In the month of July, I drove nearly 3500 miles in both the midwest and on some very remote roads in Mexico and the desert southwest. In many of these locations, it was hard to find any radio stations. It was even more rare to find a station that played the music I wanted to hear.

That’s why I keep an FM transmitter in my travel bag. I have a much older model than the Patuoxun FM Transmitter Adapter shown here, but I think this newer model is a much more elegant solution than what I have. Even better is that you can currently get it for under $11 at Amazon.

With this device, you plug it into the headphone jack of most any smartphone, tablet or music player. Dial in a radio station on the device and the same station on your car radio. Your personal device is now being broadcast on the car radio! A battery is built in to the Patuoxon FM Transmitter so it doesn’t have to be plugged in to power at all times. When you need to charge it up, it uses a standard USB to micro USB cable such as the ones I’ve described in the You Can Never Have Too Many Phone and Tablet Chargers post.