Radio help

Hmm_Messiah

Not sure the right forum

My Mum uses a radio to help her sleep at night, that noise thing in her ear, tinnitus, apparently low background noise helps

Anyways she loves, LOVES LOVES BBC but it comes in crappy, think its on LW she finds it

SO would like to get her a radio with the best options for BBC:
sw better?
does DAB work here?

any ideas?

i did get her a world band radio but returned it as it made no difference to the quality of reception

I guess maybe one with a tone option might lower the background hiss etc?

BrianD

where does she live?

Hmm_Messiah

Kilkenny

(so in a hollow but not near any hill or significances)

Balfa

DAB is supposed to provide better signal, but probably doesn't have that much range. Consider GSM base stations have much shorter range than the old analogue cellular antennae.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/digitalradio/about/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Audio_Broadcast


Outdoor long-wave antenna: http://www.wellbrook.uk.com/LFL1010.html


Or short wave such as BBC world service?


It's also possible to listen to the BBC via their website, if you have an always-on internet connection

Zaphod

Audio quality for short wave is generally worse than long wave. I reckon it's unlikely you'd be able to pick up UK DAB in Kilkenny, unless you spent a few bob on masts aerials and amps.

The best quality BBC radio reception you'll get by far is via satellite. Get a basic, no frills free-to-air digital satellite receiver - the Comag ones on sale occasionally in Lidl are ideal - align a dish to Astra 28E (where Sky channels are) and connect to audio out to a hifi/headphones. You'll get crystal clear BBC R4, World Service, and all the rest (R1,R2, R3, R7, R Ulster, Cymru etc) + others such RTÉ, and the World Radio Network which carries NPR etc.
http://www.flysat.com/r-ebird1-astra28.php

dub45

Zaphod wrote:

Audio quality for short wave is generally worse than long wave. I reckon it's unlikely you'd be able to pick up UK DAB in Kilkenny, unless you spent a few bob on masts aerials and amps.

The best quality BBC radio reception you'll get by far is via satellite. Get a basic, no frills free-to-air digital satellite receiver - the Comag ones on sale occasionally in Lidl are ideal - align a dish to Astra 28E (where Sky channels are) and connect to audio out to a hifi/headphones. You'll get crystal clear BBC R4, World Service, and all the rest (R1,R2, R3, R7, R Ulster, Cymru etc) + others such RTÉ, and the World Radio Network which carries NPR etc.
http://www.flysat.com/r-ebird1-astra28.php

All of that may not be practical for a bedroom unfortunately.

Do you have cable tv does it carry FM stations? If so it is pretty easy to connect a radio. If not RTE is availalbe through the night Radio 1 and lyric might be of assitance while a good quality portable cassette/cd player with some talking book tapes might be some sort of substitite for bbc. a lot of bbc material is available on tape or cd.

Hmm_Messiah

thanks for all the suggestions

problem with most is she lives alone, an on pension, and if we did gget in cable/dish for her she'd not manage it .

her meds make her memory abit iffy and she'd forget how to do stuff (like she can't use a walkman etc)

same with say audio books, she doesn't get how taps work when you turn them around lol (don't even start on cds0

Got a world radio for BCC on SW thought that was best, but it was truly off (maybe a crap radio)


ah well the search continues

thankxs again

Zaphod

I'd suggest that you would preprogram the receiver only to the radio channels you want and delete everything else, so ch1 would be R4, ch2 World Service etc and it would be just a case of flicking up and down the channels as they appear on the front LED of the receiver. Perhaps print out a sheet which lists what channel is where. No need for a TV to be attached once setup.

Or if you want to keep it really simple, just pretune it to R4 only and leave it on continually. The receiver could then be put out of way into a well ventilated area and again there would be no need for a TV.

Unfortunately it doesn't matter how much you spend on a SW receiver, the audio quality will never be good and things may get worse as the BBC ceases SW transmissions to Europe in the future.

The only other possibility I can think of is a Worldspace radio. As the coverage for this isn't great in W. Europe, you might need to install an external aerial but audio quality should be significantly better than SW. Haven't any experience of it myself, but you should trying searching the forums for 'worldspace' as there are existing users on boards.

http://www.worldspace.com/