"Malcolm Stewart" wrote in
message ...
"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
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these things are very power hungry, and you will find
that a lot of them don't even have battery capability because of this.
Arfa
Is this likely to be a long term problem? i.e. I assume that cmos is
already being used?
I'd certainly like a portable, but everything I've seen is about 5 times
the
volume of a 25 year old and perfectly satisfactory 4-band "City Boy 100"
portable from Grundig. Runs nearly forever off 4 AA cells.
--
M Stewart
Milton Keynes, UK
http://www.megalith.freeserve.co.uk/oddimage.htm
Is it a longterm ' problem ' that PC CPUs still draw amps ? The thing is
with digital circuitry, as it gets faster, the circuitry gets more and more
power hungry, in order to maintain the slew rates required. Look how the
size of coolers on CPUs has increased over the years. Also, on video
processor ICs. Certainly, all the peripheral stuff is fabricated in CMOS,
but as to whether that's fast enough for the core, I don't know.
I have a portable GPS unit, which has a dedicated Li-ion battery, and that's
only good for a couple of hours on a good day with the wind behind it. The
digital receiver for the sats is only small, but it must gobble power, as if
you are only using the unit as a pocket PC, with the GPS turned off. the
battery life is much better.
I guess that there probably will be improvements in power consumption with
these DAB radios, but I wouldn't hold my breath as to how quickly. They've
been around for a while now, and I don't see any neat little ' Walkman '
style ones about.
The other thing that I've found with the ones that have crossed my path, is
that they suffer very much from go / no go syndrome, a bit like digital TV.
Reception can be perfect, as you would expect, but move the antenna a gnat's
bollock, and it's gone. This begs the question as to whether the
manufacturers are deliberately not developing these things into truly
portable units, because people will then try to carry them around with them,
and the system is just not robust enough to provide error free reception
under these conditions.
I'm actually not even sure just what the advantage of DAB is over
conventional FM, from a user's point of view. Yes, agreed that you can
receive lots of different programmes, but how many people never move their
car radio off their favourite local or BBC programme ? If the OP's partner
just wants some background music whilst at work, I would have thought that a
little FM radio would have been just fine. I really don't think that you
will tell the quality difference between DAB and FM, unless using very high
quality 'phones or earbuds, and is that the point anyway ?
I will telephone my shop chum tomorrow, and ask which ones he stopped
stocking, and what he now considers to be a good buy. Bear with me, and look
out for the next installment ...
Arfa
portable digital radio for headphone use?
Linear Mode
