I've decided that my 30 year old Panny short wave radio that I bought to listen to the World Service while in the States, is gobbling batteries too quickly. Prolly cos of all that extra electronics that we don't use any more. Anyway. The Finance Committee (which brought the battery consumption issue to my attention) has authorised the purchase of a new machine.
Question is, should I be getting a standard FM one or looking to get a DABS one? I hear the consumption of the latter is higher than FM, but when are they going to turn the FM signal off? What will we all do with our brand new car radios?
I can't help you decide, but I have also noticed that most radios that I bought with short wave capability have been hungry ones, even if used on FM only. There is probably a perfectly simple explanation for this. The exception is a small Sony, designed by Porsche (!), and it is an excellent radio and alarm clock. And you probably can't buy it now. I shall be in interested in the knowledgeable replies to your message.
I recently had my dear old Hacker FM radio restored to life, Beautiful!
As I understand it DAB does use more power than FM. I have one mains DAB radio and one Pure mains one with a rechargeable battery which cost quite a bit but does well.
DAB is the future but I cannot remember when others are getting switched off. A lot of cars being bought now will still be around when there is no signal for their non-DAB radios.
Go for one with both? There is no definite date to turn off FM - and my crystal ball says it won't happen any time in the foreseeable future - too many car radios etc don't have DAB.
Everything digital (with this sort of thing) is more power hungry than analogue. Usually by quite a margin.
Actually now more than ever its great to have a short wave radio, as with the ill advised demise of the bbc and others on the bands, other players are now audible giving a much needed different slant on the affairs of the world. We are in danger of being monocultured to banality, in my view. And who says fm is being turned off?
I'd plump if I had to for a set with both, but not an expensive one. I'd keep the shortwave radio and use rechargeable in it. Brian
You don't say what your usage pattern is, but I have a Pure Evoke Flow with rechargeable battery pack, remote, and auxiliary speaker (for stereo). This lot isn't cheap, but Christmas is coming....
It does FM and DAB (and is updatable), but I find I use it most on WiFi, listening to stations that you can't get over the airwaves (Arrow Classic Rock from the Hague, for example). I only tend to use the auxiliary speaker occasionally, but otherwise find the portability and range of choice of WiFi stations are superb.
And a better audio quality if you are feeding it into a hifi. The only thing DAB has going for it is a lower noise floor, but the bitrate is inadequate for decent quality music reproduction. And if you have more than one DAB radio the varying delays of different chipsets mean you get insane choral flanging effects as you move from room to room.
Radio 3 Proms on DAB sounds lifeless when compared to FM, DTV-R4, or BBC-HD during simulcasts. The various delays on the different digital media channels allow direct comparison of short snatches of music.
The DAB broadcast lags FM by over a second which makes the pips very funny if you have both sorts of radio on in the house.
I agree. Although it doesn't know it yet and the suits in the BBC might still be dumb enough to force it on us all. Fight to keep FM !!
As an early adopter I have a decent DAB radio and a newer consumer model that is far far worse. The new one loses signal whenever it rains and goes to clicks and pops. The older one mostly works but locks up completely a couple of times every week after encountering unplayable streams. It only works at all because I have fitted a better aerial.
A thirty year old FM receiver uses a quarter the power (and part of that for the front fluorescent display) and runs rings round it.
DAB as implemented in the UK is junk and the receivers burn through batteries - I would not even consider buying a battery powered unit. It is unlikely to work adequately with the supplied piece of wet string.
DAB is so bad here that the newer FM/DAB/Internet radio spends most of its time using the internet streaming feed for Radio4. DAB is junk.
I have a Sony ICF-SW7600 world receiver as a small radio alarm and it lasts pretty well on batteries (and when not travelling has a wall wart PSU). It will even do SSB but not airband. I don't know if your finance committee will stretch to that series though - it isn't cheap.
Looking on Amazon the Eton G3 (£90) gets a reasonable review from someone with a clue (and is panned by someone without). It might be OK. YMMV
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does do Airband. Though probably not a good buy if you like MW.
If I were you I'd look for a review of it in one of the electronics or radio hobby magazines. She might need some persuading...
Alternatively buy a good charger and two sets of long life (very low self discharge) NiMH. Aldi/Lidl sometimes have the right NiMH batteries in at a decent price and I haven't found anything wrong with them yet. Unlike normal rechargables the best ones for low current long term use are sold nearly fully charged.
Long life (Eneloop) batteries? I don't think they'll switch off FM any time soon.
DAB, especially older 'non-green' models, tend to eat batteries IME. Partner's Pure recharagable battery (>£30 to replace) is now broken after about 3 years of serious use.
Even so, I'd suggest DAB if you'd get anything out of the extra stations (I listen to BBC6 a lot) and reception's OK. f you're looking for battery operation I'd go for standard AAs (etc) rather than the packs. All of which narrows down the choice. I've yet to find a decent one . . .
Compared with the 1.5V of the non-rechargeables, rechargeables are only
1.2V. As the radio will use several batteries in series (typically four or six), it could have problems working with the lower supply (1.2V or
1.8V respectively). This was a problem in some of the earlier DAB radios (certainly with mine), but believe the later radios are OK. However, it's best to check that the one you choose can indeed use rechargeables.
A non rechargeable isn't 'flat' at 1.2 volts. It would be a very poor design indeed which ceased working when their volts got to that. And rechargeable cells tend to have a much more stable output voltage.
Can you get D-sized Eneloops? (I haven't looked). And its a 110V job, cos I bought it in the US of A to replace a similar job that went missing as part of a shipment of 5 suitcases that went missing at Kennedy.
Not enough perceived volume to merit the investment. Parts of the technology have to be licensed (e.g. the CODECs), which also means the cheaper manufacturers are much less likely to be interested, so there's much less price competition than with an FM radio.
It would probably take someone like Nokia to work out how to do DAB in a low power way on a mobile, but Nokia has bigger problems to worry about at the moment, like staying in business. (Actually, FM reception on mobiles is more power hungry than I would have thought it should be.)
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