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Col_T

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Lady wife has decided that she would like a radio onboard, and that she would like it to be 'retro' style. The difficulty is that none that I have seen so far have a socket for an external aerial, so the obvious question is what is the best way of improving, or maybe that should be getting, some reception inside the boat?

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I'm also a fan of using car radios aboard, I have one forward and the other aft. Both are DAB and Bluetooth. They have USB ports as well so provide the additional benefit of being able to charge phones which is useful as I normally stream from my phone to my car radio via USB.  Being small/compact, they don't get in the way. I'd recommend Sony or Pioneer units. I have JVC units which are not the best. Most have phono outputs which are useful if you want to connect up a sub-woofer. 

RichM

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I have had a Roberts rechargeable DAB for years now, it's excellent and as long as the aerial is pointing at the window the reception is pretty good. It recharges when the inverter is on, but will give many hours of playtime unplugged. 

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We have a Roberts Vintage DAB radio. Works very well. We have travelled miles north and south and it's always works.

I have a question. The radio is on and good quality sound etc. When you turn on the telly the radio goes off. Turn the telly off and the radio comes back on. Whys that then?

https://www.johnlewis.com/roberts-vintage-dab-digital-radio/p231323435?sku=231323435&s_kwcid=2dx92700025356315447&tmad=c&tmcampid=2&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIp4jIj__y1gIVxEAbCh3zXQ6yEAQYAiABEgIFEvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Edited by Nightwatch
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47 minutes ago, Nightwatch said:

We have a Roberts Vintage DAB radio. Works very well. We have travelled miles north and south and it's always works.

I have a question. The radio is on and good quality sound etc. When you turn on the telly the radio goes off. Turn the telly off and the radio comes back on. Whys that then?

https://www.johnlewis.com/roberts-vintage-dab-digital-radio/p231323435?sku=231323435&s_kwcid=2dx92700025356315447&tmad=c&tmcampid=2&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIp4jIj__y1gIVxEAbCh3zXQ6yEAQYAiABEgIFEvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

If by "goes off" you mean you lose signal - and for DAB at least that means no sound at all - then that certainly happens to me, which I attribute to a clash of signals generated by the TV. OTOH if you mean the radio physically turn off - then I have no explanation. If the sets were separated by a larger distance (I don't get the problem between the tv amidships   and a DAB in the bedroom.

For this latter I have bodged a connection to an external whip aerial as it didn't work reliably without. Now it's magic, wakes us up to R4 - the Management commands such...

 

Edited by OldGoat
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8 minutes ago, LadyG said:

I bought a nice portable radio from Aldi, and blew the loudspeaker by forcing too many volts in to it,  everything works except the speaker, can i get another speaker of some sort?

 

If its got a jack plug socket for ear phones on it you could plug little speakers into it, they should work if it was only the speaker itself that blew.

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3 minutes ago, bizzard said:

If its got a jack plug socket for ear phones on it you could plug little speakers into it, they should work if it was only the speaker itself that blew.

ok, I ll try that, but i only have little earphones or big ones

Edited by LadyG
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6 minutes ago, LadyG said:

ok, I ll try that, but i only have little earphones or big ones

If you could tune your ear drums into the radio programs frequency, quite high in the frequences, you should be able to listen to it directly without a radio at all. Like a dog can hear a dog whistle but we can't. Not callin you a dog or anythin, just explaining.  :giggles:

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When we leave the boat we always power everything off using the isolater switches. Consequently we lose the memorised stations from the car radio.

Has anybody come up with a smart way around this. A permanent live feed from the battery would have to go full length of the boat

Edited by Cheshire cat
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1 hour ago, bizzard said:

If you could tune your ear drums into the radio programs frequency, quite high in the frequences, you should be able to listen to it directly without a radio at all. Like a dog can hear a dog whistle but we can't. Not callin you a dog or anythin, just explaining.  :giggles:

Leaving aside the difference between the electromagnetic radio waves, and the compressive sound waves, would that not be a bit confusing; hearing the cricket commentary, the footy commentary, the current music charts, classic,  the shipping forecast, the news and the Archers, all at the same time? :giggles::o

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7 minutes ago, Iain_S said:

would that not be a bit confusing; hearing the cricket commentary, the footy commentary, the current music charts, classic,  the shipping forecast, the news and the Archers, all at the same time? :giggles::o

I’m led to believe that women can do that quite easily...

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1 hour ago, Cheshire cat said:

When we leave the boat we always power everything off using the isolater switches. Consequently we lose the memorised stations from the car radio.

Has anybody come up with a smart way around this. A permanent live feed from the battery would have to go full length of the boat

Don't do what I did: 12v NiCd cells, fed through diode and resistor, connected to the "always live" radio connection. I didn't realise car radios use that as the main power feed nowadays, so everything got a bit hot!

Could bypass a similar set up with a relay supplying the power when master switch on, I suppose, but that means a permanently energised relay ... Maybe just beef up the diode, and connect upstream of the resistor?

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12 minutes ago, WotEver said:

I’m led to believe that women can do that quite easily...

My experience would suggest not ... although I suppose they only hear what they want to hear, so ...

(Rapidly donning flak jacket and helmet)

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On ‎15‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 18:40, Cheshire cat said:

When we leave the boat we always power everything off using the isolater switches. Consequently we lose the memorised stations from the car radio.

Has anybody come up with a smart way around this. A permanent live feed from the battery would have to go full length of the boat

When I leave my boat I leave everything on, well isolation switches and gas anyway I never turn them off. Do people turn their mains off and gas off in their houses when they go on holiday as I never did in the bad old days as a house dweller? Answers on a postcard please.

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52 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

When I leave my boat I leave everything on, well isolation switches and gas anyway I never turn them off. Do people turn their mains off and gas off in their houses when they go on holiday as I never did in the bad old days as a house dweller? Answers on a postcard please.

Don't have gas in the house, but I certainly turn the water off after having a filter burst and flood the living room.   I turn everything off on the boat, ticking off a list because I don't want to be away for a week wondering if I've left the gas on or a light to flatten the battery.

Can't send a postcard 'cos I've only got counterfeit stamps.

  • Haha 1
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Maybe not very retro ... but three cheers for the Roberts Solar DAB.

https://www.robertsradio.com/uk/products/radio/dab/solardab-2

Runs on solar in bright sun (or charges the chargeable batteries when off). Pretty good sound for mono. We replaced the first one (which still works) after seven years really because it was so scratched up. The new one -- a version 2 -- gets a few more stations, including the important JAZZ FM. Probably the most important device on the boat after the loo.

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On 10/15/2017 at 18:40, Cheshire cat said:

When we leave the boat we always power everything off using the isolater switches. Consequently we lose the memorised stations from the car radio.

Has anybody come up with a smart way around this. A permanent live feed from the battery would have to go full length of the boat

I have a separate live feed from the battery, via an in-line fuse, to the radio/CD player as well as a normal switched supply.

At first I ran a small wire, thinking it only needed to supply the memory so would draw very little current.  However I found that although the radio would work ok when the main supply was on, the CD player didn't.  It appears that the main supply feeds the radio and electronics, the unswitched feed supplies the memory and the CD motor.

Replaced unswitched feed with thicker wire (4mm^2) and all is well.   Cable runs from battery at the stern to radio at the front and is probably about 16 metres.

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We bought a high quality Bluetooth speaker and just use our phones.. even in crap signal areas I can pick up radio 4 by hanging the phone in a porthole! Wonderfully simple.. also the OH uses Spotify as he's seriously into his music.. we are on 3 sim only - 30GB each per month.. plenty enough and the signal is usually good enough to stream video too. The Bluetooth speaker plugs into or Bluetooths from all our gadgets and is really good quality. Cheap and reliable.. 8+hours from one charge on the inverter..

 

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