i've tried the itrip - it does what it's supposed to, but i've given up using it cos it drains the battery pretty fast. it's also a bit finicky to change the frequency that the itrip broadcasts on, which can be annoying if you're driving a long distance cos you get interference from radio stations. also, you have to store the different frequency settings as a playlist on the ipod so, when you 'shuffle songs', every now and then you get this horrible high-pitched beeping for a few seconds. overall i found it just wasn't worth using. there are other radio broadcasting yokes you can get that are self-contained, in that they have their own battery and you store the frequencies on the thing itself, not the ipod. so no beeping, no battery problems, plus it's much easier to change to a new frequency. apparently all these mini radio things are illegal in ireland tho, at least that's what i've heard... these days i just use a cassette adaptor, but if you've got a cd-player in your car, obviously that won't work. anyway, hope that's useful!

i got my itrip in the states alright. the self-contained ones were around the same price, 30-40 shmucks, if i remember right. i actually got one of them for a buddy of mine while i was there - i'll ask him what it's like, cos i imagine they're perfect for what you need...

Is the Band Width the same in the US as it is here (88 - 106)? A friend had a japanese import car, & the radio with it was for Japans bandwidth which was different, (something like 95 - 112), meaning that stations had to be tuned in in different frequencys i.e. TodayFM wasnt at 100-102, but at 107-109 etc. Was confusing to everyone, but her !

Certain makes of car have optional iPod adaptors, so if you're a yuppie and happen to drive a newish Beemer or Smart Car pop down to your dealer and ask about getting one fitted. Another option that I've only found out about recently is that it seems that certain car stereos have auxillary inputs. Somthing I will be looking at since I swapped my modern boringmobile for a much older car (I call it a classic, everyone else calls it a junkheap ) that only has a non-functioning tape deck at the moment. basically if you have an auxillary input then you can in theory connect up anything with a "line out" output like an iPod, iRiver, iWhatever, etc. All you need is a special cable (and a head unit with an aux input obviously). Your stereo may have an aux input without you realising it, ask your local motor factor about it. The iTrip seems like a neat little idea, but I see it as a workaround rather than a proper solution because you are losing a lot of sound quality by broadcasting over FM. I don't think these things are illegal, or if they are, no one seems to be too bothered as stuff like FM wireless microphones and wireless transmitters for guitars are sold quite openly. Then of course theres those little kids walkie talkies that you can buy in Argos, which are definitely legal. I think the legality of the situation is based on two things if I remember rightly (I looked into this a long time ago for getting CB radios for a company I used to work for), The Frequency you are broadcating on and the power or effective range. Certain frequencies are OK without a license, others need a license and some are a complete no-no (e.g Police band).

well, turns out that friend of mine wasn't too impressed with the sound quality of the alternative radio yoke either... you could always take the bus...!

I have the Belkin icast for my car. Its a great little yoke - you can pop two AAA batteries into it or power it up using the chager for the car. Unlike the i trip you can tune it in manually so you get a really good signal without much interference. It cost 30 dollars in the states and you can pick them up handly enough on the web. I wouldn't be without it anyway.

JMC105, Me take the bus? *breaks out into cold sweat at the thought* Now thats just crazy talk! http://vancouver.indymedia.org/uploads/creeps.jpg Leather Girl, I'm sure the Belkin device is better than the iTrip, however you still lose sound quality going from digital to FM, defeats the point of a digital player in a way. A lot of cars have an auxillary input thats usually used to connect the CD changer and I'm pretty sure a simple cable is much cheaper too.

thanks everyone for the bits of advice. will investigate the belkin hook-up, leather girl - had not heard of that one before nice one people

hey pilchard - just came across this description of how to hook an ipod up to a car stereo system, might be worth a look... http://www.audiworld.com/tech/elec84.shtml

Excellent link there JMC, basically shows you how to go about using the CD changer input like I said, but it may be slightly different depending on your car and the stereo currently installed. The good news is that it will probably work for almost all VAG cars (Volkswagen, Audi, Seat and Skoda). Only thing that worries me is looking at the 9th picture down I hope he hasn't inadvertently disconnected his Audi S4s electronic stability control, things could get interesting on the next wet roundabout!

Anyone tried one of these adapters? I like the idea as it doesn't require pulling your dashboard appart... http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=3151&productId=119446&Trail=C%24cip%3D21920.Car%2Baudio%3EC%24cip%3D21921.Car%2Baudio%2Bkits&categoryId=21921&clickfrom=name

cheers jmc for that link, there was an element of pimp my ipod to it though!! got a loan of an itrip for a trial run and really really liked it. worked best down the country where there was very little interference. i'm not that much of a sound snob so i was just happy to have the tunes belting out. i used to use one of those tape cassette things when the old car had a tape slot and again, it was excellent. sound snobs or purists may have problems with it but again i just wanted to hear the tunes. i tend to find that sound snobs are always the ones with the dire straits and sting CDs.......