OT: New radio - FM or Digital

[funkyoldcortina]

What CODECs are used on a Shortwave radio?!

[The Natural Philosopher]

A diode generally :-)

[Andrew Gabriel]

Sorry, missed the "SW" and thought he was talking about DAB.

[chris French]

In message , Ian Jackson writes

I've a Sony portable DAB/FM radio it runs happily on NiMH batteries, battery life seems about the same as when using Alkaline. But yes, the battery life is a lot lot less than a plain FM radio.

[Jeremy Nicoll - news posts]

True, for NiCd and NiMH. But a few years ago I bought quite a few 'Pure Energy' rechargeable alkaline batteries, which are 1.5V. See:

They were, IIRC, a Canadian invention, and quite hard to find in the UK.

They needed a special charger; one meant for NiCd/NiMH did not work.

The company that used to sell them here (Budget Batteries) no longer do, though there's an eBay seller (who says on their page that they bought BB(?)'s remaining stock). Last time I looked the ebay page did say that the batteries didn't work well in high current drain devices - eg digital cameras - which matches my experience. You can find them on ebay by searching for: pure energy batteries.

They're also sold under other names, eg (I think) 'Owl batteries'.

I've used them for, for example, wireless keyboards & wireless mice, where previously I found NiCds useless and used lots of Duracell alkaline cells.

[Ian Jackson]

I'd never heard 'Owl Batteries' before. They seem to be specced for fewer recharge cycles than the conventional rechargeables (100 to 500). Also, on none of the websites can I see any reference to their capacity.

al.

[Nick Odell]

DAB doesn't have to be power hungry. I've got one of these

so with in-the-ear earphones and no speakers it doesn't meet the OPs requirements but mine will run off a single, rechargeable 800mAh

1.2v NiMh cell for about four to five hours, depending on whether I'm listening continuously or booting it up for short periods.

Nick

[Tim Streater]

Four to five hours? Strike a light, even my old Panny SW lasts two years, at about 3 hours/week. But its 6 D-cells don't come cheap.

[Weatherlawyer]

You mean all those BBC commercials for digital radio were a... s c a m?

[Weatherlawyer]

50+ posts to help you enjoy your bath.

Why not get a car radio and a motorcycle battery.

***

The only reason I'm bothering to reply is that I was looking up stuff on 'tnet about CPUs and it occurred to me the 400 to 600 W that modern ones put out might be of service to other home kit.

If you bored through the case to put a wire in, could you use speakers directly off the PC. Among "other stuff I fancy" is a couple of old PC fans mopping my fevered brow as I watch unmentionables being unmentionable all summer long.

But anything electronic operating at 12 or 5 V should work, yes?

A bit Heath Robinson perhaps but OK for a shed useR like me. Currently sharing a lounge with most of 2 bicycles, a beer fridge that needs a draught exglugglug, a chop saw and several bits of timber that might be useful one day.

(Wife wanted...

DESPERATELY!))

[Martin Brown]

Not exactly. It isn't as good a bit rate as is needed for top quality broadcast music which has saved bandwidth and squeezes more channels in. The result is something which is inferior in quality to the existing FM broadcasts unless you are very fussy about the noise floor.

The time pips are obviously a joke on DAB and can be up to 2s out (and wrong by a different amount for every receiver too).

The government want to sell the spare frequencies off to raise money.

You can pretty reliably rank DAB, FM, terrestrial SD, satellite HD audio as increasing quality in a blind test. FM is obvious from the noise floor. Terrestrial SD Radio is sometimes marginally better.

Proms in approximately simultaneous broadcast is good test material.

Regards, Martin Brown

[Jeremy Nicoll - news posts]

In ones and twos they were not economic, especially as the cost of the charger needed factored in. But - as I needed quite a few - I did find them cheaper than Duracells.

I numbered them and kept notes on when and in what equipment I used each cell.

The trouble waas, NiCds did not work in some products; the instructions said so and experience confirmed it.

[Weatherlawyer]

You bought a modern PC that only has a tiny power unit?

I thought the lowest they put in them these days is 400W. IIRC what I read stated that they don't need the full whack but sometimes it is nice to have. To wind up the knicker elastic or something I think.

[Martin Brown]

The PSU ma be capable of delivering 400W but it only supplies what the PC needs to operate. And should run quieter at 10% of rated load than at

95%.

The CPU itself is using between 40W and 100W. The fast 3D graphics card tends to be in the same ball park. Some of the fast memory can be a bit power hungry too depending on the amount fitted. HD have become a lot more economical so it is common to have high rated PSUs but in practice it is mostly delivering around 2-300W typically with plenty of spare capacity unused (* though you have to pay attention to the maximum current available for each voltage rail). Older PSUs had a lot more current drive at 5V and modern gear at 3.3V reflecting the lower CPU operating voltages on modern cores. It is possible to have an old PSU object when any of its rails exceed permitted drive current.

Regards, Martin Brown

[Andrew]

>>>>> DAB and FM, with rechargeable battery.

>>>>> She uses it for R4 while doing the ironing and loves it to bits. >

For some reason Roberts don't fit tone control to their newer radios. They do an analogue FM model for about £30 that has separate bass and treble and the ecologic 4 (1.98 kg !!!!) has tone control, but not the more recent stuff. As you get older you appreciate a bit more adjustability but the manufactures seem to be staffed by under 30 yr olds, who don't realize that their days of fuzzy eyes, ears and brains are yet to come.

[Rob]

>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>

The Roberts radio (83i) I have does have quite an array of tone adjustments, but buried within menus.

Rob