Small Portable Radio's?

[Burgess]

Hmmm . . . .


I remember building a Crystal Radio Receiver, perhaps 50 years ago.


I recall winding many loops of wire around an empty Quaker Oats Box !


When it was all assembled and completed . . . .


I recall listening through my single-ear earphone.


We lived maybe 40-50 miles (as crow flies) from Chicago.


The absolutely incredibly strong and powerful station WLS (890 AM) was just barely audible ! :sigh:


And they were broadcasting at Fifty-Thousand Watts of Power. :wow:


Thus ended my interest in a Crystal Radio.


YMMV

:candle:
_

 

[Burgess]

Here's an interesting Link on constructing a Crystal Radio.


http://www.crystalradio.net/beginners/index.shtml


:tinfoil:
_

 

[StarHalo]

The absolutely incredibly strong and powerful station WLS (890 AM) was just barely audible ! :sigh:

I put together a Radio Shack kit ~20 years ago, didn't get anything at all (I think the key is to coil the wire as well as a machine would, good luck finding a kid who can do that). But there are guys out there who build these giant elaborate sets that are the size of coffee tables, so I guess it's one of those smaller hobbies that can get really complex, like flashaholism.

 

[Flying Turtle]

I remember having a little crystal radio as a kid. It was shaped like a rocket. The nose cone was the tip of a short rod that pulled out, and was supposed to be a tuner. A wire with alligator clip was the antenna, I suppose, and there was an earphone. I don't recall ever getting it to work, and I was not far from KDKA. I replaced it with my first AM only transistor radio in 1958, which I still have, and it still works.

Geoff

 

[Sub_Umbra]

I remember those 'rocket radios.'

 

[StarHalo]

I replaced it with my first AM only transistor radio in 1958, which I still have, and it still works.

Love the old transistor radios, so stylish. This one is sitting atop my desk in another state; a Sony with a genuine Seiko analog clock built in, takes a 9V battery and sucks it dry in a few hours, but they don't make 'em like that anymore..

 

[Lynx_Arc]

I remember the 9v transistor radios, I used to have two radio shack battery a month cards to fuel it with free batteries. Then I got the free 5D flashlight and never could afford to keep batteries in it I didn't have enough battery cards and nearby stores lol.

 

[Lit Up]

But after all the radio romanticizing is done, then you have to end up seeing crap like this:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/7564692/Say-goodbye-to-your-transistor-radio-digital-switchover-is-coming.html

Makes one leery of purchasing that newer Grundig.

 

[silver_bacon]

But after all the radio romanticizing is done, then you have to end up seeing crap like this:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/...istor-radio-digital-switchover-is-coming.html

Makes one leery of purchasing that newer Grundig.

I honestly don't think we will have to worry about that in the USA. We do not have the DAB radio system that Europe has and HD Radio is not taking off. However, those who live in Europe, especially those in the UK may have to worry about it. Though DAB seems to be failing to gain momentum, so there may be hope.

As far as HD radio... HD Radio fails for a number of reasons. It requires new equipment and new radios. Stations have to pay a year fee to broadcast, and radios have an added cost of licensing HD radio technology. HD AM suffers from significant interference and an unreliable signal. Many stations are turning off their HD-AM signal as it causes poorer analog audio quality, interference, and has not proved to be much of a benefit. HD FM is better, but still suffers from many flaws. HD radio music stations still suffer from the shallow playlists that many radio stations already suffer from.

Once the radio performance tax gets passed, HD-radio sub-channels will probably not stay commercial free. Some sub-channels may even cease to exist as they will only be an added expense.

I personally think the biggest threat to broadcast radio is Internet radio.

 

[StarHalo]

I think a lot has been learned about the effectiveness of digital broadcasting thanks to digital TV - it's been over a year and people in rural areas are still trying to find ways to watch channels they could watch before, technical forums are full of people still trying to find a decent antenna setup (I would need a 20' antenna with a preamp in my city location to receive any major network station, an investment of roughly $200.) Rural folk are a huge part of the radio demographic, so trying to digitize that also would not go well.

So you should definitely invest in that new radio and do some DXing, listen to those really distant signals that no digital listener would ever receive..

 

[Lit Up]

I have plenty of miles left on the 350DL!

But yeah, I love internet radio too. Only problem is that it becomes a monthly pay service to access. Given that, you have Satellite Radio which its reach is by far going to outperform wifi at the current time. I just want to worry about grabbing some batteries, my analog radio, camping gear and head out under the stars somewhere. If someone tells me that will come along with pops, cracks and static, I'll tell them it damn well better! :twothumbs

 

[StarHalo]

you have Satellite Radio which its reach is by far going to outperform wifi at the current time.

Every time someone brings up satellite radio, I'm reminded of author Chuck Klosterman's tale of driving through the midwest in a rental car that included free satellite radio; driving into a storm, the radio of course offered no means of providing news or warnings, and at one point he watched a tornado literally tear through a distant neighborhood, the radio mindlessly playing pop music throughout without skipping a beat.. Non-local radio is great for entertainment, but that's all.

 

[Lit Up]

Every time someone brings up satellite radio, I'm reminded of author Chuck Klosterman's tale of driving through the midwest in a rental car that included free satellite radio; driving into a storm, the radio of course offered no means of providing news or warnings, and at one point he watched a tornado literally tear through a distant neighborhood, the radio mindlessly playing pop music throughout without skipping a beat.. Non-local radio is great for entertainment, but that's all.

Very,very true.

 

[Guy's Dropper]

For all of you survivalist-types out there, the best long-term emergency radio is one that can be made from materials that are available, doesn't wear out, and doesn't need batteries. Crystal radios are extremely easy to build. The only part you would really have to buy are the the high-impedance headphones, and they are dirt-cheap and last forever. Then all you need is a diode and some wire, and most electronic devices contain plenty of both. In WWII, soldiers would build their own and would substitute a razor-blade and a pencil for the diode!

 

[wyager]

Movements to stick to analog radio are mostly based on nastalgia... Digital radio increases the usable range of most services, allows for higher sound quality, more information transfer (think song info, weather alerts, etc) and really doesn't require that much more hardware. Maybe at most a dirt cheap ARM, in just a minute or so of searching I found a 50Mhz ARM for $2 apiece, without any bulk discounts. That can easily handle the 200khz bandwidth of standard FM radio, probably more. Any good radio/scanner already has that kind of hardware in it.

 

[silver_bacon]

Movements to stick to analog radio are mostly based on nastalgia... Digital radio increases the usable range of most services, allows for higher sound quality, more information transfer (think song info, weather alerts, etc) and really doesn't require that much more hardware. Maybe at most a dirt cheap ARM, in just a minute or so of searching I found a 50Mhz ARM for $2 apiece, without any bulk discounts. That can easily handle the 200khz bandwidth of standard FM radio, probably more. Any good radio/scanner already has that kind of hardware in it.

I have to disagree, though maybe I am not getting your point.

Analog radio is in my opinion, superior to some/most types of digital radio, such as HD Radio. DRM/DAB+ is another story that does not matter since neither are used in the USA.

HD-FM radios cost many times more than an analog radio. The hardware required costs much more, and they have the IBOC tax. Portables need a rechargeable battery because they can not run on AA's. They have potential for great features, don't get me wrong. But the interference, cost to operate and the lack of portability make it difficult to justify. Sound quality is good for HD-FM, but mainly only for the main channel. Sub-channels have the compression sound which Analog radio never has.

HD-AM fails, and always will. Interference is terrible and performance is terrible. AM is very susceptible to interference. When lightning strikes it will knock out HD-AM completely for several seconds, Analog only has a split second of static and is still audible. Not to mention the environment of AM at night makes HD-AM very difficult to use, which is why most stations have to turn it off at night.

HD-FM has some potential, but HD-AM does not. Both of them are very power-hungry, making emergency radios impossible. Analog radios can be listened to without ANY additional power-source, which works for both AM/FM. For easier listening, some can run for days on a single AA battery. Digital radio of all kinds require to much power to run off AA's for any long period of time. And HD-radios will always cost more. I can build a crystal radio by hand for almost nothing, and buy a cheap radio for $5. The cheapest HD radio is about $50. Digital radios require many more components. You also can not tinker with HD-radio as it is proprietary.

The usable range of HD-signal is smaller than that of their Analog signal. Some of that is because of FCC requirements and some of it is because it is digital. LW/AM should always be analog, FM varies. The jury is still out on digital short-wave.

I personally think a properly restored AM tube-radio can give HD-AM a run for it's money when it comes to sound. People often forget about tube-sound, something you will never get with a digital radio.

 

[StarHalo]

When lightning strikes...Analog only has a split second of static and is still audible.

One of my favorite features of the AM band, that crackle you get every time lightning strikes. The louder it gets, the closer the lightning. And when DXing distant signals, you get quiet background crackling from storms hundreds of miles away..

 

[wyager]

1.Analog radio is in my opinion, superior to some/most types of digital radio, such as HD Radio. DRM/DAB+ is another story that does not matter since neither are used in the USA.

2.HD-FM radios cost many times more than an analog radio. The hardware required costs much more, and they have the IBOC tax. Portables need a rechargeable battery because they can not run on AA's. They have potential for great features, don't get me wrong. But the interference, cost to operate and the lack of portability make it difficult to justify. Sound quality is good for HD-FM, but mainly only for the main channel. Sub-channels have the compression sound which Analog radio never has.

3.HD-AM fails, and always will. Interference is terrible and performance is terrible. AM is very susceptible to interference. When lightning strikes it will knock out HD-AM completely for several seconds, Analog only has a split second of static and is still audible. Not to mention the environment of AM at night makes HD-AM very difficult to use, which is why most stations have to turn it off at night.

4.HD-FM has some potential, but HD-AM does not. Both of them are very power-hungry, making emergency radios impossible. Analog radios can be listened to without ANY additional power-source, which works for both AM/FM. For easier listening, some can run for days on a single AA battery. Digital radio of all kinds require to much power to run off AA's for any long period of time. And HD-radios will always cost more. I can build a crystal radio by hand for almost nothing, and buy a cheap radio for $5. The cheapest HD radio is about $50. Digital radios require many more components. You also can not tinker with HD-radio as it is proprietary.

5.The usable range of HD-signal is smaller than that of their Analog signal. Some of that is because of FCC requirements and some of it is because it is digital. LW/AM should always be analog, FM varies. The jury is still out on digital short-wave.

6.I personally think a properly restored AM tube-radio can give HD-AM a run for it's money when it comes to sound. People often forget about tube-sound, something you will never get with a digital radio.

1.About DRM, I feel like I should mention that digital radio CAN be superior, as long as radio companies don't screw it up with DRM. So I'm not saying it always IS better, just that the tech behind it is. Plus, DRMs never stopped anyone tech-savvy from doing anything, LOL.

2.The only reason digital radios cost more is because of retards in the radio companies and retards in government. Increased costs from hardware are on the scales of cents or dollars on the receiver end, and the cost of a cheap, DIY-able encoder on the transmitter end. Radio taxes are a different issue, and you can change those with your votes. Digital radios don't have the same interference analog radios will have, discreet signals NEVER have more interference than analog signals over the same transmission method. That just wouldn't make sense.

3.Digital AM is poorly used, the multi-second blackout is due to poor transmission method choice. However, AM sucks in general anyway so I don't really care, LOL.

4.Agreed. Digital FM>digital AM. However, I'm not sure why you think they're "power hungry". The power used by a decoding chip is negligible, on the scale of milliamps. I have to dig up a datasheet, but my ipod touch can perform audio decoding on very high baudrate audio files for well over 36 hours straight IIRC, and that's with a relatively power-intensive CPU. And again, "HD" radio may be expensive, but that's only because people choose to make it so. And it's far from proprietary... I'm sure if you wanted to, you could make an HD radio pretty easily. And it's just as tinker-able as normal radio, just don't mess with the decoder IC if you don't think you want to deal with the software stuff.

5.Using digital would actually free up a lot of bandwidth. Digital is a lot less sensitive to similar frequency transmissions than analog.

6.That may be the case, but we're talking about portables, not tube radios.

I suppose this is really all up to preferences, but personally I have no problem with digital... no one uses analog for anything else anymore, why should we keep using it with radio?

Edit:LOL, this issue is almost exactly like LED vs Incan (LED being digital radio).

 

[StarHalo]

AM sucks in general anyway

You're on your own there; pretty much all of my radio listening is AM since FM has become almost exclusively homogenized Top 40 Pop format. I'm not really interested in a designating a completely new broadcast band and investing in specialized digital hardware to hear the latest autotuned rap chant. I can go for some NPR, some unique college and community radio stations, some classical, but you'd have to be a pretty die-hard classical fan to want to upgrade your entire radio setup just to listen to that one classical station, NPR and community radio certainly don't call for audiophile audio reproduction..

I'm all about content over sound quality, and when it comes to broadcast radio, good ol' AM is a goldmine in that respect. Sound quality is only a factor when I pick the music, I'm not going to invest hundreds of dollars to sit through other people's formats/playlists, so the internet or satellite radio is the place for high-quality music.

 

[wyager]

OK, again, I'm talking about the technology, NOT the music available, LOL. :nana:

If I want music, I use my iPod. All of the radio stations here are what you're talking about, there's one channel that literally loops the same 4 or 5 sh*t pop songs all day.