iTrip in France

[jacobj]

I know that iTrip is not allowed in France, but I am willing to take the risk when driving down the motorway that nobody'll notice.

So what I need to know is, has anyone done this. Although I go to France all the time I never listen to the radio, but I seem to remember that every bit of every frequency is taken up by a radio station and that they overlap every 5 metres... so has anyone used iTrip on the road in France and how did it perform?

 

[belair]

hy there

I drove around the east of france with my itrip and it worked just fine.
If you are planning of driving around Paris or Lion I guess you will have a real hard time finding an itrip station.
On the stretches outside the cities it will work fine. I used to drive to Paris a lot and I had trouble finding a decent FM station to listen to. (My pre-ipod days)
And remember even if its illegal in France you don't have to tell the cops what it is. That is if you get pulled. I think no french cop even knows what an ipodis. They are not very high tech here. They might think it is a radar detector tough. Just tell the its your PDA and show them the contact list in your pod. That schould do the job.

 

[mac_gal]

Sorry if this is OT, but why is the iTrip illegal in France?

 

[jacobj]

Sorry if this is OT, but why is the iTrip illegal in France?

All FM frequencies are controlled in Europe and licensed. If you want to use one you should have a license to do so...

They are very anal in Europe (not just France) and the fact that the iTrip only braodcasts 15 feet they won't allow it.

The argument about why Wi-Fi is different is priamrily that the Wi-Fi frequencies can carry multiple signals and therefore if I have a wireless network overlapping a neighbours then I just select mine, whereas with FM radio, if I use iTrip I could interfere with a commercial radio station..

big no no here.

 

[Godfather]

Well it's illegal in holland (also europe for our not knowing yanks ) and here it's illegal too, not only because you are transmitting on the commercial bands, but mainly due to the fact that those very same commercial stations paid millions to get on those frequencies, and you get on it for free. It's basically Radio piracy. And yes it sux because the itrip has only a few metres range, but the rule isn't based on range, it's based on band and frequency. (coz, it wouldnt be hard altering the itrip to beef it up and pump up the radius to like a couple of miles, of course only for the pro user with radio skills).