacing to it would be similarly simple -- it can use the existing internal I2C bus for control, and the audio paths can connect to the usual FM radio inputs, or to the AUX-IN port.

Getting RDS working would be trickier, as the AR1010 lacks that functionality, but its sister chip, the AR1000, does do RDS. And it might not be that hard to tie into the player through Hijack.

Nice. Integrate a USB hub and USB audio line in adapter and you could have multiple receivers all going at the same time.

I got a Chumby One for Christmas and have been messing around with the FM radio inside. It supports RDS and I'm trying to decode the traffic update data that gets sent on one of the stations (Classic FM). The only problem is that the reception seems to be awful with the little wire antenna.

The hub/soundgizmo is a good idea for getting the sound back over USB, thanks!

Otherwise I did consider adding an ADC chip (or a couple of resistor ladders) and then using an FTDI FT245RL instead of the FT232RL interface.

Mmm.. that might be fun to try regardless.. perhaps I'll get a FT245RL to play with next..

Cheers

How about this or this?

My radio SHARK is collecting dust. Would be cool if the empeg supported it. Reception is fairly good and can be improved by connecting a longer cord off the headphone jack.

I've tried one of those (a clone of the first one), and the sound quality was absolute rubbish. Dunno about the other one.

The one I made is much, much better, because it doesn't try to do the sampling inside a cramped and noisy USB dongle, and then pack it over a USB cable.

Instead, it does the sampling at 48KHz (overkill) inside our noisy MiniITX server enclosure!

As it should be -- no mention of Linux support anywhere there.

Cheers

Griffin don't support it but there is a Linux tool that lets you use it. The interface looks very simple and just involves sending some very simple USB packets to it as its a HID device.