You can transmit music playing on your Sony Ericsson W980 Walkman phone to any FM radio within a 10 metre range, thanks to a clever FM transmitter function built into the phone.

Whether you want to play your tunes through the car stereo, home hi-fi system or a friend's radio, it's straightforward to do. You can even transmit to another mobile phone, if there's a radio built in that device.

You can activate the FM transmitter when you're using the phone's Walkman player. It will keep transmitting as you listen to tracks or audiobooks, and will carry on running in the background if you start using other functions on the phone while listening to music. It will stop when the music player is switched off.

It's easy to set up - here's how:

Using the FM transmitter

1. Press the Walkman button on the phone's keypad to start up the Walkman player (Figure 1).
2. You will be taken into the Walkman player. with the last track you selected shown onscreen (Figure 2).
3. Use the player controls in the normal way to browse and select whichever tracks you want to listen to; pressing the Back button will take you back through the menus, or Options and then My Music will bring you to the main music menu.
4. When your chosen track is displayed onscreen, press Options. Scroll  down to highlight FM transmitter (Figure 3). Press Select.
5. The FM transmitter frequency screen is shown (Figure 4). You can adjust the frequency by using the left and right controls of the central navigation D-pad on the phone's control pad.
6. Whether you're transmitting to a hi-fi radio, car radio or mobile phone, you first need to tune that device to an unused FM frequency (it may have static noise, but mustn't have other broadcasts audible). Take note of the frequency (in our example, we're using 106.50).
7. Place the W980 within a 10 metre range of the radio you want to transmit to.
8. Adjust the transmitter frequency shown in the panel by moving the left or right navigation pad controls, until you get to the same frequency you selected on the radio (Figure 5). Press Start.
9. A transmitter icon onscreen indicates that the phone is transmitting (Figure 6). You should now be able to hear tracks playing on your W980 on the radio. Press Done to go back to the Walkman player screen.

If reception is weak, you should be able to improve it by moving the phone closer to the radio.

Switching off the FM transmitter
An icon on the top line of the display indicates when the FM transmitter is on.

1. To switch the FM transmitter off, when a selected track is shown onscreen in the Walkman player (Figure 7), press Options.
2. Scroll to highlight FM transmitter (Figure 8). Press Select.
3. In the FM transmitter screen (Figure 6), press Stop. Press Back to return to the Walkman player.