Radio With Pre-Set Stations For Home Use - Where To Get?

[eyepea]

All car radios (at least the ones I have seen these days), allow you to tune into and store radio stations which you can later retrieve via a touch of a button - with one button (or button combination) per station - or some similar way.

The convenience is that you store your favourite radio stations under 'pre-set' buttons, and when you want to listen to a station, without having to re-tune and locate the station, you simply access it straight away.

I need not say more, everyone knows

But when in comes to radios used in the home, except for a few walkman type small radios and top end music center type 'big' radios, most use the old tuning knob method which is difficult to tune (alas no digital tuning), with the bands crammed with stations so close together and no support for pre-set stations at all!

Anyone knows where I can find a normal radio for home use with pre-set station support ?

(I checked out some shops - so far no luck).

So to solve above issue .....

Anyone ever thought of rigging up a low cost car radio for home use ?

Am wondering how practical it is to hook up a set of speakers, a 12V battery and a telescopic aerial to a car radio and use it at home.

Anyone has already put this seemingly crazy idea to practise, I would appreciate your comments very much.

thanks

[lokulamaya]

Am wondering how practical it is to hook up a set of speakers, a 12V battery and a telescopic aerial to a car radio and use it at home.

well not a bad idea..i have seen this kind of arrangement in several Barbour,tailor shops..problem is if u use a battery u have to charge it ne..hence try a power pack or power supply that support at least 1-2 A.(ampeer) depending on the p.m.p.o of ur car set.. cheers

Edited October 24, 2010 by lokulamaya

[MasterDon]

All car radios (at least the ones I have seen these days), allow you to tune into and store radio stations which you can later retrieve via a touch of a button - with one button (or button combination) per station - or some similar way.

The convenience is that you store your favourite radio stations under 'pre-set' buttons, and when you want to listen to a station, without having to re-tune and locate the station, you simply access it straight away.

I need not say more, everyone knows

But when in comes to radios used in the home, except for a few walkman type small radios and top end music center type 'big' radios, most use the old tuning knob method which is difficult to tune (alas no digital tuning), with the bands crammed with stations so close together and no support for pre-set stations at all!

Anyone knows where I can find a normal radio for home use with pre-set station support ?

(I checked out some shops - so far no luck).

So to solve above issue .....

Anyone ever thought of rigging up a low cost car radio for home use ?

Am wondering how practical it is to hook up a set of speakers, a 12V battery and a telescopic aerial to a car radio and use it at home.

Anyone has already put this seemingly crazy idea to practise, I would appreciate your comments very much.

thanks

It's not a crazy idea at all.Very do-able...You see these kinds of set ups displayed at car stereo shops,and I'm pretty sure they don't run on car batteries.I'll see If I can any more details from a guy I know who has one such shop for you.

[hefraz]

A computer power supply will suffice, There is a 12v line in a computer power supply so just hook it up to the regular power supply and enjoy!

Edited October 24, 2010 by hefraz

[Sylvi]

All car radios (at least the ones I have seen these days), allow you to tune into and store radio stations which you can later retrieve via a touch of a button - with one button (or button combination) per station - or some similar way.

The convenience is that you store your favourite radio stations under 'pre-set' buttons, and when you want to listen to a station, without having to re-tune and locate the station, you simply access it straight away.

I need not say more, everyone knows

But when in comes to radios used in the home, except for a few walkman type small radios and top end music center type 'big' radios, most use the old tuning knob method which is difficult to tune (alas no digital tuning), with the bands crammed with stations so close together and no support for pre-set stations at all!

Anyone knows where I can find a normal radio for home use with pre-set station support ?

(I checked out some shops - so far no luck).

So to solve above issue .....

Anyone ever thought of rigging up a low cost car radio for home use ?

Am wondering how practical it is to hook up a set of speakers, a 12V battery and a telescopic aerial to a car radio and use it at home.

Anyone has already put this seemingly crazy idea to practise, I would appreciate your comments very much.

thanks

'eyepea',

You can use a car Radio inside your home with a car areal which I have done number of decades back then FM Broadcasting stations were very few. today you can get remote controlled car radio receivers with Cassette and CD player.Mount your speakers some distance you can enjoy real music.

You can buy 230/240 AC to DC 12 Volts 3 Amps power supply in the market.

If not you can fabricate 12 Volts DC power supply easily you can get 230/240 Volts AC Step down transformer to 12 Volts AC which has a capacity of 3 amps for 350/= to 450/= in Pettah 1st cross St radio spares shop and you can buy a full wave AC to DC Rectifier 4 pin 10 amps or more DC 35 Volts or more with a capacitor connect to car radio you can use with out any difficulty. If you can connect Motor cycle battery to same charger you can have uninterrupted radio during a power failure switch on few bulbs LED to get some light.All above under 500/=

If you have any difficulty of getting a power supply do post to forum.

Sylvi Wijesinghe.

[terrabytetango]

The biggest problem is that BoomBox type radios disappeared rapidly during the early 90s. However, Sony do still make some pretty good units, e.g. the CFDS-26.

[eyepea]

Aha thanks very much!

Any more info too would be much appreciated!

Great!

Must get started

[Pericles]

Dude, I dunno how much this car radio set is gonna cost you, but a normal radio with preset buttons will probably not cost much more than 5k-8k. Unless you enjoy the DIY stuff or messing with electronics, why bother?

http://www2.singersl.com/singer/products/section_01/index.asp?pcode=PHI_PHAQ5130&PC=audios

Rs 4199 according to the main audio page.

[lokulamaya]

Dude, I dunno how much this car radio set is gonna cost you, but a normal radio with preset buttons will probably not cost much more than 5k-8k. Unless you enjoy the DIY stuff or messing with electronics, why bother?

http://www2.singersl.com/singer/products/section_01/index.asp?pcode=PHI_PHAQ5130&PC=audios

Rs 4199 according to the main audio page.

yes peri.we can buy a radio with preset buttons.but most of the time u can not save the radio stations to the chip.even for high end sets(price more than 30k)it's very rare to find one which can retain the memory for more than one week.but for car audios they use nvrams which could store for longer time period without the help of the standby mode..

[Watchman]

yes peri.we can buy a radio with preset buttons.but most of the time u can not save the radio stations to the chip.even for high end sets(price more than 30k)it's very rare to find one which can retain the memory for more than one week.but for car audios they use nvrams which could store for longer time period without the help of the standby mode..

About car stereos, i'm pretty sure most of the loose their presets too if you disconnect the power(battery).. Likewise, as long as the home-use stereos have power they save the presets as well. But they will loose it when u unplug it.

So on technicality they are both the same, unless you unplug your stereo after you're done listening... just put it on standby, power consumption really is minimal you know.

[Sifaan]

But when in comes to radios used in the home, except for a few walkman type small radios and top end music center type 'big' radios, most use the old tuning knob method which is difficult to tune (alas no digital tuning), with the bands crammed with stations so close together and no support for pre-set stations at all!

Anyone ever thought of rigging up a low cost car radio for home use ?

Am wondering how practical it is to hook up a set of speakers, a 12V battery and a telescopic aerial to a car radio and use it at home.

Anyone has already put this seemingly crazy idea to practise, I would appreciate your comments very much.

Not sure what you dislike about "walkman type small radios" but for my needs I got a Sony MP3 Walkman (E Series) (see here) that also has a FM Radio and run it off some decent 2+1 computer speakers. also has an advantage that I can play MP3 if I don't like what's on radio and I can take it around if needed.

The audio quality is not as high as a proper music system, but is probably similar to what you can get for a car radio of similar price (unless you already have an extra radio) with far less fuss and looks less messy

[Pericles]

yes peri.we can buy a radio with preset buttons.but most of the time u can not save the radio stations to the chip.even for high end sets(price more than 30k)it's very rare to find one which can retain the memory for more than one week.but for car audios they use nvrams which could store for longer time period without the help of the standby mode..

As far as my experience with several different car radios goes, it doesn't store. Remove the battery, everything resets.

[terrabytetango]

Dude, I dunno how much this car radio set is gonna cost you, but a normal radio with preset buttons will probably not cost much more than 5k-8k. Unless you enjoy the DIY stuff or messing with electronics, why bother?

http://www2.singersl...Q5130&PC=audios

Rs 4199 according to the main audio page.

That is apparently one of the tuning knob affairs he's trying to avoid

[eyepea]

thanks very much for the info guys.

Yep if I can find a radio with presets + digital tuning that would save some bother.

The size of the Philips radio at singer that Peri pointed to is the ideal size.

I have used a Sony Walkman (can't remember exact model - some years old - 2003/4 - cassette plus digital tuning and presets), but the main issue with small ones is poor reception of weak stations at my place. Dunno if newer technology would solve this problem. Tuning with a tuning knob to weak stations is also difficult even on a radio similar to the size of the Philips one. Of course the bigger ones as you say are rather expensive

No issues with strong stations like SLBC but tuning to something like GoldFM is a major pain, I guess thanks to high rise buildings around my place, and perhaps the locations of the transmitters and TRC cramming some sections of the FM band

Car radio, no issues with the weak stations. (tested radio out doors too. But did not test car radio indoors. Perhaps better to try that out before I go buy another car radio, if am going the car radio way).

Ah requiring backup power to maintain the presets is bit of a bother

In the Walkman I used, even with the batteries out, the presets were 'remembered' for a couple of days. But leave it without batteries for a week and all the presets would get lost. I guess may be car radio designs assume the car battery power is always available and does not require changing like AA torch batteries

must see

thanks.