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For some daft reason, Mercedes stereos have a cassette tape-based head unit. Sure, I bought the cd changer option, but it's in the glovebox, out of arm's reach, and anyway, the changer caddy is rather a pain to work with. As it stands, it's impossible to play CDs upon demand, especially while driving. I've heard they've rectified this for the 2005 model year, approximately 15 years later than one would have expected.

Anyway, I thought,"Hey, iPod, they have those FM transmitters that probably work ok, since they've had over twenty years to perfect the technology since Mr. Microphone gave kids everywhere a way to put staticky ghost voices on an FM radio in the same room."

I already had iTrip on the brain from all the antenna hacks that have been floating around gizmodo and engadget (you only need to read one, since they kindly mirror each others' entries.) for the past couple weeks. Amazon had them, and "one-day shipping" would allow me to forgo another weekend listening to the radio or the same six CDs (I love Bjork, but at this point, I could strangle her the next time she says,"Jetto".) which are actually three CDs, since Kat staked out the other half of the cartridge, and picked music completely incompatible with my tastes.

That said, when I got home Friday morning, (oh yeah, my flight got cancelled Thursday night, I stayed in a crappy airport hotel, and didn't get home until 10:40am, 12 hours later than intended) I had the iTrip waiting for me. I opened it up, read the instructions, and installed the bogus 'iTrip Stations playlist and files' onto the Mac. (I'm looking forward to getting a run of these on random play.) This seemed to take a long time, but then I synched the iPod, and went out to the kitchen, where I had a clock radio.

'Twas the suck. I could barely get even a scratchy signal, even with the radio antenna coiled around the iTrip. I had read that an analog tuner would be difficult to work with, so I went into the living room and turned on the receiver, a dusty old NAD thing from the mid-90s. I was able to find a 1"x1" area on the top of the receiver where, if I set the iPod on its edge, such that the iTrip antenna was flush against the metal skin of the receiver, I could get a staticky signal. The "FM Tone" switch or whatever filtered out the static on the low end, and I had a nice, flat, tone from the iPod.

Suck.

I figured it was futile to try the car, but we had to run errands, and I couldn't stand listening to The Cardigans again, so I brought the iPod. I turned on the car, tuned the receiver to 87.9, and started the iPod.

Holy Jeebus, it worked!

I have no idea why it worked so well in the car, but it worked to a fantastic degree. I couldn't believe how decent it sounded. I'm guessing there must be some massive antenna situated somewhere in the car for those trips across the Sahara listening to Radio Free Johannesburg on the other end of the continent. (That's to show I know that not all of Africa is "The Sahara".)

Now, I just wish I had bought a low-end BMW instead.

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