Radio for an OAP

[Bill]

I seem to stagger from one crisis to another. Sister in law wants a radio. She wants mains and battery, able to play cassettes and preferably with DAB (spit) as well as FM and MW.

I've looked at a few, all called boomboxes which is off-putting to her, but the real problem seems to be the number of batteries they take (up to 8), so I was hoping to find one that would have rechargeable, replaceable batteries, eg AA size, that would recharge when the radio was plugged in.

I tried asking in Curry's with the usual result and tried a search on the Roberts site, which said the webmaster has been informed about the error.

Does anyone know of anything suitable? She also wants it to be a good one and not too many knobs, she says. Her last "good" radio cost £30 she says!

[John]

Does she really need MW? What does she listen to that isn't on DAB or FM?

[Bill]

In message , John writes

I think it's a question of the aerial. She has seen my wife's DAB set that has to sit on the edge of the kitchen worktop with the telescopic aerial out horizontally where she walks. It is now broken, of course.

Probably MW and LW are desirable rather than necessary.

I've now found the Roberts Concerto for the blind, but it's nearly £200.

[Phil L]

It's not a crisis, it's just impossible to get all that for £30, if at all. You can get a dab radio cassette player that works on batteries and mains, but not for £30, and no chance of finding one of that spec with a built in charger.

[Skipweasel]

I've been avoiding DAB on principle, but then someone on FreeCycle threw out one with a broken button. Took half an hour (much of which spent finding the hot-melt glue sticks) to fix.

I won't say I'm sold - for a start it needs re-boxing into something that'll fit under the kitchen cupboard to replace the FM unit currently there. I only need present three buttons - power and vol +/- (because it powers up too quiet to hear and has to be turned up each time) since it's for listening to R4 on.

And there's a thing - why are under-cabinet DAB radios so staggeringly expensive?

[Bob Eager]

Hmmm....apropos of very little...anyone remember a freestanding electric cooker (1960s I think) called the Tricity Medlodie? With the built in radio and telescopic antenna?

[A Plumber]

"Gold" is on MW listen to it all the time thinking of the good old days, reminising as lots of tunes held happy memories, when music was music, not the crap they chuck out today.

[Skipweasel]

Must take more water with it - I read that several times as built in radio telescope.

[John Rumm]

That would be one for the innovations catalogue ;-)

[Bill]

In message , Phil L writes

There are DAB/Cassette radios for under £30, but the ones I've seen use

8 x C or D cells. I just hoped that for, say, double that there might be one that has recharging option with standard cells.

As I can't seem to find anything that is rechargeable, I'm beginning to wonder if there is some sort of EU safety ban in case people try to recharge ordinary cells in the machine and it goes bang?

I have no idea when she bought her last radio/cassette for £30. She just knows she got it from Boots.

[Bob Eager]

The Melodie (correcting spelling there) really existed - we had one. My dad worked for Tricity and we always had cookers on extended loan - just kept a journal of problems. I managed to get hold of some of the modules used to make the radio (it lived in the top, above the controls) and made some of my own.

[Owain]

Would it be possible to fit rechargeable batteries, screw the battery compartment shut, and fit a DC power plug to connect to a wall-wart charger?

Probably about 1987. That's when I got my =A330 radio-cassette.

Owain

[John Rumm]

Yup, I don't doubt the one with a tuner existed... (seems like a sensible enough idea actually, given the number of kitchen radios there were), it was Skip's suggestion of one crossed with Jodrel Bank that had me amused. ;-)

[Michael Chare]

I think that you will find that DAB radio's eat batteries. The Roberts web site gives some idea of battery life.

[Bob Eager]

Yes, that would be fun! But there have always been really strange combinations out there....

[Steve Firth]

There's really only one, the Goodmans at anything like the price she wants to pay. It takes 8 batteries, you've probably seen it already that's the choice. Take it or leave it.

[Tabby]

One option is to get a standard radio and modify it to recharge its batteries. A diode from battery to radio to prevent excessive charge current, and a diode and resistor to alow a trickle charge.

NT

[Ian Jackson]

I've done that with several AM/FM radios (two 'routeing' diodes and a trickle charge current-limiting resistor). It has worked OK.

However, with non-rechargeable batteries, the voltage per cell is 1.5V. With rechargeables, it's 1.2V so, if you need (say) eight cells, you are going to be 2.4V down. You also lose another 0.6V in one of the diodes, making it 3V down. As a result, a radio which is designed to work on

12V, only gets 9V. While this may be acceptable for AM, and maybe somewhat less-so on FM, I understand that many DAB radios might not be happy at all with this situation (especially if the batteries are getting a bit on the low side). You would be wise to buy a radio which is specced to operate with rechargeables.

Even an unmodified DAB radio might not be happy with rechargeables. Mine (DAB/FM) certainly isn't. With fully-charged batteries, it only works on DAB for about 20 minutes. It's not that the batteries are flat. It's just that the freshly-charged voltage is just sufficient to make the radio work, and the slightest drop causes the radio to pack up.

But I wonder if the OP wants to buy a new radio, and immediately dive inside to modify it? Obviously, this would any guarantee. However, if the radio didn't cost too much, any subsequent problems could be put down 'to experience'!

[The Medway Handyman]

Why is that? Why they consume so much power I mean?

Dave TMH

[Andy Dingley]

Sony. Battery-only, FM-only. If she wants recorded music, go for MP3 these days.

DAB sucks. However if we do have it forced upon us in five years, buy one then when they'll be cheaper and hopefully less poor quality and less battery hungry,

Radios use little power, compared to tapes, so loose AAs and a decent charger are cheap and practical.

Sony, as they have good user ergonomics for simple multi-button tuning.