The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay The Radio Bench FM CONVERTERS

Do they still make them, or will I have to find an old one to use?

Where I live they sell them at Walmart and many other stores. They are still popular because of the MP3 players that are in use these days.

Ya got me curiosity up, I wouldn’t mind having an FM clipped under the dash maybe even one with a CD player in it if they made them. I think now days you might just as well buy a tiny AM/FM/CD player, tack it under the dash and hang a couple of cheap speakers up behind it. I bought an inverter last month on my last order to the filling station and I’m thinkin’ bout doin just that for those times I want to listen to some big band or real rock n’ roll.

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Just looked at the timer on the confuser and I’ve been Googling for the last 38minutes and all I’m finding at ebay motors and Target and all the big box stores etc., is something about home FM converters, something about ipod, Zune, pod cast, 2nd generation, tunecast, what ever all that is, none of them explain exactly what they are broadcasting or converting or just exactly what they are for or do.

The ones that are on ebay are indeed the old FM to AM converters that simply plug in to the AM radio’s antenna jack. Problem with them is they are 30 or 40 years old and the bunch of electrolytic caps that are in them are probably dried out and the carbon resistors drifted way out of tolerance. Bout the only way I would touch one of them is if someone gave me one to play with.

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I have one in my truck, but it is starting to have problems. I asked if they were still made at Radio Shack, and they said they are no longer available. I'll see if I can find one at a junkyard.

Doug57,
I guess that I misunderstood what you were asking about. I was thinking of the FM transmitter. Good luck in your search.

There are a bunch on ebay right now. I searched for FM converter.

I've purchased several off of ebay for customers and never gotten a callback. Probably the most common one is going to be the small black "Sparkomatic" one, manufactured in the 70s... by that time the components were reliable enough to where they can be (and still are) in use today without any kind of rebuilding. Electronics manufactured before the 60s are the ones that you have got to be leery of, most of which need the 100% rebuilds; usually anything with tubes in it.

Some of them seem to have better sonics than others.

There's a guy who is a factory-authorized Delco radio repairman who says the Audiovox ones were the best. He also says that, when working properly and the speaker has been reconed (he's TOO expensive on his recone jobs - use SpeakerWorks in Tulsa. Tell Dave I sent you. He rebuilt my factory speaker with an OEM cone kit for $40, and it sounds GREAT!), your original DELCO radio has better sonic performance than anything you can buy today.

I kept mine and installed the reconed speaker, and it sounds really great!

I don't know if my radio has an FM converter(I was told mine had one by the po but I have NO IDEA) but thanks to what Justin Rubsam said up there in his post my dad's 85 Chevy has a "sparkomatic" fm converter in it so I could maybe get that one- it works.