When it comes to technology, I'm a bit of a late adopter. But once I adopt, I jump in with both feet. I just acquired an iPod last summer, a used one at that. Now that I have it, I want to get the most and best possible use out of it, including in the car.
While auxiliary inputs for devices such as iPods are a common feature of today's OEM and aftermarket car radios, my car and its OEM radio were manufactured several years before iPods even existed. In fact, it has a cassette player. My first thought was to dig out a cassette adapter I used to use with a portable CD player, but the noise from the cassette mechanism was almost loud enough to drown out the abysmal sound quality.
Fortunately, there is a better way. I have now installed a wired FM modulator that feeds the iPod audio directly from the headphone jack to the FM antenna. The sound quality is great and the installation was a snap, as long as you're comfortable removing and re-installing your radio to get to the antenna lead. It's not as bad as it sounds--really.
In addition to the modulator itself, you will need a few other parts. If your car uses a standard plug for the antenna, you will need an antenna patch cable to run between the modulator and the radio. If not, you will need a pair of adapter cables. I needed the latter with my car. I connected the male antenna plug into the female end of one adapter, then plugged that into the modulator. The other adapter went between the modulator and the radio. Don't worry, you can't mess this up, since the adapters will only work one way.
Once you've made made the antenna connection, you need to connect to some power. Splice the red wire into the power lead for the radio. You may need to find a wiring diagram online to know which wire to use. Note: some radios have two power leads, one of which is switched through the ignition while the other is constant to maintain the time on the clock. In my car, the switched wire is red and the constant one is yellow. Others may or may not be the same. I'd recommend using the switched one so the device will shut off when you shut the car off, and thus not drain the battery.
I also added a manual shutoff switch so the modulator would not interfere with FM radio reception when I'm not listening to the iPod. I connected the red power wire from the modulator to the switch, then ran another wire from the switch to the power source. The most challenging part was choosing a switch that blended in with the dashboard and deciding where to mount the switch. I finally went with a small, round push-button switch. Once I drilled a hole and installed it, the switch looked like it had always been there.
The black wire is the ground. It just needs to be connected to something metal to complete the circuit. When I re-installed my radio, I just secured the ground wire under one of the mounting screws.
The final wire to connect is an audio cable with a male headphone plug on one end and two male RCA plugs on the other. The RCA plugs connect to the modulator, then you must decide how to route the wire for easy access before you button things up.
The modulator I chose, an Eiger Audio EV-F120, has a digital tuner with which to choose the frequency on which the device transmits. Two buttons allow the user to adjust the frequency up or down. Some other devices use dip switches to select a frequency. Interference from broadcast stations isn't a problem because the device overrides broadcast radio reception when active, thus the need for a manual power switch.
To play the iPod through the radio, connect the iPod to the audio cable, turn the modulator on, and tune the radio to the same frequency as the FM modulator. Now you're ready to go rockin' down the highway!
So what did all this cost? The answer is, surprising little. Modulators cost between $10 and $30. I got mine on the lower end of that spectrum. At the upper end of the price spectrum, Scoche offers a nice unit that includes a power switch and an audio cable that terminate on a surface mount panel that attaches with double-faced tape. The antenna adapters cost around $10 or $15. A power switch can be had for $2 or $3.
