mp3 fm transmitter

Hi all, I just bought a small fm transmitter to use in my car. It's made by Monster, model number MBL-FM XMTR. It works ok, but the quality leaves a bit to be desired, I'm picking up a little to much static for my taste. Can anyone suggest a way I could get better signal out of this unit? Any suggestions are welcome, build a better antenna? what does this thing use for an antenna anyway? Increase the output power? I don't want to be broadcasting 300 feet, but I'm not going to lose any sleep if the car next to me picks up my signal.

I think a lot of those have RF attenuators that keep the signal low so that the person in the next car doesnt hear your transmitter. I have no idea what they look like, or even what they are, but remove that and youll get a much better signal.

If it has DIP-switches to select 4 station frequencies at the low end of the dial and/or 4 frequencies at the high end of the dial, then it is the same circuit as The Stereo Micrommitter project shown in Silicon Chip magazine.
Go to www.google.com and enter Stereo Micromitter in the search box.
The project shows and explains its RF attenuator on its output. :lol:

A friend of mine bought one of these and I was curious how to jack up the output power as well. I'm glad someone asked the question. I didn't even bother to open it up.

Thanks audioguru, that looks fantastic, I might build one of those to try.

I pulled out my stereo and taped the one I bought to the head unit itself, right were the normal antenna plugs in. When I pull the external antenna from the unit I get great sound, it's just kind of a pain if I decide to listen to the radio again. Maybe I can rig up a switch to disconnect the main antenna from the head unit.