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08 May 12 - 10:42 AM (#3348220) Subject: BS: Technological advance - NOT! From: Penny S. One of my radios has died. It dropped, and something came loose within, probably the connection to the aerial. I cannot find a repairer. It was an alarm radio, with sleep function, which both worked on batteries. I want the same again. Can I buy one? Can I heck. I've searched the internet. And I emailed Roberts - it was a Roberts radio that broke. This is what I got back. "We no longer produce any clock alarms which operate on battery mode simply because batteries are not a reliable source for alarm activation as once drained could prevent alarm activation. I think it is highly unlikely that we would introduce any of this type of clock/radio. I hope this information will be of some assistance." This will, presumably, be because everyone's making digital rather than analogue receivers, and they use too much power. What do I take camping with me? Why do advances mean you can't do useful things any more? Penny |
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08 May 12 - 10:43 AM (#3348223) Subject: RE: BS: Technological advance - NOT! From: Amos Use a cell phone for an alarm clock. A |
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08 May 12 - 11:31 AM (#3348248) Subject: RE: BS: Technological advance - NOT! From: GUEST,999 Get a rooster. You can replace him at holidays. I know an old trapper who still uses a dogsled. His rationale is this: a blizzard socks you in for a few weeks and you can't eat a skidoo. A Herman cartoon once posed the question, "Exactly what IS new and improved lettuce." Good luck, Penny. |
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08 May 12 - 11:37 AM (#3348251) Subject: RE: BS: Technological advance - NOT! From: katlaughing YOu can also use it for music, as you can download tunes to it, from your own collection, if on your PC or from online. I thought Vermont Country store might have something, but no go. Here's one at THE NPR STORE, not inexpensive, but it does what you want, from what I can tell. kat |
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08 May 12 - 12:03 PM (#3348264) Subject: RE: BS: Technological advance - NOT! From: Amos Or find an older iPhone such as the 3GS on the secondary market. A |
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08 May 12 - 12:20 PM (#3348274) Subject: RE: BS: Technological advance - NOT! From: artbrooks Several options available on Amazon.com. |
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08 May 12 - 01:13 PM (#3348294) Subject: RE: BS: Technological advance - NOT! From: Rapparee Unlike screws you already know (Phillips, etc.) this one is virtual: you are virtually screwed. It is considered as great technological advance. |
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08 May 12 - 02:04 PM (#3348314) Subject: RE: BS: Technological advance - NOT! From: Greg F. "Things are in the saddle, and ride mankind." |
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08 May 12 - 02:07 PM (#3348316) Subject: RE: BS: Technological advance - NOT! From: Greg F. Hit the wrong button: Above quote is from Ralph Waldo Emerson. By the way, its hard to get a steam iron today that doesn't have a digital display & digital controls. Just what the world needs- a computer-controlled clothes iron. More like assininity is in the saddle.... Beam me up, Scotty. |
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08 May 12 - 03:04 PM (#3348343) Subject: RE: BS: Technological advance - NOT! From: gnu I hear ya, Greg... planned obsolescence... ya can't fix most anything ya buy these days. |
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08 May 12 - 03:18 PM (#3348346) Subject: RE: BS: Technological advance - NOT! From: Penny S. It isn't just the alarm I want, it's using the sleep option with a pillow speaker and talk radio to get to sleep in the first place, and the phone won't do that. Solutions are however in the air. I've put in a massive bid on a brand new old radio of a similar type to my broken one on ebay - if that goes, there's an identical used one coming up (both so long discontinued that they aren't even listed on the makers website.) And, before I spotted those, I bought a world portable with the features without it being in the auction. The two should see me out, I think. (The difference in the two models is, I think, that one has access to the road traffic reports that cars pick up. I don't need that any more, now I'm not working, and don't have to cross the massive gridlock that seizes up to roads around the Thames crossing if any thing goes wrong there. They could add an hour to a ten minute journey.) When I took the first replacement radio I bought back to the shop because the blurb had omitted that it needed to be connected to the mains, the woman wrote on the returns slip that I had "bought the wrong item". That is a bit irritating, makes me out to be stupid - if I'd known what she was writing, I'd have asked her to write that the radio did not have the advertised features. (I think I'll go to their website and review it to that effect.) Thanks for the link, kat, but it isn't a battery version. I know about the new and improved lettuce, though. Youn may recall Peter Rabbit finding that the effect of lettuce is soporific? Well, they've bred that out, with an element of bitterness found in wild lettuce, so if you want to have lettuce for insomnia, you need an old species. Penny |
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08 May 12 - 03:43 PM (#3348355) Subject: RE: BS: Technological advance - NOT! From: katlaughing Glad you found some, Penny, but I did think this: External AC power supply included. One year warranty.Offered in Metallic Taupe/Cherry. Operates on AC or 12v.m. meant it ran on some kind of battery? |
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08 May 12 - 04:06 PM (#3348370) Subject: RE: BS: Technological advance - NOT! From: Penny S. Didn't notice that! Too busy reading the words. Sorry. What's the m mean? 12 volts is quite a lot of battery - but it is a good looking thing, isn't it? Penny |
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08 May 12 - 09:24 PM (#3348472) Subject: RE: BS: Technological advance - NOT! From: JohnInKansas I was about to suggest that Radio Shack might still have a battery powered radio, but you've pretty much found similar sources. If you want authentic and cheap, you still can find one of those alarm clocks that you wind up every night for <$10 at Walmart or Walgreen, Target, Kmart, and the like, or could the last time I looked about a year ago, when we couldn't find the one that was supposed to be stashed in the camper. (The camper has a built in clock radio CD player with an alarm clock, and runs off the battery; but since we don't much like thinking about such stuff when we're camping we've never figured out how to set the #@$! thing.) John |
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08 May 12 - 11:39 PM (#3348508) Subject: RE: BS: Technological advance - NOT! From: katlaughing My Rog, the broadcast engineer, says he thinks they didn't know what they meant by putting the "m." What they are saying, as near as we can figure, is a 12 volt battery. Rog says typically they mean it will plug into a cigarette lighter plug in a car and run off of that battery. |
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09 May 12 - 12:10 AM (#3348518) Subject: RE: BS: Technological advance - NOT! From: GUEST solder the cricking antenna wire back on. check the circuts for continuity. place rugs on your floor or around the radio (no one should be that clueless ...) |
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09 May 12 - 04:05 AM (#3348546) Subject: RE: BS: Technological advance - NOT! From: Penny S. Looked inside - no sign of loose connection, and it's darned complicated. All motherboards and stuff, and the aerial connection is behind them. It needs someone who knows a bit more than I do. And can use a soldering iron better than I can. I always end up with a blob of solder stuck to nothing. Note - it's a portable radio, and it is during the porting that problems happen - it did fall onto a carpet this time. I'd put it down on a surface that was a pile of stuff that slipped. I'm not clueless, I'm clumsy. Penny |
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09 May 12 - 04:08 AM (#3348548) Subject: RE: BS: Technological advance - NOT! From: Penny S. I had some feedback from an ebay seller of a cheap DAB radio - it MUST be operated connected to mains. I thought that 12v thing would refer to car batteries. It's 8 disposables, isn't it? Penny |
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09 May 12 - 08:04 AM (#3348606) Subject: RE: BS: Technological advance - NOT! From: JohnInKansas We no longer produce any clock alarms which operate on battery mode simply because batteries are not a reliable source for alarm activation ... Fairly recently I've seen line powered clock radios that included a "standby" battery that would keep the clock running until time for the alarm to go off if the line power failed. Something of this kind wouldn't be advertised as battery powered, but if they're still making anything of the sort finding the battery and clipping in a little bit bigger battery (in parallel with the one intended) could solve your problem if you can stand a little bit of ugly from the extra leads. A clock radio with a digital display probably has a "main bus" inside that's at a typical battery voltage and would use less battery power if you can find the right place to hook in. The ones with "hands" would normally require a motor of some sort that might drain the battery a little faster. The specs on ones I've seen some time ago indicated that the battery should last "up to 6 hours" if line power fails, but of course two of the same kind in parallel should give you at least 12(?), and you could probably use rechargeables and refresh them from the Of course this is only a viable approach if you feel the urge to tinker with such stuff with uncertain probabilities of success. John |
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09 May 12 - 01:24 PM (#3348751) Subject: RE: BS: Technological advance - NOT! From: Penny S. The old radios all had a small button type battery to run the clock, while the others ran the radio. I think Roberts is not being run by people who know what they are doing. (It was a woman who wrote the above, and while as a feminist I would not wish to decry her understanding of the product, in my experience the sort of people who understand how to deal with radios etc tend to be older, and hence are less likely to be female. I suspect that it is the retiring of such people who may have done National Service in the branch of the army which did that sort of thing, which is causing the difficulty with repairing.) Penny |
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10 May 12 - 02:41 AM (#3349009) Subject: RE: BS: Technological advance - NOT! From: Penny S. I have thirteen hours to go on my favoured radio, with a very determined person bidding against me, only the one. So far he/she has not reached my initial bid, and certainly not challenged the second one I put in, but I have my fingers crossed about snipers. Penny |
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10 May 12 - 02:58 AM (#3349011) Subject: RE: BS: Technological advance - NOT! From: GUEST,Stim I was baffled as to why you were having trouble finding a battery powered clock radio--they are really quite a plentiful commodity, so I figured you must want one with real analog clock, instead of a digital display. This one is an atomic clock, meaning that it you don't have to set it, it sets automatically. It is a bit expensive, but seems to be of a very high quality. Amazon UK offers it also, and a pillow speaker, if you like. Sangean Battery Powered Clock Radio Sangean Battery Powered Clock Radio from Amazon |
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10 May 12 - 06:00 AM (#3349050) Subject: RE: BS: Technological advance - NOT! From: Penny S. No, I was quite happy with digital. I did want a sleep function as well. That nice looking one, though, has an operating voltage of 230, so is mains, isn't it? Thanks for looking, though. Penny |
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10 May 12 - 03:59 PM (#3349260) Subject: RE: BS: Technological advance - NOT! From: Penny S. I now have in my possession a small world radio, Roberts, with battery operation for alarm and sleep functions, and a nifty little SW aerial in a gadget like a tape measure - which unfortunately does not fit in the little carry case. (Missing the free BBC World Service frequency guide advertised on the box, but that will have changed, anyway.) And I am the owner of a brand new, obselete Roberts radio very like my last one, which should arrive on Saturday. Total cost about what I was willing to pay for a new one. The make I prefer, but they don't get any money for them. That'll serve Ms we won't be making them any more right! Penny |
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11 May 12 - 06:36 AM (#3349471) Subject: RE: BS: Technological advance - NOT! From: s&r One from Tesco Sorry it's late Stu |
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11 May 12 - 06:45 AM (#3349477) Subject: RE: BS: Technological advance - NOT! From: Penny S. Thanks Stu - nice, but no sleep function. also superfluous CD player which affects size and packing in rucksack ease. Penny |