Hi Mo
Thanks so much for this, it will be most helpful when I receive my radio. I
dont go in for these much nowadays, but I have had my trusted Pure Move for
10 years, and would like something with a user replaceable battery
just in
case
Kind Regards,
Jackie Brown
Emails: <mailto:thebrownsplace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
thebrownsplace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:jackieannbrown62@xxxxxxxxx> jackieannbrown62@xxxxxxxxx
<mailto:jackie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> jackie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Check out my website: <http://www.thebrownsplace.info>
www.thebrownsplace.info
Read my EyeWrite blog: www.thebrownsplace.info/?page_id=136
Follow me on Twitter: @thebrownsplace
Skype: thejackmate
From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Mobeen Iqbal
Sent: 31 March 2016 22:00
To: BCAB Discussion List <bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [access-uk] Goodmans DAB Radio with speaker, an excellent radio at
an excellent price!
Hello Everyone.
The following are my observations and notes on the digital radio I recently
purchased. It is not an exhaustive review and should only be used as a rough
guide. Some of you may have seen the link posted by Jackie a few days ago to
a DAB radio which I bought from Amazon. I have to say I am rarely as
impressed as this by gadgets. I was always a fan of radios with built in
speakers that you could slip in to your pocket, but I never thought I'd find
a DAB radio below £40 with replaceable battery that I could carry around.
The radio measures just 9CM long, by 5CM wide by 3 CM deep. It has 4 buttons
on the front, left to right they are P which stands for preset, volume down,
volume up and the one on the very right is power and mode. on the top edge,
you have the aerial (top left) and a headphone socket. on the right hand
side, there is a rocker wheel at the top which can also be pressed in to
make a selection, a sliding hold switch and a Micro USB port for charging.
when slid downwards, the radio is unlocked.
Its powered by a BL5C Nokia phone battery, so buying replacements is not a
problem. Goodmans state battery life is up to 13 hours on headphone mode,
less on speaker mode. If yours does not come with battery inserted, gently
prize the back cover off from the bottom edge and insert your battery. Make
sure you charge the radio for a minimum of 2 hours using the included USB
cable before use. Any USB charger should do the job, though if your charger
outputs anything less than 2 Amps charging may take longer than 2 hours. Its
worth noting that goodmans do not provide a mains charger, but at this price
its not surprising at all and its 1 less charger to worry about. You could
probably also use the radio while its charging.
Press and hold power in for 3 to 5 seconds to power the radio on. When you
first turn the radio on, make sure you have the aerial fully extended. be
careful with the aerial, at this price it could break easily though only
time will tell. it seems to be made of a pretty flexible durable material.
the bottom part is also hinged to allow you to angle the aerial. The radio
should auto scan for DAB stations. if it doesn't, press and hold the wheel
in for 2 to 5 seconds and this should launch the auto scan. after a minute
or so, it should start playing DAB stations.
the wheel is used to cycle up and down between stations. you turn the wheel
up and down. its spring loaded so will always spring back to the middle.
press the wheel in to switch to a station. once you've memorized the order
of stations as with any DAB device, you should have no problem switching to
different stations. you can also press the power button once to switch to FM
mode and again to switch back to DAB. to power off, press and hold power for
3 seconds or more until the unit turns off.
to store your stations as presets, you need to navigate to the station you
want to store. press and hold the preset button for 2 seconds. the screen
should flash. arrow to the preset you'd like to store the station in using
the wheel and press the wheel in to store. to switch to a preset, press the
preset button once to display the list of presets, arrow up or down to your
preset and press the wheel in to select and switch. by default, the preset
that you're listening too will be highlighted. it will not return you to the
top of the list of presets when switching between them. but again once you
memorize the order, you're fine. I have managed to obtain an accessible
version of the manual, i'm including a link below.
The radio is quite loud, I am frankly amazed because of the size how much
power output the speaker has. i'd say that even someone who was hard of
hearing could listen to the device. I would've liked a belt clip to be
included, but goodmans have provided a loop at the back of the radio on the
top edge to attach a lanyard. at this price you can't expect too much. I am
thinking of buying another one. You may also be able to use the radio
without extending the aerial if you live in a really good DAB reception
area, though its recommended when you do your initial scan to have the
aerial extended fully. If anyone would like assistance setting your radio up
at a small cost and no sighted help is available, please don't hesitate to
drop me a note off list and I am sure we can arrange a convenient time to
hook up on skype via video chat.
The radio is available from the following link via Amazon:
http://tinyurl.com/gtxktm9
The manual is not especially formatted or adapted, but most people should be
able to make sense of it. If you can't make sense of it, i'd be happy to
provide hints off list. The manual can be found at:
https://vits.org.uk/Downloads/goodmans-gdprdab.html
thanks for reading,
Mo.
