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Almost historical now but the Wireless
Waffler's review of the Evoke 1 dab radio - the first commercially
available dab "portable"
The radio in my garage on the workbench previously occupied by my son and his girlfriend's rabbit and guinea pig this how practical this portable can be! I have left the main text unedited and included some footnotes - please bear in mind that Pure were pioneers in producing this set and I got one in the very early stages. To give such good reception and reliable sound from the outset is a tribute to Pure. Glad to have "pioneered" digital radio in 2002!
The Evoke 1 radio arrived by Parcel Force on Wednesday 4th September from Simply Radios (also trading as Purley Radio). It was sent in its original box which contained a moulded protective shell. I removed this to reveal an attractive small radio in a light wood veneered cabinet. It has an unusual "retro" look. I also like the way that DAB is described as tomorrows wireless
Having unpacked the radio I was pleased to find that the telescopic aerial was already attached to the set. I also found a 240 AC to 12V DC transformer, this is quite heavy and bears the "Pure" name. Also included is something I find reassuring, a two-year guarantee registration. How many radio or hi fi manufacturers give more than 1 year on any item?
The Evoke radio is the first low priced mains-powered portable dab receiver for use in the UK. I must admit I was slightly sceptical that it would work properly. This was based on my experience several months ago using the Psion Wavefinder Dab receiver on my computer. The Psion worked fine but occasionally the signal cut out and sounded like the aerial had been pulled out of it. I found this very irritating indeed, but got a full refund on the item which I received for a mere £30 but now sells for £99. This could have been a loose connection in the unit, the lead entered against sharp plastic.
To explain in basic terms, dab in the U.K. works on quite low power from 2 to 10 Kw. It is digital, which means there should be no interference like conventional radio. It is broadcast from a multiplex. One multiplex needs one mast in each area only and only one signals leaves it. The radio set decodes the signals for the listener. The broadcaster chooses the bandwidth to use on each service there is no agreed standard. Adjusting this means more or less stations can be put out on a multiplex. 128kbs produces an acceptable stereo signal, but 48 kbps of mono often sounds very computerised and can sound unacceptable.
Back to the Evoke. I removed it from the packaging, plugged in the transformer and pressed the blue power button to turn the unit on. I touched the autotune button and within 30 seconds 1xtra came on. This is not my favourite station but the sound quality was superb, plenty of treble but stacks of bass. If you tip the set over you will observe a large bass port under the radio below the LCD display section. The speaker built into the set is small and mono but can produce a high level of sound without distortion.
The best picture I could get of the LCD screen (showing the bandwidth and mode)
I found out next that if I turned the tuning button, to the right of the large volume control, the name of other stations appeared below the name of 1xtra. Initially I could not work out how to hear the stations. I soon found out that all I had to do was to push the tune knob in gently to obtain the radio station listed below the current one.
I started off with the radio plugged in above my hi fi and the sound on all stations bar one was great. One station, which announced as an NTL test started to cut out and made what Pure describe in the manual as a "burbling" sound. This is basically due to a poor signal and the digital encoder in the set being unable to piece the sound together in a similar manner that a CD player does. Fortunately all other stations came in without any "burbling"
This review covers a period of 7 days, a period during which I put the set through extensive tests.
Auto-tune feature: This is designed to be used when the set is moved from one house or location to another. As long as you tune the set in a part of the house, which has a good signal, you will get all the multiplexes and stations in your area. It then holds this information in the radio and does not need to be re-done at all. I think that this could be a boon when you need to "dx" for other multiplexes out the area if you can obtain a better aerial. You can get dipole, external, 4 elements and even a signal booster. Apparently the set uses an F-type plug. If you get an adapter, although it will not match exactly your TV aerial can be connected to it for some improvement. I have been unable to test this I do not know where to get one of these from. I did find several parts of my through lounge and kitchen found lower numbers of stations than others. In the first position tried I got 46 stations, including those with test tones only. In others as low as 20 or 25 were found. For London we do have five multiplexes but in other areas there are less. It is worth checking out how many stations are in your district, at present it is not worth duplicating all stations on fm and am. In London a healthy variety exists.
The telescopic aerial supplied with the set is screwed on to the aerial socket and has a nut on it as well which can be tightened. I have found this to be more than adequate for reception around my home. My aerial feels loose but unlike short-wave and FM there is no need to rotate it. The digital signal is best received with the telescopic aerial vertical and fully extended. DRG is the only muliplex, which gives signal problems in parts of my home I emailed the company and this is what they had to say:
Thanks for getting in touch.
I'm sorry you've had problems with receiving the multiplex.
Although our recent change to UEP4 does have an effect on coverage, we
added a further transmitter last Friday to compensate, and there is a
further transmitter on the way to compensate even further. We are
continually looking at ways to improve coverage and bring our portfolio of
stations to listeners across the Greater London area.
I'll pass your postcode details to NTL - it will help us try to identify
the problem areas and allow us to look in greater detail at how they can be
overcome. .
They have not been on the air for long in London and some of the back up transmitters are not working yet. I can receive the multiplex upstairs and downstairs if the set is carefully positioned. If you touch the aerial in a bad reception patch it merely cuts the signal or causes the burbling noise. I have read about the sound the set makes in poor reception areas but because only a few parts of my home are like this it is not annoying in the least. If you push the display button until you get to the signal error section on the yellow LCD display you will find out how good the reception is where the set has been positioned. Leave this on and move the set around, as far as the mains lead allows to see if you can reduce the error number displayed. To my mind it would be an improvement if Pure had put signal strength on this, if you see error you immediately think that something is wrong. In fact an error of 0 to 15 indicates good reception. 16 to 30 borderline and 31 or more bad reception can be expected. No need to look really just listen for the sound of the signal breaking up! I have tried the trick of adding a length of wire to the aerial with a crocodile clip. With it fully extended it did very little. With the aerial down it did act as an antenna but the signal error rate was higher. Fortunately I did not notice any problems with people walking around the house. Only once on the weaker DRG multiplex. The pc being switched on increased the error rate on The Arrow, but not the noise it makes on conventional am radios thank goodness!
Since I have mentioned the LCD screen. I will now explain the other read outs that appear on it. There is a position when pushing display that a) Has moving text with the station name, music titles and time - varies from station to station. The BBC does not always give titles. The best details I have seen are from The Arrow, which is a London rock station. b) The genre of the broadcast e.g. Rock Music. c) The multiplex that the station is on e.g. DRG London d) The time, in 24hr clock display and date
e) The station location and frequency e.g. 11B 218.63 MHz.
If you push the set up button you get the following options, which are in the LCD
There is a set up button on the front also for advanced facilities. Push the set up button and then use the tuner button to rotate the menu, which is on the LCD screen. When you find one you want to use push the tuner button in as you would do to hear a station to see the options under that heading. STATION ORDER has many options to help you to sort stations, like favourite stations. With radio and digital TV I do not bother with this at all. MANUAL TUNE is there to help you if a multiplex is no good or to aid setting up the receiver. There is a signal strength meter. It could also aid in dx reception with a better external aerial. DRC VALUE helps to boost the quieter parts of each station - the default is 1, but I have tried all of them and do not find any difference. SW VERSION simply enables you to find the serial number of the software in the radio if you ever need to talk to Pure technical support.
On the back of the receiver are socket sockets for an F type plug (new to me) For an external amplifier. For an external recorder - the unit records perfectly to cassette and mini disc both hi fi and portable units. Mini disc can cause interference to weak am, fm and short-wave programmes, but not here. For an auxiliary speaker - I do not find the need for this it would be in the way when I move the set from room to room (after unplugging from the mains of course - its is not battery operated it is powered by a 12v DC adaptor. Some stations are only mono so stereo is not always needed. For connecting to headphones. Finally a socket for connecting the power adaptor to
Back of the set showing sockets, mains lead in, and telescopic aerial which is screwed on to set at back
Finally without getting too technical the stations come to you on different bandwidths on the multiplex. In theory the owner of each multiplex can reduce this to get more stations on air. A digital transmitter and on single mast can put out twenty or more stations. Your set costs you money it also decodes the individual stations, the broadcaster saves money on masts and transmission electricity costs. The Government is pleased because at the present time only big businesses can afford to run and licence a multiplex, so they can control the media. How longe before the London or Manchester radio pirates form their own multiplex? Some stations go as low as 48kbps; Travel Now in London does this - occasionally some speech sounds rather computerised like real audio, but not all the time. Primetime use 64kbps and the sound of speech and music is clear. Oneword is all speech and 64 Kbps but occasionally on announcements the sound is computerised slightly. Virgin radio uses 160 kbps putting all but BBC Radio 3 at 192 Kbps to shame. The best most use is 128 Kbps. To be honest R3 does not sound any better for the extra bandwidth to me.
By now you must be thinking the radio sounds so complicated. It really is not and if all other radios were based on this in the digital market they will gain great popularity. In conclusion the non-stop music and advert free zones are refreshing on this exciting new medium of radio. Unfortunately when more people listen the adverts and programmes will sound as bad as the mainstream on the present FM and AM services. It sounds good on my hi fi through the line out facility. Does digital radio sound any better than FM? Not really FM never sounds digitised but it never ever suffers any interference. Or hasn't when under test.
Go ahead buy and enjoy a wider variety of stations and your old favourites. Saga and Primetime play music from the 40s upwards something not catered for on normal FM in London.
A slightly out of focus picture to show the bass port under the set (black hole) overall sound is great on the set plenty of bass and treble but no tone controls on set at all!
So far my favourite stations on digital in London are: - The Arrow (evenings and nights with non stop vintage rock). The Groove non stop classic soul. The Breeze great to hear Classic Gold in good quality for once normally faint signal on 828 KHz. Finally Primetime Radio who have the likes of David Hamilton and Tony Myatt on there with music from the 1940s upwards.
Before you buy a radio go on this site http://www.ukdigitalradio.com you can check your postcode here and also find out what stations are broadcast to you. No point buying a radio and ending up with the same stations you can listen to now!
Update 15th December 2002
This set has a faulty on and off switch and no longer works it has gone back to Pure and will take around 3 weeks to be replaced due to Christmas. It still pushes in and out and occasionally the power reaches the radio. Pure say a batch of 500 were fitted with a switch which was of lower specification to the one that has been subsequently fixed to new sets in distribution.
Overall whilst it has worked it has given perfect sound and reception. I will now listen to the BBC nationals on my cable box until it returns a great pity and very disappointing!
Update 29th December 2002
A new Evoke 1 has arrived and reception seems much better on the DRG network and there do not seem to be any weak reception spots downstairs. I note that the mains plug has an insulating sleeve on it a few inches from the plug. I hope this does not cause the lead to break, Paul Rusling has assured me that expensive equipment has this on to avoid this very problem. Simply Radios are not dealing with returns, and in a way I was grateful because the return came back very quickly indeed quicker than they predicted on the 29th. Further technical update 12th March 2003
You may think it was a little late for me to ask why my radio failed but I sent an email recently and this explanation should go a long way to convincing you that the problem of the first small batch of sets failing is now well and truly resolved.
I quote the email
To answer your question, the switch should certainly last well beyond the
two year warranty. The initial issue was caused by the switch contacts being
burned out by slight arcing each time the switch was turned on - this
occurred in the first small production batch of product. The circuit in this
area has been completely modified so that the switch no longer switches the
power itself, but switches a piece of logic which then controls the power -
this means there is no chance of arcing, and therefore the switch life
should extend well beyond the two years"
I do not want to tempt fate but as of 21st September the radio is still working very well indeed - no further problems with the switch.
Copyright the Wireless Waffler 12/09/02 updated 15/12/02 and 29/12/02 and 12th March 2003 and September 2004
With thanks to Purley Radio who supplied the set for the full price of £99.99 so the waffler has not been influenced by any discount! Also to Pure for sending a replacement under the two year guarantee as promised and for additional information on the switch.
www.simplyradios.co.uk
to be sold in Dixons, John Lewis, Argos and others when the production levels increase - now widely available all over the uk and due to be totally phased out of production -
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Review of Sangean ATS 909 by the Wireless Waffler
I decided that I would renew my short-wave receiver recently, and having purchased 2 Sony radios in the past which had
suffered from having a loose telescopic aerials decided to have a change. In 1981 I had fancied buying a Sangean receiver, but the price was outside my grasp. I read up about the Sangean ATS 909 on the internet and noted all of the reservations about
this set.
The main reservations were about the muting of signals when
tuning, which a Sony receiver does and also insert a light
bleep as you tune. I refer to the Sony 7600G There was a
criticism that the sound quality and sensitivity was average but that the antenna supplied
with it worked far better.
On the internet it was only cheaper on ebay, otherwise it was
coming up as around £200 or slightly less. I did not fancy
ordering the set from the USA due to the time it takes and the
risk of incurring extra duty as it goes through customs.
I had some old Short-wave Magazines and noticed that Haydon
Communications sold the radio for £139.95. I placed an order for it over the telephone. The courier company was supposed to
deliver the next day but instead called when I was out and did
not leave a card. After detective work on my part they did deliver it three days later.
I opened up the parcel and the first thing i noticed was a large
sticker declaring "mains adaptor not supplied in the UK" -how
stingy i thought! The radio was packed in a polystyrene
container and there was a gap where the mains adapter should have been. There was a superb separate
short-wave wire aerial supplied and this did work very well. There was
a set of inner ear headphones supplied but I did not check these for quality.
There was a large plastic bag wrapped around the radio and inside was a black carrying case with the radio enclosed. My first and lasting
impression was of the cheap feel and appearance of this case. Inside was the radio in a rather pleasant metal look
plastic case, totally different to illustrations on the box which
showed a grey radio.
My initial thoughts were not that this was a big radio like some
reviews have said, but how light it seemed. You could see that the metallic look was only paint on a plastic surface. I probably
have been spoilt the Sony 7600D and G are built like battleships and sturdy. More worrying are the really thin switches on the right side of the radio. These switch from wide band to narrow and stereo to mono in fm mode. The tone control is flimsy and is a switch on the side - it is merely a bass cut.
This is very similar to that used on a Sony. The sound which comes out of the internal speaker is quite acceptable and of good quality and volume.
The ATU did not appear to make a lot of difference in the day
time when I tested it - there is a digital signal strength
reading on the main screen which shows the reading in digital
lines in bar graph form on the LED format device. I find that a
local and dx switch as adopted by Sony of far more use
The ATU is a knob on the left of the radio body which can reduce the signal to nil or bring it up to full power. It is also
useful in comparing one station on a band against another. To my mind it was not suitable for the purpose it was designed for, it did not
turn across a large enough area.
The great improvement on the Sangean over my Sony
radios previously outlined, is the tuning knob on the right.
This enables you to tune manually. There is a button of the front
enabling you to dial at three different speeds. This works very
well. It is also possible to tune with buttons on the front of
the set and to scan bands automatically. I really did not notice the muting of signals as you tuned in either manual or push button tuning.
You get direct access to all bands by buttons on the front. LW,
AM, SW and FM. There are over 300 presets on the radio which are accessed
on the front and you can interrogate and save these in pages. In
Short-wave (SW) mode you can access the main bands like 49 and 41 metre bands by direct button access. Also if you prefer to tune you will find that the radio emits bleeps and the band you are in is displayed alongside the digital frequency display which all good radios display at all times.
You can set your countries time , which is displayed above the
frequency display at all times. You can also check on other
world times once this is set, this is accessed by button.
Overall the sound and performance of the radio is very good. It
is as sensitive as any other good fm radio in my area.
Finally you can tune direct to a frequency by tapping a frequency in on the numbered button keyboard on the front.
I then proceeded to test recording off the line out socket - this
produced a very high output indeed. I also tried the earpiece
socket and this enabled me to record at my normal levels. This
is where the set fell down in my estimation. The FM and AM
signals all sounded strange, some sort of bass boost seemed
present and it did not sound as clear as other radios I own.
I must point out that I am an avid archiver of radio and on
holiday successfully use radios priced between £4.99 and £12.99
to record on to mini disc and get good mono recordings every time. On
Short-wave the sound was very poor, hollow sounding on tape or
mini disc and on fades it was impossible to hide distortion. I experimented with various leads and recording
levels but was still disappointed. Finally in case it was local conditions I compared reception and
recording quality against my existing Sony radios. The results
recording from the Sangean ATS 909 were very disappointing indeed in term of fidelity. The tone
setting were on top treble as well. Considering this is the flagship radio, also produced under the quality ROBERTS label the same or better quality
should be available. The Roberts version is nearly £200.
I returned the radio for a full refund and got it without any fuss at
all.
That is my personal opinion of a radio I always
thought was very good indeed.
To balance this visit one of the best reviews I read
before purchasing the radio
http://www.dxradio.co.uk/sangean/ats909.html
Wireless Waffler April 9th 2004
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