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General Vintage Technology Discussions For general discussions about vintage radio and other vintage electronics etc. |
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23rd Sep 2020, 9:21 pm | #1 |
Nonode
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Stockport, Greater Manchester, UK.
Posts: 2,105
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Is Radio as we know it obsolescent?
Last year my wife suggested for her Christmas present that I get her a bedside DAB radio-alarm. I started looking but she changed her mind so I got her something else. This year I wanted to get one for her birthday so I went out looking again. What was different was how few DAB radios there are in the shops now. Last year I had concluded that really the only ones on the market that really fit the bill were the Pure Siesta series so I popped into the local Currys, who had no Pure models and only a handful of others, most of which were reduced for a quick sale. No matter, I knew they had them in Argos. During the epidemic you have to order for delivery so I went home and selected the Pure Siesta Mi Series 2 DAB+/FM Alarm Clock Radio. When you try to 'add to basket' it shows 'not available' so I went to the Pure website where exactly the same events happened.
In the end I went on eBay and found an earlier and arguably preferable model from the series: it is white and doesn't have Bluetooth. Pure now only make docking stations, Bluetooth speakers and internet radios. Why would anyone want a radio which has to receive RF signals from outside your room? I mean, your wifi is always on, and all the music you want to listen to is already on your phone. Young people now don't know what a radio is and don't want to listen to the news or 'programmes' about anything they are not already interested in. I sound cynical but they all manage somehow to explore new and emerging artists and music styles through media channels that I don't know about. I don't buy many new cars these days so I don't know if DAB radios are offered as up-market options now, but when I was browsing for what to choose for my next car I didn't see that option. - again it's Bluetooth and docking stations that people want. It's not just DAB radios that are disappearing from the shelves these days, radios of any sort are going out of favour. Another product that is getting scarce now is the corded headphone or earbud. Just look in the shops. Plenty of Bluetooth earbuds which obviously you use with your phone which contains all the music you want to listen to, but there doesn't seem to be any kind of Bluetooth sender device that you can plug into your phono preamp or CD player. Cordless proper headphones are wonderful but you can't walk around with the base unit plugged into your mp3 player. The domestic TV nowadays is an internet-connected device which offers more channels that you can get from any transmitter, terrestrial or satellite. btw, the pre-loved radio-alarm suffers from the Pure malfunctioning buttons syndrome: you press one and nothing happens, so you press it again, and again... until suddenly you've pressed /every button simultaneously and started a rescan or switched to FM or overwritten one of your presets. Otherwise they are all functionally wonderful.
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23rd Sep 2020, 9:44 pm | #2 |
Octode
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 1,453
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Re: Is Radio as we know it obsolescent?
I've always thought that DAB would prove to be a technological diversion as by the time that had fully caught on mobile internet would be reliable and cheap enough for that to do the same thing. In houses you can get 'radio' via Sky/Virgin or FreeView as well as the internet.
As for Bluetooth transmitters for existing equipment there seems to be plenty on e-Bay and AliExpress at around the £2 mark. Not something I'm interested in as the wire stops the earphones dropping on the floor. |
23rd Sep 2020, 9:57 pm | #3 | |
Nonode
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Stockport, Greater Manchester, UK.
Posts: 2,105
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Re: Is Radio as we know it obsolescent?
Quote:
Just looked on eBay, thanks. I see they seem to be sold typically as "Bluetooth Receiver 3.5mm" Will order one
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23rd Sep 2020, 10:06 pm | #4 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Wigan, Greater Manchester, UK.
Posts: 9,433
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Re: Is Radio as we know it obsolescent?
Appear to be plenty of radios on Pure.com web site.
https://www.pure.com/en-GB/audio-hif...type_DABRadios
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Frank |
23rd Sep 2020, 10:12 pm | #5 | |
Octode
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, UK.
Posts: 1,652
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Re: Is Radio as we know it obsolescent?
Quote:
So for me, even in the UK, radio on VHF and sometimes on MW/LW, is far from obsolete. One area of radio which appears to have been declared obsolete by the government is HF radio as used by radio amateurs. The government - despite laws saying they mustn't - have allowed devices which effectively blank out most of the HF spectrum to proliferate, and if you live in any sort of built-up area, you will probably find that HF reception is now severely degraded. Having said that, I note the SAS still have the antenna farm up and running near me, which consists of a lot of very impressive towers with rotatable HF log-periodics on the top. No doubt they are playing for safety when the Russians start shooting the satellites out of the sky. Richard |
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23rd Sep 2020, 10:22 pm | #6 |
Moderator
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Exeter, Devon and Poole, Dorset UK.
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Re: Is Radio as we know it obsolescent?
Reluctantly I have to say yes for most radio even RDS the time seems to be passing.
We have more smart speakers in daily use now than radios. It's going to mean in the next few years there will be nothing broadcast for our sets to pick up at all. Cheers Mike T
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Invisible airwaves crackle with life or at least they used to Mike T BVWS member. www.cossor.co.uk |
23rd Sep 2020, 10:39 pm | #7 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Oxfordshire, UK.
Posts: 4,934
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Re: Is Radio as we know it obsolescent?
I am a quite a fan of Internet radios; I think the current estimate of the number of stations available is going towards 40,000.
I use an internet radio as the source for my pantry transmitter. So apart from all the usual stuff that anyone might listen to in the UK, I listen to a number of stations doing vintage comedy, stations specialising in certain types of music (there's a station playing the Beatles 24/7/365 if you want that), and as an insomniac, I listen to CBC in Canada and the National Public Radio (NPR) network in the US, both of which have content which is very high quality. The time difference means they are still doing evening shows well in to our night. Alternatively, I may just listen to BBC Radio Leeds to keep me informed on the fantastic premiership football going on there now. I have some DAB sets, including a Roberts with very good sound quality, but I cannot recall when I last switched one on. B
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23rd Sep 2020, 11:00 pm | #8 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Wigan, Greater Manchester, UK.
Posts: 9,433
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Re: Is Radio as we know it obsolescent?
I normally use DAB but listening to a 40 year old Panasonic FM radio at the moment. I do occasionally listen the internet radio but normally is a standard radio. To be honest I would miss the radio much more than the TV, if the TV went off air I would manage quite well with the old radio.
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Frank |
24th Sep 2020, 12:38 am | #9 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Fakenham, Norfolk, UK.
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Re: Is Radio as we know it obsolescent?
I suppose DAB has had quite a good innings as technologies go, in that the service began something over 20 years ago and it won't be vanishing just yet. Four of the six radios in most regular use here are DAB models (two of which also offer FM) between 15 and 18 years old. I've only the vaguest idea of Bluetooth and the preponderance of current radios featuring it came as a fresh surprise to me, which only goes to show that I've not been paying attention lately: in the light of such developments "obsolescent" seems probably a fair term for radio as such. I'll be using it while it and I both last, and will decide whether to investigate an alternative if I should happen to outlive the transmitters.
Paul |
24th Sep 2020, 1:34 am | #10 |
Dekatron
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Greater Manchester, UK.
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Re: Is Radio as we know it obsolescent?
It would be nice to have radio as I know it in my car, but I don't.
If I did I would have liked to tune across the FM band to see if I could hear any DX stations during the recent "lift", but I can't. The radio handles FM stations in a similar way to DAB, there is no concept of manual tuning. No MW at all. As for LW, it was quite a few cars ago when I had that.
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24th Sep 2020, 9:05 am | #11 | |
Nonode
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Stockport, Greater Manchester, UK.
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Re: Is Radio as we know it obsolescent?
Quote:
Must emphasise that my tongue was firmly in my cheek when I said all the radio you need is available from your wifi. Another thread is currently discussing the village where every user lost broadband every morning! We were without broadband for 10 days last month while BT got their act together to change what turned out to be the router. Fortunately they refunded the small fortune we'd run up on mobile data
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24th Sep 2020, 2:05 pm | #12 |
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Re: Is Radio as we know it obsolescent?
Radio may be on its last legs, wireless however seems to be on the way up.
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24th Sep 2020, 2:31 pm | #13 | |
Octode
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Reading/Fakenham, UK.
Posts: 1,323
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Re: Is Radio as we know it obsolescent?
Quote:
That's what I use my Alexa for, although to be honest it's usually sending BBCR4 to my pantry transmitter to provide a lovely, noise-free signal around the house and garden! Ian |
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24th Sep 2020, 3:08 pm | #14 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Oxfordshire, UK.
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Re: Is Radio as we know it obsolescent?
I feel very much that Internet radio has taken me back to where I started - being a Short Wave listener. The main difference is that now I can get stations in Australia!
B
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24th Sep 2020, 3:26 pm | #15 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
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Re: Is Radio as we know it obsolescent?
I think *broadcast* radio as-we've-known-it-for-the-last-century, where you have a limited number of stations who provide what-they-think-people-want-to-hear, is very much a dying thing.
And to be honest I'm not that concerned. Internet-radio in all its forms [podcasts, streaming, playlists, live-listening] is great - providing a choice that people last-century could only have dreamed of, while also giving us a view of other countries that was also previously beyond-possible. [I love the way I can search for, and find, loads of stuff like K-Pop, Bhangra, J-Pop, 90s Eurobeat or considered and detailed financial analysis from someone working in Wall Street, all (largely) for free. OK, I'm not too fazed by hearing ads for a New York Lexus-dealership or what I can only interpret as Korean videogames - they add intrigue and amusement]. I prefer hearing occasional ads to hearing some 'presenter' or 'DeeJay' doing the random train-of-thought-which-runs-into-the-buffers thing between tracks. Most of my 'entertainment' listening these days is via online-sources; I've got an old laptop (only 512Mb RAM) running a minimalist Linux install which is great for realtime streaming (either via a pantry-transmitter to the summerhouse/bathroom/kitchen/bedroom radios or via a wired link to my main audio-system) and downloading playlists to a USB-stick; my car-radios are all USB-aware so I can have my chosen content with me on the move [an 8Gb USB stick holds a _lot_ of stuff - no more shuffling with cassettes or CDs]. Where this leaves 'classic' broadcast-radio: lots of the legacy MW stations are either not bothering to renew their licences with Ofcom, or are not actually able to. MW these days is much quieter than it was in the 80s and 90s - which sort-of pleases us DX-minded types - though it's a shame we no longer have the likes of AFN to listen to - I used to love tuning into their live broadcasts of boxing-matches/baseball-games in the 60s and 70s. The shortwave broadcast-bands have seen a large proportion of the 'National Overseas Services' close down since the turn of the millennium - now your choice seems to be between a few legacy propaganda-stations and religious-fundamentalists of various flavours (some of which are worth listening-to as late-night comedy!). Sunday mornings can be interesting though - between 6.2 and 6.4MHz there's a bunch of free-radio stations where you can re-live those old Pirate Radio memories. My hope-for-the-future would be for Ofcom to introduce some sort of cheap-and-cheerful licensing scheme [pay £100, get a licence to run up to 1Kw to broadcast what-you-like provided it's not obviously illegal] for both MW and FM bands. I suspect quite a few of the current FM-pirates would find £100 cheap insurance against the occasional Ofcom raids, though it might cramp their promotion of raves and recreational-chemistry a bit. There are already DAB pirates in some cities! Last edited by G6Tanuki; 24th Sep 2020 at 3:31 pm. |
24th Sep 2020, 3:26 pm | #16 |
Octode
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Wrexham, North Wales, UK.
Posts: 1,457
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Re: Is Radio as we know it obsolescent?
The future of analog looks to be on it's last legs, MW only has 2 stations, LW only has 1.
FM ain't really worth listening to nowadays either, most local independent stations are now based in London, that's a turn-off for me. The only time I will listen to FM is if it's turned to 98.5 at 1AM Monday/Tuesday morning, Radio 1's D&B show is awesome, not that anyone on this forum would want to listen to boy racer type garage music! In the near future, I may invest in a Spitfire unit, possibly with some sort of processor if need be, at least the old radios can play something worth listening to. Most listening here is done either with DAB (Kisstory is a great station, for a 90's kid anyhow) and online, streaming is the future, can't seem to get a valve set to do that at the moment though, unless a transmitter is used.
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24th Sep 2020, 3:30 pm | #17 |
Octode
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Wrexham, North Wales, UK.
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Re: Is Radio as we know it obsolescent?
Really? Which cities are they in?
Suddenly, Radio became more interesting than it was before, never realised DAB could be turned into something pirate, I'll go on the lookout for a transmitter, not that I'd know how to set it up though, just for curiousity. It crossed my mind to set up a MW station but OFCOM would love me for life after that!
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Rick, the annoying object roaming the forum. |
24th Sep 2020, 3:38 pm | #18 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 13,998
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Re: Is Radio as we know it obsolescent?
Dublin and Cork certainly have DAB pirates:
https://radiotoday.ie/2019/09/pirate...blin-and-cork/ and the technology's been around for 7 or 8 years.... https://www.theregister.com/2013/08/...to_the_masses/ There's been a couple of DAB free-radio stations in London too. Because they're not worried about cramming loads of streams into the Mux they're sitting-on, they can do really-good audio quality (perfect for that Wub...Wub...Wub... bassline) |
24th Sep 2020, 3:42 pm | #19 |
Octode
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Wrexham, North Wales, UK.
Posts: 1,457
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Re: Is Radio as we know it obsolescent?
Radio suddenly got a whole lot more interesting, I'll check out these stations in due course.
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Rick, the annoying object roaming the forum. Last edited by Glowing Bits!; 24th Sep 2020 at 3:43 pm. Reason: Taken out the end bit, it turns rather political! |
24th Sep 2020, 4:24 pm | #20 |
Heptode
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Hythe, Hampshire, UK.
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Re: Is Radio as we know it obsolescent?
Analogue 10 year stay of execution https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/...nded_10_years/
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