I mentioned this little Radio in a short post over Christmas. My son had
bought one for his Grandmother and I was interested to feel it seemed
quite accessible.
Given its relatively low price point I took a punt on purchasing one
from Argos this week.
Until now I had been using the Goodmans portable Radio as my main pocket
sized DAB radio. After setting up the radio this morning it is already
clear that this radio will replace the Goodmans as my main DAB radio.
This is because, if for nothing else, that the reception on this radio
is far superior to the Goodmans. Whereas the Goodmans was usable you
ould occasionally get a cut out in my house at least and you would need
to move the Goodmans to another place to resume reception. So far this
radio has not cut out at all today even with me laying prone on the
living room carpet with my Guide Dog, a location my Goodmans would
certainly have struggle to keep connected with. Typically I would have
had to perch the Goodmans on the arm of the sofa to maintain
connection. The caveat is that this is based on a few hours usage
connected exclusively to BBC Five Live on DAB.
The Bush is whilst small, very slightly larger than the Goodmans and
has no lanyard socket so would have to be held in a pocket or in my case
a neck pouch I use to hold my hearing aids and batteries safely in.
Like the Goodmans it is a small handheld device designed for use
exclusively with earphones.
The device comes with ear buds which I detest and replaced immediately
with my JVC Gumy earphones available from Sainsburys for £7.99 and which
provide excellent volume and sound quality for the price.
With the JVC Gumy earpones attached it resulted, to my deaf ears, in
a sound whicha was excellent and the volume is quite adequate for my
severe deafness. When you turn the device on the volume is low. Raising
the volume hits an initial volume limiter which is a little annoying.
However pressing the main select button clears this limit and you can
then continue to increase the device volume to make it loud, probably
the radio is marginally louder than the goodmans at full volume.
As my wife is away this weekend I am limited in what I have done with
the Radio. Argos send you an email atfter purchase which includes a
link to a support website where you can download an accessible PDF
version of the Device Manual whic is useful. As I cannot see the layout
diagram I nevertheless need some sighted help to fully determine where
the menu and preset buttons are located so I have set no presets.
According to the Manual setting Preset is straightforward. 10 Presets
can be set for DAB and all you do is hold the Preset button down for 2
seconds and then select a slot to hold the preset. to recall the Preset
just press rather than hold the preset button down and navigate the slot
you want.
The device has a main select switch on it front.
Below this are 4 buttons in a row.
The first two are channel up and down. The next two are volume up and down.
There are a number of buttons on the side. The first of these from the
top is an on off switch. The others I am not sure about yet.
I pressed the on off button and, as I hoped, the device went into auto
scanning mode.
This was surprisingly rapid and quite soon the radio was playing on the
first station.
Like other devices you need to hit the channel up or down button once to
bring up the channel list. Pressing further times on these will navigate
the list of stations available. The station will not change until you
press the select button.
Holding down the select button for two seconds key locks the radio, and
holding down the same button for 2 seconds again clears the lock.
So far as I can tell on limited usage the device is suitable and usable
for a completely blind person with a moderate to severe hearing loss
provided you know that you can increase volume beyond the artificial limit.
I will post again when my wife is able to confirm what the other buttons
are.
The Radio cost £39.99 from Argos.
Details
Bush Hand Held Portable Radio
Argos Order Code 259/6622
Further details on
http://www.argos.co.uk/product/2596622
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