This week I've rigged out the Keall Mobile with Griffin's RoadTrip iPod auto accessory, which plugs your 'Pod into your car's sound system. Like a number of such devices, it consists of a souped up iPod dock, drawing power via your car's cigarette lighter, that streaming your 'Pod's songs to your car radio via a short-range FM transmission. The RoadTrip ($139, www.macsense.co.nz) has a couple of features lacking in cheaper models. It doubles as an iPod charger, and you can also easily detach the FM transmission dock and use it indoors to stream music from iPod to living room hi-fi.

It only takes a minute or so to install the RoadTrip, which comes with a double-jointed extender arm that lets you position the dock, and your iPod, close to the left of your steering wheel. Music quality is roughly comparable to what you get on FM radio.

There are two main catches. Compared to Buckman and Bartley, I'm not tall, but my left knee still managed to knock the RoadTrip out of the cigarette lighter/power plug a couple of times. The other problem is finding a place on the FM spectrum that's free from radio stations, so your radio can cleanly receive the transmission from your Roadtrip. This is easy to set up. You find a quiet spot on (or "dead zone" in industry parlance) on your FM dial, then punch the same frequency into your RoadTrip. In my case, in Auckland, I started off at 88.1FM. All went well until I got into the CBD - specifically along K-Road, where there's a proliferation of ultra short-range cult stations like Fleet FM. These narrowcasters suddenly started causing a lot of static, and had me trying dangerous RoadTrip-retuning-as-you-drive manoeuvres.

In the US, Belkin (another maker of such devices) has a website listing FM deadzones by Zip code. Sadly it doesn't extend to any other country, let alone Godzone. I've got a plea in with radio tech-head Andrew Dubber of Dubber & Spoons blogging fame to try and find the perfect Auckland dead zone (please, no jokes about Glenfield). And there's actually few places that list all users of the FM frequency, especially the little guys (one of the better ones I've found is Fiona Rae's on the Listener website). While I await word from Mr Dubber, I'm open to all suggestions.