The VHF public broadcast band is strictly reserved for licensed public broadcast senders and stretches from 88-108MHz.
Listening (receiving) to these frequency of course is legal. Transmitting is not.
This section discusses breakout boards to receive (and to send, which would be illegal to do in most regions of the world).
Quick History
In 1936, the US established the first public broadcast band in the frequency range 42-50MHz but abandoned it in 1946.
The FCC then assigned the 88-108MHz band to FM public broadcast stations. By 1957, this was codified into 101 channels with a 200kHz bandwidth, and the provision that one unused channel sits between geographically close senders.
In Europe, both 100kHz and 200kHz channel spacings are used.
Receivers
Receivers basically work like radio sets. Breakout boards are tiny and allow easy integration of FM public broadcast reception.
Senders
Most available FM Broadcast Band Senders have tiny RF emission and are not designed to start your own illegal public broadcast station or pirate sender.
Rather, these senders were invented to use an easy way of connecting external audio sources (like MP3-players or smartphones) to car radios that have no other auxiliary audio input.
The external audio source instead transmits its audio signal on a public broadcast frequency, and the car radio can pick it up like any other station.
This works because of the close vicinity of sender and receiver. Due to the very small RF emission, the signal won’t reach far and cause interference.
Regardless, this use case is illegal in most countries of the world.
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(content created Apr 19, 2024)