Back to the future

[Nicklyons2]

I'm a great radio listener, more than a TV viewer; I like the radio on all day but with the multiplicity of radio stations and the intrusiveness of the mobile phone I can't always get to hear what I want when it's on 'live'.

Years ago I bought a mini hi-fi with MiniDisc built in which, with incredible patience could be programmed to record the inbuilt tuner onto the MD. Drawbacks - only 1 event and the clock would revert to fashing 12:00 at the slightest mains glitch and the recording would be lost.

Hooray then when my first PVR turned up to record the radio channels from Freeview - my first PVR would do it - the newer ones don't, they ignore Radio 'events'.

Ah well never mind I'll buy one of those internet radio gizmos and use the 'listen again' feature. Fiddly to 'dial in' the prog name, and the BBC could be a bit 'tardy' in making some of the progs available the same day but I got used to it until, earlier this year, "my radio does not support the changed listen again service".

And now the new bright idea: out with the 1970s Hitachi Radio-Cassette machine and a £5 plug-top digital timer - if the prog is on MW/LW or VHF it's stand-alone if its Freeview radio it's aux in from an old DigiBox. It works and, what's more, I can take out the tape and listen to it in the car! All the money & all the tech of the other stuff and I'm back to recording it on a 1970s Radio-Cassette - the thing is - it just works.

And as a P.S. I hear Vinyl sales are the highest in years Back to the Future....!

[jonnybear]

I can remember when the first HONG KONG transistor radios arrived, they all sounded like the speaker diaphragm was made out of a baked bean tin lid, now a days people spend hundreds of pounds on their phones and listen to the same sort of sound, If I listen to music it has to be with decent equipment and speakers if I can not have that, silence is golden.
John

[paulsherwin]

PVRs should be able to record Freeview radio, though you may need to program the recording times manually.

A HiFi VCR was always a good way to time shift radio programmes, but the lack of analogue TV transmissions tends to result in the timer clock drifting and needing periodic resetting.

The changes to the BBC Listen Again facility (and other streaming changes) have caused MASSIVE grief for internet radio users, as opposed to people using tablets and smartphones who seem to be the only listeners who matter nowadays. This subject is OT here though - a bit of googling will find lots of 'discussions' of the subject.

[mark pirate]

All the money & all the tech of the other stuff and I'm back to recording it on a 1970s Radio-Cassette - the thing is - it just works.

I use equipment of a similar age, a Pioneer audio timer, JVC cassette deck and a Pioneer tuner.
It has never failed to record a programme, it's only limited by the length of cassette used.

Mark

[Nicklyons2]

I've done both the manual and clicking the 'guide' programming for radio on the PVR; it accepts both ways, puts them in the record list BUT never does them.

The VCR route I'd forgotten about; I'd briefly dallied with this, years ago, but it fell into disuse because, where I lived at the time, the video and TV weren't near the hi-fi setup and I couldn't be bothered with all the long leads; also the difficulty of finding the bit you want to hear & shuttling about made it tedious IMHO. ( good for the long radio plays though)

The internet radio 'thing' made me most cross though; I mean to say the radio wasn't cheap, AFAIK there aren't any cheap internet radios; it's alot to invest c.£100+ in a radio which in around a year was rendered nigh-on useless. Similarly, I remember retailers still putting out 'SetPal' (et al)freeview boxes within months of them being rendered totally useless by Freeview changes.

The broadcasters in the past had regard for the listener's/viewer's investment in their equipment and did their best to smooth in changes - duplication of BBC1 & ITV on 405/625 (15 yrs) - Radios 2,3 & 4 on a.m./f.m (25yrs+) - BT with DC loop phones still working on fully electronic exchanges carrying broadband on the same line. Alas their interest in the, what I suppose I should now call, the 'service user' seems to be not what it was.

Fortunately I've plenty of cassettes to re-use and, unless the 'powers that be' decide to decimalise time, my £5 timer shouldn't be rendered obsolete, Any way must go now and set up for the Archers Omnibus at 10:00 hrs!

[emeritus]

My own then-top range HIFi Panasonic SVHS VCR (NV-HS950) wold only record audio from teh radio if it received video input as well. otherwise it turned itself off after a few minutes. I used the colour bar video output of an analogue video processing box when recording audio. Useful for recording the whole 8 hours of the Harry Potter story from the radio a few Christmases ago.

Recently I had been using the cassette deck of a mains Sony music centre to record BBC programmes that are available for listening but not for download, but have now found that I can record them using my laptop by feeding the headphone output into the mike/audio input using a 3.5mm jumper lead.

[Radio Wrangler]

I made a modded remote control box for my A77 with a switch, timer and relay so it would start up in record when a timer applied mains, or work normally.

David

[Lloyd 1985]

Originally Posted by Nicklyons2

unless the 'powers that be' decide to decimalise time...

Don't give them ideas!!!

I'm pleased you posted this though, as I nearly bought one of those over expensive internet radios, since I can't find any stations I like on DAB or FM!

I totally agree though, tapes are the way forward! So simple to use... Except when Bang & Olufsen get involved!

I have an MP3 recorder that holds 20gb, from the days when Apple had competition from Philips for their iPod range! It was OK to use, not easy, mostly because when you press a button you expect something to happen immediately, not 5 seconds later, and it had a habit of freezing up sometimes too. Sound quality was good, and you could easily get a good few hours of recording time from it, then just edit the bits you don't want out.

Regards,
Lloyd.

[paulsherwin]

If you record radio from a Freeview box using a VCR, this will provide video to keep the VCR happy.

[Nickthedentist]

If there's no podcast, I must confess that I now use cassettes again too, with an old Sony WM-22 Walkman plugged into my car stereo.

I've tried CD-R Audios, Minidiscs and my PC, but a cassette and simple £5 timer works every time. Simple really is best.

Nick.

[unitaudio]

Usually I listen to BBC 6 Music on a freeview receiver connected to my amp. That's all it's ever used for, I don't bother with telly. However, I live in the bottom of a small valley and the signal only needs the slightest excuse to mute out and it does so every few minutes.

It's worse at certain times of the year (seemingly when the weather's on the change) and I got so fed up with it I started listening online instead. This went well for a few months until it started muting out as often as the freeview.

It was time to rely on the tried and trusted so out came my Pye 8784 stereo radio cassette which was duly connected via it's line out sockets to my amp and I've been listening to BBC radio3 on FM.

I'd forgotten how good FM is when listening to a high quality stable signal. No muting, no glitches that make me worried for my tweeters, low noise even on stereo transmissions and I don't have to wait around waiting for things to load...

I'm in no hurry to pursue ways of making digital work. I miss BBC 6 Music (favourite station bar none) but I don't miss it enough to tolerate the constant muting no matter what I listen on and the Pye radio cassette gives very good audio quality when played through a decent amp and speakers. What's not to love?

Regards,
Paul