Tuning into market for long-range radio

By ALASTAIR SLOANE

An Australian Rules footie fan left Melbourne one Saturday in the early 1970s to drive into the Victorian country.

The drive would take him some hours. He would miss seeing his favourite team play.

So he switched on his car radio to keep up with the play. But the further he went the worse the reception got - until it cut out altogether. Bruce Heymanson was so cranky he set out to build a radio with long-range performance suitable for Australian conditions.

He called it Eurovox - "euro" for the largest kangaroo species and "vox" after the Latin word for voice. Twenty-five years on, the Eurovox brand has become synonymous with high performance car audio equipment.

But it isn't available over the counter. "Eurovox couldn't compete in the retail market in New Zealand - our radios would cost too much compared with popular after-market retail models," said sales executive Craig Mills.

Holden, Subaru and Land Rover/Range Rover use Eurovox units in New Zealand. The front plate of the radio is changed in each case to carry the carmaker's name.

So how good is the long-range Eurovox?

The radio in the Land Rover Discovery hung on to the AM sports station. The one-day cricket was in Auckland and we were in the Coromandel Ranges, a weak signal area at best.

A popular make of car radio in the same area the week before wasn't strong enough to consistently pull in the cricket on the AM band.

How does it work? "Eurovox tuners on AM and FM are simply more sensitive," said Mills. "Where a normal radio picks up a strong signal only, Eurovox latches on to the weak signals as well." said Mills. "The AM frequency is extra-sensitive and the FM is above average."