portable FM radio direct mains

[sm_jamieson]

Guys, got the 9 quid alba one from argos. Does the job as they say ! Simon.

[The Other Mike]

Why, is dial-a-disc still going?

[tony sayer]

Its hardly been that successful anyway, certainly not taken off like ipads and DVD's etc.

The few people I know who have bought them have them for better reception of Radio 5 live!...

[Man at B&Q]

You can inspect even without the special slip. getting a refund if you decline may take slightly longer?

I was *offered* the inspection when I bought a camera. That made me suspicious that they were up to their usual trick of churning customer returns but everything has been OK.

MBQ

[The Natural Philosopher]

for that, we have the Internet..and computahs:-)

DVB dongle, TV aerial and radio5 live (sports extra) is there on tap at remarkable quality.

Or just stream it over the net.

In short most radio is available wherever an internet signal or digital TV exists.

I am not sure why we have DAB at all since a radio that simply used the TV signal would be just as good.

[tony sayer]

Theresa not a lot of people know how to do that especially older ones and the PC may not be where they want Radio 5!..

Except the car;?..

[John Williamson]

Because, to receive it, you need a decoder that can strip the audio stream from the multiplex, and that would draw a lot more power than even the current generation of DAB receivers?

Also, I'm having enough trouble receiving the current digital TV signals while I'm travelling even with an amplified aerial on a PC based setup, and to try and do it with the typical sized whip on a portable set would be a total waste of time.

I'm imagining the setup. A receiver the size of a pack of cigarettes, with a car battery to power it, and a yard long yagi array on my hat....

DAB's bad enough for power use and reception as it is. It's unusable on my portable set even inside the M25, and uses four times the batteries per hour of an equivalent FM set.

[BartC]

I got a DAB set solely to listen to LBC (a London station, while I live 200 miles away).

Otherwise there's little to listen to in evenings and weekends (when there is usually a choice of football, or Gardener's Question Time).

(It's a mains clock-radio, but I have used it in the car with an inverter, and the aerial wrapped around the rear-view mirror.)

[BartC]

Having a dedicated radio on a bedside table at night is a lot less cumbersome than having to have a computer set-up next to your bed (and remembering to shut down before dropping off) or a freeview box, TV and remote control, together with the necessary cables.

Off freeview? That might work, if it carried the same mix of stations, but someone needs to market a dedicated box that just takes an aerial lead, and that doesn't need a screen. Or a WiFi radio set.

[Mike Barnes]

BartC :

I tried that approach. I bought a box with a channel number display on the front. With that and the remote control it didn't need a TV at all. But unlike an FM radio, it needed a proper roof-top aerial before I could get a usable signal.

I'm not sure why we have DAB either. I'm usually an enthusiast of new technology, but DAB just leaves me shaking my head in disbelief.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

UHF requires a decent external aerial even more so than DAB.

DAB works pretty well in a car. Can't say the same about TV.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

A little thing that most don't consider. But perhaps they have a PC in the bathroom?

I also expect a radio to work when switched on. Not wait 5 minutes for it to boot...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

When I first tried DAB in the car using the supplied aerial, the results were poor. Tried an adaptor to use the original (telescopic) car aerial - no better. Bought a roof mounted DAB and everything else one and it's great.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I do use FreeView to provide the feed of R4 which I listen to most. However, most of these tuners rely on the TV to show you what channel you're on. So not ideal.

[The Natural Philosopher]

The latter is deeply likely actually.

As more and more households are fast broadbans connected and wifi saturated, why not?

At the moment it would be a bit 'agricultural' to make such a box, using laptop processors and ripping out screen/keyboard to make it truly push button, but its a fairly simple project really.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yes, that is a drawback. But one that may improve as the old analogue gets shut down and more power is available on DVB

Indeed. It's either years behind, or years ahead, of its time. Betamax?

[The Natural Philosopher]

laptops work OK.

Then don't run windows or buy an old valve radio :-)

Does your router take 5 minutes to boot? Your mobile phone? Or your car?

They are all full of computers. The salient difference is they don't boot from disk, don't have massive GUIS and they don't run user experiences, they run operating systems.

My Linux takes less than 45 seconds to boot, and most of that time is loading innumerable bits of stuff off the disk

[Dave Plowman (News)]

With horrid little speakers?

You know of an operating system that comes to the desktop instantly? In practice, that is?

It's on 24/7. But does take quite some time to boot.

It also takes some time to boot. But of course it's not normally switched off.

Some dislike being powered down totally.

You've just made my point. I don't want to wait 45 seconds to listen to the radio in the bog.

[John Williamson]

Still won't work in a hotel bedroom, though. I like to wake up to the radio playing in the morning, and my current FM system for that works fine. As a bonus, it also works outside the UK, which is another reason for me not to want to use DAB. If the powers that be had got their act together and made it a universal system, like FM and AM, then it would be worth the bother, maybe. I know that there is a universal chipset available, but nobody seems to be using it in production sets yet.

I've no doubt that DAB can be made to work in a lot of places with a decent aerial system, but it's not there yet for universal portable use, except, maybe, installed in a vehicle.

[John Williamson]

You can buy internet "radio" boxes that will use your BB connection and wifi to do their stuff. Prices according to Google Shopping range from £75 or so to over £500. The last FM alarm clock radio I bought cost me a tenner.