Through someone named Dean (thanks, Dean), I discovered google.com. This is one smart search engine. Check it out.
Dean had read of my Sony Swim-Man plight and decided to find me some underwater pool speakers. He typed “underwater speakers” in the search field and clicked Google’s I’m Feeling Lucky button. Five seconds later . . . well, you try it. Pretty amazing.
Meanwhile, Wayne Arczynski had a different solution to keep me swimming. He noted that I have this tiny waterproof radio, but that its signal is drowned out as I crash down the 40-foot length of the pool (forty-three thousand laps to the mile). And he wrote:
“You’re half way there! You just need to set up your own radio station. No, really! You can buy a little FM transmitter and hook it up to your stereo or cassette player and listen to it while you swim. I bet Radio Shack will sell you one for under fifty bucks. (Or you can probably buy an FM transmitter here on the web for half that price. On second thought, Radio Shack will show you how to plug it in to your CD player or stereo. More money but less cost [although I hear your time is going for a dollar a year now, so you will have to decide which is cheaper.]).
“Anyway, you can buy these little transmitters, tune them to a station that is not in use, tune your radio to the same station and voila, you’re on the air. This is basically how wireless microphones work. (Before you buy your FM transmitter, make sure it is legal. There are limits to how much power you can transmit on FM. I would think anything you can buy at Radio Shack would be OK.)”
Is this a great country or what? I’m not actually going to do this. But it’s great to know that I could. Forget Radio Free Europe. We’ve freed Europe. This is Radio Free Style.
