The Humble Kitchen Radio

[Don Petter]

Off-topic, but I remember my childhood home had a substantial domestic radio with the names of many exotic stations.

Ahh! Those far-off places, never to be visited, Hilversum, Zagreb, Athlone, and each with its little square to be lit up.

(Though perhaps I'm imagining Sweet Coromandel.)

[Don Petter]

Was it a joint venture?

Naturally, I had to knuckle down.

[teamsaint]

Naturally, I had to knuckle down.

If you performed well, did you get the thumbs up?

[Beef Oven!]

No. Here it's the opposite - since the ..ahem.. beef-up for the 2012 Olympics, there's a great DAB signal here in central London, but FM has always been lousy. So I'm totally sold on DAB (or internet radio), unlike those earlier in this thread for whom FM remains the preference. And I think the sound of R3 music on my Pure Evokes is great. As with CD compared with LP, the COMPLETE absence of pops, hiss or crackles is a huge bonus for me, even though maybe to purists the last ounce of sound quality may be better with FM (though I'm not convinced)

A fair bit to think about. In North East London, I'm getting excellent FM signal, so I must just get hold of a friend's Dab device and test it.

I hadn't given sound quality a thought. I was really just wanting to not have to pull out the aerial all the time (that's gone for a Burton, although I prefer lager, these days). The change to CD from vinyl was a the greatest thing that ever happened to music recordings, IMHO and your FM/Dab analogy is getting me thinking - about what, I'm not sure yet!

I also feel my £35 budget is at risk!!

[Don Petter]

If you performed well, did you get the thumbs up?

This is in danger of getting out of hand.

[Nick Armstrong]

If you performed well, did you get the thumbs up?

I'm sure Don nailed it

[Nick Armstrong]

A fair bit to think about. In North East London, I'm getting excellent FM signal, so I must just get hold of a friend's Dab device and test it.

I hadn't given sound quality a thought. I was really just wanting to not have to pull out the aerial all the time (that's gone for a Burton)

Well not necessarily - when I said that putting down the aerial on mine made the signal drop to a 3 from a 6, it was still fine to listen to. If you're lucky and find you are in the strong London DAB zone, you should be ok with the aerial retracted at the back

[mangerton]

Thanks. How do I do that?

(It's so tiny there are very few options for doing anything.)

I presume from your reply that the radio came without instructions. If that is so, I would suggest following the now time-honoured procedure of "switching it off and switching it on again"!

It is after all a sort of computer - just like today's TV sets. Remove the battery, but before replacing it, take the set to a place where you know you get good reception - upstairs, near a window, for example, or even outside. Then replace the battery and switch on. It should then re-tune and (we hope) pick up all the available multiplexes. It has had them before, so it should pick them up again.

I had this experience with the Sony I referred to above. I replaced the batteries and lost some stations. Following the procedure above restored them, and once the set got them in its memory again, all was well. Do let us know how you get on.

[teamsaint]

The fact that there are areas in London which have moderate DAB reception is not encouraging.

Incidentally Radio solent split their footy commentaries between FM and DAB ( and AM).

Suffice to say, the Super Saints are on FM while #lowlyportsmouth are on DAB.
Draw your own conclusions.....

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

this or something remarkably like it by Panasonic bought in 1973; it was knocked on the kitchen floor regularly by my niece and her helpers [cerebral palsy so her arm would fly] but only ceased working two years ago ... very heavy and with a wonderful 'loudness' button that emphasised the bass ... i recorded an entire evening show from of Capital Radio dedicated to the originals of the Rolling Stones hits [all claimed by Jagger Richards]

the recordings from R3 were pretty spectacular too and the C90s lasted me many years of travelling in cars, hotels, and voyages on ships ...

it was a perfect radio that my family turned into the kitchen radio and served us well for decades

[Beef Oven!]

Well not necessarily - when I said that putting down the aerial on mine made the signal drop to a 3 from a 6, it was still fine to listen to. If you're lucky and find you are in the strong London DAB zone, you should be ok with the aerial retracted at the back

Good can't do that with FM (retract the aerial).

Btw, I read Bleak House many moons ago, and I'm sure chapter 60 was longer than that.

[jean]

I presume from your reply that the radio came without instructions. If that is so, I would suggest following the now time-honoured procedure of "switching it off and switching it on again"!

It probably did come with instructions, but I've no idea where they are now.

It is after all a sort of computer - just like today's TV sets. Remove the battery, but before replacing it, take the set to a place where you know you get good reception - upstairs, near a window, for example, or even outside. Then replace the battery and switch on. It should then re-tune and (we hope) pick up all the available multiplexes. It has had them before, so it should pick them up again.

I've tried taking the battery out and replacing it, but that didn't work. I'll take it to some different places and try again.

[gurnemanz]

We had one of these when I was a lad:



Nowadays I use a small battery-operated FM radio in the bathroom

I had one of those .... complete with royal crest. "Yes, you'll find these all over the Palace" commented the sales person at the time. Absurdly huge batteries, I remember.

DAB is better than VHF in this neck of Wiltshire and offers easier switching to Five Live for football and better Test Match Special reception on DAB than long wave

Kitchen radio: Pure Evoke 2 has done good service for many years.

Bathroom: Roberts Solar DAB on a sunny (sometimes) windowsill saves on batteries.

Bedroom: Just got the great new Roberts 93i which does just about everything and works fine upstairs without a wifi extender from downstairs router. Review

[Nick Armstrong]

.... complete with royal crest. "Yes, you'll find these all over the Palace" commented the sales person at the time. Absurdly huge batteries, I remember.

well as you might have seen, our Dynatron had the royal crest too!



Her Maj must have been like you and me gurney - a radio in every room - rather than Beefy wandering around the house with his 35 quid wireless in one hand!!

And I found a picture of the batteries in the Dynatron - yes, two big cubic Ever Readys - bringing back memories !

[Nick Armstrong]

Btw, I read Bleak House many moons ago, and I'm sure chapter 60 was longer than that.

Frightfully droll !