Random Radio

Why not a dual speaker, stereo digital one?

Yes, hello!!!

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Ease of use is a big factor. The cheaper dab radios are not that easy to use and are poor quality, the battery life also an issue. The nicer radios are expensive in my view a rip off a bit. If I had to buy a nicer one this would be it.

But it has too many buttons.

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Yeah I know, but Iā€™m using that as a sort of test, the levels obviously have to be of a certain level for the radio to decode & the Sydney ones happen to be at that level, whereas the Newcastle ones donā€™t.

That also means the Sydney ones are very strong ATM, probably much stronger than Iā€™m getting the locals?

I did put my SONY XDR-P1DBP radio (which is also DSP) next to it, & the SONY exhibited that same issues, tuned in the same stations & either payed them or didnā€™t, locals were no good, Sydney was good, RDS on the SONY showed on some Sydney stations with no problem, some local stations wouldnā€™t show any RDS on the SONY.

Iā€™m going to get some batteries & go test it in a park or something, because I found AM to be similar, it auto tuned in plenty of stations including the Sydney ones, but all I could hear was silence or noise, with faint audio in the background on a couple of the local AMā€™s.

There must be something around my house interfering with the AMā€™s, but it doesnā€™t show up on other AM radios without DSP, so thatā€™s thrown another spanner in the works. Do I have poor reception here & the DSP canā€™t handle it, or is there actually a problem with DSP chip decoding & passing the audio?

The SONY is FM & DAB, so I canā€™t test it on the AM side, I canā€™t even get out one of my Sangeans with DSP to test, because Iā€™m pretty sure they are DSP on FM, but oldskool tuner on AM?

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Update on the Flea Market Boombox.

I put batteries in, & took it to the park where radio is normally good, with no nearby electrical interference from power lines, etc.

FM reception was slightly better, but not good enough for me, AM reception was either silence or just a buzz on any given station it tuned into.

I took it back today & got a replacement, FM antenna on this one is firm (like it should normally be), it doesnā€™t flop around.

FM reception is much better, no problems getting all local stations with Stereo now, in the same spot at home as yesterday, except 2NURFM, canā€™t pick that up at all, but then canā€™t get it on the SONY in the same spot either.

AM reception is slightly better, but I still get a lot of white noise or a buzz on various stations, Iā€™ll try that at the park some other time, but think Iā€™ll just have to live with it.
Itā€™s so hard to find a good AM radio these days, Iā€™ve bought a few of late where AM just doesnā€™t work at all, so I donā€™t know why they bother having it on the radio?
It could have something to do with being DSP chips, & not oldskool tuners & the AM wavelengths?

I think the AM buzz on this radio could be caused by the LED lights built in lighting up the speakers, maybe Iā€™ll open it up & disconnect them, a Blue glow from the speakers looks good, but has no actual benefit.

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The Digitech AR-1780 that I got last week has great AM performance, it gets most of the Sydney AM stations with only low levels of static, 702 doesnā€™t appear to have any static.

It was on special just before Christmas at $89.

https://www.jaycar.com.au/compact-world-band-radio-with-ssb/p/AR1780

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Impressive from Preston to Charlestown.

Disconnect now! Sounds completely unnecessary.

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Iā€™ve noticed since last night that Online Radio Box no longer provides the links to SCA, ARN, Nova Entertainment & Grant Broadcasters stations, either to listen online through it and/or to check on their playlists.

Wonder whatā€™s going on there? Did anyone else noticed it? :thinking:

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Yes, what is going on? Very unhelpful.

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  • why would it be on a Friday in the middle of the holiday week between Christmas and New Year?

Friday 28 December?

Is this more proof of CRA with their head firmly in the sand of protectionism thinking that they and only they should control how the audience listen to their online streaming?

The world is moving on and leaving these dinosaurs behind.

Still working via www.radioau.net where I currently have Mix 94.5 streaming.

Onlineradiobox - ABC, 2CH, 2SM, 3AW, 6PR, 2CA, 2CC, Mix/Sea Sunshine Coast, Rebel/Breeze are working

5AA, 2GB, even stations like i98 and Hot Tomato (which has multiple streaming choices on their website, the best around) are not working. Same for SEN (yet SEN+, the 1377 signal still is working). Mandurah duo 97.3 Coast and 91.7 The Wave are not working either yet continue via radioau and other sources (as they all do).

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Yes, Online Radio Box has just confirmed this ā€œā€¦some stations were removed at the request of CRAā€¦ā€

CRA takes the prize as Australiaā€™s Christmas Grinch, well done you dinosaurs.

Breathtaking hypocrisy that can only be laughed at by the wider community, first they moan and whinge and remove their streaming altogether over online streaming royalties yet now they try to stop others from further propagating their streams.

A listener is a listener, no matter where theyā€™re coming from.

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With Online Radio Box getting ā€œblacklistedā€ by CRA, therefore no longer providing music logs online for most Australian commercial stations, Iā€™ve since found another website that comes close.

https://radiovolna.net/en/australia/

Like Online Radio Box, it provides a 6-day song history for a number of stations. Hereā€™s WS for example: https://radiovolna.net/en/8888-ws-fm-1017-pure-gold.html

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City of Melbourne NYE station on 99.7 FM has become active. Occasional dead air but mostly music and info.

Audio is a bit suss. Sounds like a cheap-n-nasty or unsophisticated audio processor being driven way too hard.

Supposedly broadcasting from the top of Eureka with 200 watts. But not all that strong driving around the inner burbs. Maybe theyā€™re not running the full licensed power. Should have great coverage from there with an OD antenna.

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What happened?

Itā€™s not bad. Showing a more extensive list of most played songs is quite interesting. So many old songs on the list for Nova for example.

18 Sia-Elastic Heart
19 Avicii-Wake Me Up
22 Adele-Rolling In the Deep
23 Justin Bieber-What Do You Mean?
24 Dua Lipa-New Rules Dua Lipa - New Rules
26 Kings of Leon-Sex On Fire
27 Ed Sheeran-Thinking Out Loud
28 Ed Sheeran-Shape of You
30 Justin Bieber-Love Yourself
31 Outkast-Hey Ya!
32 Eminem-Without Me
33 Christina Aguilera-Fighter
34 Wham!-Last Christmas
36 Rihanna-Diamonds
37 Rihanna-Only Girl (In the World)
38 Justin Bieber-Sorry Justin Bieber - Sorry

Apparently, Online Radio Box were being asked by CRA to remove most Australian commercial radio stations from their website, namely those owned by SCA, ARN, Nova, Grant & few other smaller commercial players.

But why though?

My guess would probably be something to do with issues with copyright or music licencing.

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Online Radio Box removed streams debacle

Plenty more to come on this matter, Iā€™m keenly pursuing it.

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surely CRA are trying to simply prop up their Radio App?

Probably, but the internet doesnā€™t work the way they wish it did.

The era of walled gardens are over, they think theyā€™re in a renaissance of this by having an app, but thereā€™s plenty more devices and audiences beyond the limited reach of their app.

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On commercial FM music stations, I suspect there is a lot of voice tracking going on these days even in daytime local shifts, in both metro and provincial markets.

I say this as the announcers continually talk over the top of the intro of songs right up until the very nanosecond that the vocals start.

Which makes it sound slick and tightly formatted, but a bit annoying at the same time.

Or do they have software that tells them how long they have left to speak until the vocals start?

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