In the latest BigW Catalogue. Mixed reviews, but probably worth a punt for $12.
Product Features:
Rechargeable battery
LCD display
Dual alarm
20 Station presets
Headphone ouput
FM Radio
I'll be considering running the headphone jack into a cheap amp (e.g. TPA3116 from ebay) if the speaker is no good.
Those fm emergecies. Scary stuff
You say that but the amount of times places in Sydney has blackouts…
1st world country indeed.
but the amount of times places in Sydney has blackouts…
Yes, you wouldn't want to miss out on Alan Jones because of a blackout…
funny how you do.
I find it funnier that you don't know that most major AM stations also broadcast on DAB+
Don't have a phone?
Lived in Sydney 10+ years. Not a single blackout
Can't go without radio for a few hours?
I just found the term emegency quite funny to describe an fm radio. I must be out of touch
emergency radio…
DAB+ units are quite high drain, so likely only to last a few to maybe 8 hours - depending on (unstated) battery capacity.
Standard AM/FM radio lasts so much longer & batteries can be swapped over. A much better choice for emergency radio.
Tested these in BigW - low volume - almost had to put up to my ear to hear in that noisier environment.
Stereo broadcasts only in mono on tiny speaker. Stereo output via headphone socket - but audio usually of low quality.
Generic radio module is common to many cheap DAB+ radios. Preset stations require multiple presses to change station.
Check you receive DAB+ reception before buying. Capitals & few regional cities only. Some dead spots in those areas.
Certainly been better & sometimes cheaper DAB+ radios. $10 Target DAB+/FM mantle radio - Expired (USB powered / AA batteries, not rechargeable, much better volume & sound quality)
Often you can recharge these from a usb powerbank. We have a cheap $5 kmart special in our bathroom that gets about a month worth of showers out of a cheap powerbank and a full internal battery charge.
Yes, most charge from 5V power, but may need correct plug / cable from radio to USB power.
From memory this radio uses a micro-USB power socket - so easy to use USB power. However, the power / amp circuit board is common to many cheap DAB radios & the micro-USB socket may easily fail, rendering the unit useless (battery can't be charged).
From experience small DAB+ radios have around 600mAh batteries - so don't last long (maybe 3 hours) before needing recharge. Powerbank will significantly extend use.
The old $9 Kmart DAB+/FM ones I use had 18650 1500mA batteries, charged via micro-USB socket, & last 8 hours on a charge.
Much better off using your phone and TuneIn radio…
Emergency may mean internet is down…
So all the myriad of ads that overrun the app will be down as well. Win win.
As much as I enjoy digital radio, the critical thing that is holding it back is that reception is virtually unavailable outside of the major cities. Big fail for me.
The reception being not that great unless your in the middle of city makes DAB useless.
I've got DAB+ in my car and have been perpetually amazed by how good the coverage is around Melbourne and Adelaide metro… I think DAB+ is really held back by the poor quality devices (like these) that most people are forced to use to access it…
Love having Double J in the car! (wish ABC would broadcast it on FM though…)
What's the dimension for this? Able to fit in pocket?
It encompasses all three dimensions.
I have this one on my desk across the street from DFAT, Canberra. The signal reception is a weak (need to find the right spot on the desk), there is some ambient noise (even when works on its battery), it is 80kbit (ABC online streaming is way better), but they can still drive Bose QS25 (similar radio from BigW^wKmart could not - there were no lows). ok for the open space office use. Meh.
I have one of this purchased for about $20 a while back. It's not amazing, but it does fine receiving all the signals where I am in Perth, the FM works fine as well.
Pros:
Cheap
does what it says on the box
headphone out socket
internal battery lasts a few hours, and uses a micro USB socket so you can run it off any 5V USB power supply
clock and alarm function, so works well for camping
Cons:
fidgety buttons are not easy to use (my parents still can't figure out how to change the preset stations
not very loud internal speaker
Yeah its no point running DAB into anything better than a Z623 and even that's overkill.
DAB broadcast is typically 80kb/s and doesnt sound much better than std fm radio.
Still… $12 for an emergency radio is decent.