Radio

We live in a day and age when the AM/FM radio has become almost an archaic piece of technology. Not saying that nobody uses it anymore, but the technological advances in the past few decades have made the basic radio seem so primitive by comparison.

I remember in one of my underclass ECE courses in college (I think ECE 210), one of our weekly lab assignments was to make a radio out of basic circuit components. It took maybe an hour to do, and was supposed to be a pretty trivial exercise. Also, I think someone in the Gilligan's Island crew was able to put together a homemade radio, and that was probably one of the more believable parts of that show.

In any case, I guess my point is that by today's standards, AM/FM radios aren't typically thought of as being especially complicated or advanced, electronics-wise. Radio definitely isn't cutting-edge or "cool" by any stretch of the imagination.

And why would anyone think it was? For starters, we've now got satellite radio that offers better quality and hundreds more channels than you can get from your local AM/FM stations. Or you can listen to streaming radio off the Internet and make Mark Cuban richer, which also provides many more options than your plain old clock radio.

Not to mention, everybody and their sister now have iPods, that let them store thousands of songs on a little portable device. Who needs radio when you've got your entire music library in the palm of your hand, and can listen to it anywhere you want, without having to worry about bad reception?

I could write more about things like portable DVD players, DVD-Audio, TV's, HDTV, and so on. But the real reason I decided to write this blog was because of my recent experience in trying to buy a radio to listen to at work. So I will try to stick to that for now.

When I'm at work and need some background noise, I typically just listen to mp3s off my computer. And that works fine for the most part, but no matter how many songs I have in my music library, eventually I get sick of the limited selection of listening material. The old classics like Alice In Chains - "No Excuses", 2Pac - "Hit 'em Up", or Britney Spears - "Lucky" are great for a couple hours, but at some point I need a little of the current variety to shake things up. Recently I have been so desperate for something new that I find myself listening to Ashlee Simpson and Maroon 5, two of the worst "artists" in today's music scene. The worst part is that I know they suck, yet I still made the effort to download their songs and listen to them.

That's where the need for an AM/FM radio comes in. It would be nice to listen to not just the latest music, but occasionally check in with what's going on in the morning shows, and sports talk on the AM stations. One thing I especially wanted to catch was the weekly Bruce Weber segment on the Score, Thursdays during the 11am hour (there's my obligatory Illini reference for this entry).

I've tried streaming radio from the internet, but I think our company blocks that stuff, so it hasn't worked for me so far. Not all the local stations I want are available online anyways. Also, my cell phone has an FM radio feature, but it doesn't get good reception and I don't like listening in only one ear. Makes me feel like half a man or something. And it doesn't solve my AM radio problem either. Otherwise, I might've actually gotten one of those headphones with both ears and just dealt with the bad reception.

I decided that the best solution would be to look for a simple portable radio and bring it to work. What I need is something that:

1. Plugs into an outlet
2. Fits on my desk
3. Has a headphone jack

Digital tuning and presets would be nice too, but not required. Seemed like an easy find to me.

After all, I just wrote a whole spiel on how advanced technology is these days, and how many new forms of entertainment media have become accessible since the first radio was invented. You'd think that finding an AM/FM radio with those few basic features would be much easier than getting something like, say, a 60 GB iPod with image-viewing capabilities, or a PDA/cell phone/Blackberry/5.2 megapixel camera all in one.

Of course, if you haven't figured out where this blog is going by now, the answer is never that simple. For the past few weeks, I've been looking all over the place for my radio. I've checked Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, Circuit City, Radio Shack, and a few online sites like eBay and Amazon, but haven't found anything that fits my needs.

I saw plenty of clock radios that plug into wall outlets, and are small, but none of them have headphone jacks. Then there's all the walkman-type radios, which have headphone jacks, digital presets, and obviously small enough, but they are all battery operated. I've already got a whole bunch of old stereo systems at home that don't need batteries, and have headphone jacks, but they're all way too big to bring to work.

I just don't get it. If a second year college student can make a radio, or a bunch of people stranded on an island can piece one together, how hard can it be for any electronics company to manufacture a radio that uses headphones and runs off of standard wall-outlet power, and isn't the size of a boombox?

See, if radios were obsolete, that would be one thing. With all the other options out there when it comes to portable audio entertainment, I understand if manufacturers stopped making AM/FM radios, kind of like how you don't see MiniDiscs that much anymore, and VHS is quickly going away.

But that's not the case. It makes me angrier to see all the other options out there when it comes to radios, but nothing that meets my 3 simple requirements. I walk down the aisle at Best Buy and there's clock radios with both "snooze" AND "nap" buttons. Radios that project the time onto the ceiling. Radios the size of a pack of gum, radios that pick up special weather stations, and radios that are designed to fit under your cabinets in the kitchen.

Again, all I want is a reasonably small radio that doesn't need batteries and lets me listen to it through headphones. I don't care if it works in the shower or straps around my arm. Honestly, I don't care if it has a clock, or even has speakers, as long as it plays all of the normal AM and FM stations. Really, is that too much to ask for?

After much searching, the closest thing I could find was the following:



A Sony ICF-M410V "Clutch Radio", not too big, headphone jack, runs off of 3 AA batteries OR AC Adaptor (not included). A bunch of features I didn't need, but that's okay, as long as it works. Sounded like it had everything I asked for and more, so I bought one at Target for $40 last week, plus another $10-15 for a "Universal AC Adaptor". Kind of a lot to pay for a stupid radio, but again, as long as it worked, I'd be happy.

I brought it all to work and opened everything, only to find that the AC adaptor I got did not fit this radio. What kind of crap is that. I was so annoyed at this point that I decided to take a picture of this when I got home to share my anger with all my internet friends (that means all you guys who are still patiently reading my story, props to you for making it this far):



As you can see, the AC adaptor came with 6 different plugs to try, and not a single one fit in this radio. I don't know how something like that happens, but it's true.

Is there no established standard plug size for AC adaptors in small household appliances? Apparently not. Well, I guess there's at least 7 different standards (6 supported by GE and 1 by Sony), if not more.

I looked through the radio's manual and it said something like this: "Use only the recommended AC power adaptor", which is Sony part number AC-E45HG. Then I went to Best Buy yesterday and looked for the Sony adapter, and the only thing I could find that was close to that part number was a Sony AC-E45A, an "Light and Slim" model designed "For Travel". Not an exact match, but hey, it's made by Sony, and the part numbers are so close, why not give it a shot? So I dropped $20 and just bought the stupid thing.

Unfortunately the story does not end here, and there is no happy ending. I brought the new adaptor to work this morning and plugged it into the radio, and to my relief, it did fit in the socket. But to my dismay, the adaptor produced so much interference that most AM stations were completely drowned out by static. Meanwhile the FM reception, which was already pretty horrible using batteries, was made even worse.

I looked back at the box for the AC adaptor and one of the notes said "Do not use this AC adaptor with a radio as it may cause some noises". "Some noises" eh? What a freaking joke. $20 for an AC adaptor that doesn't work with an appliance which was made by the same company. A company that is supposedly the best on the planet when it comes to quality electronics, I might add.

For those of you who don't know much about electronics, an AC adaptor is probably one of the most basic items you can get in the electronics world. People use them with everything from that blender in your kitchen to the Nintendo system you played as a kid. And I can pretty much guarantee that it costs nowhere near $20 to make one, especially if you are a huge company capable of mass production.

The fact that Sony was cheap enough to not include one with their radio is one thing. But to make an adaptor that interferes with its own product and then sell it to people for $20 is entirely unacceptable. I know it wasn't the exact part number recommended by the manual, but if you're going to make people buy a separate adaptor with your radio, at least make that adaptor easier to get than your crappy adaptor.

I just searched online for the AC-E45HG, and Amazon carries one for $30. THIRTY-FREAKING-DOLLARS for an AC adaptor. If I were to order that, it would mean a total of SEVENTY-FREAKING-DOLLARS to fulfill my simple request for a radio that doesn't need batteries and supports headphones. Only three words can describe this situation: LU. DA. CRIS.

After writing my long story, I think the rest of my time tonight will be spent at Target returning the "Clutch Radio" that wasn't so clutch, and the "Universal AC Adaptor" that wasn't so universal. I'll have to wait until this weekend before I can return that worthless Sony AC Adaptor too. And all this will do is bring me back where I was to begin with - no radio, just one big colossal waste of time and effort.

I don't know where I go from here. Keep searching for radios online and looking in every electronics store I go to? One idea I had was radio AM/FM tuners that plug into a USB port or PCI slot and let you listen through your computer, kind of like a TV tuner card or something. But I haven't seen any yet, and I don't know if they actually exist.

Maybe I can try making one myself, using my electrical engineering expertise. Haha.... too bad I forgot everything we did in that ECE 210 lab. OR, maybe I should go back to U of I and convince some sucker ECE undergrad student to make one for his senior project and give it to me? Hey, I can probably dangle like $10 in front of those guys and I'm sure someone would jump at the opportunity to serve me. That's worth at least like 4 drinks at the bar in college land. If only someone had given us 10 bucks for making an Ultra-fast Signaling System for Quantum Cryptography back in the day.

*****

Oh man, looking back at our Senior Design project was pretty funny. If any of you out there are really bored, check out our presentation at that link. Our diagrams feature "Alice" sending to "Bob" with "Eve" the "eavesdropper". Also the picture of 2 people holding hands, I think that one was taken from album art on a Pumpkins CD. We were so clever.

By the way, the Superbowl exceeded my expectations (see last blog). Not the greatest game, and only saw a few good commercials, but overall, it was aiiight. Thanks again to Anuj for hosting, it was a solid SB party with good food and peeps. The best part was when Olivia, Vira, and Chras kept making the rest of us watch the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet.