Herculodge 28 Radio Pet Peeves Updated

(Re-post)

 

1. Radios that have lots of gizmos but the producers put a sad little ferrite AM antenna inside it as a sort of afterthought.
2. Radios with so much AM and/or FM drift you have to connect a big ugly external antenna to them.
3. Why doesn’t Sangean put the wonderful 200mm ferrite AM antenna in all of its radios, such as their WR-11?
4. Why do brand new Tivoli Songbooks cost upwards of $200 on Amazon but are less than $100 on eBay? Is Tivoli trying to price itself out of the market?
5. FM wire antennas. I wish the telescopic antenna was a standard feature on all radios.
6. Even worse than wire antennas, radios that use their AC cord for their FM antenna like the old Bose radio I used to have.
7. Why did Sangean stick such mediocre speakers on their otherwise very good PR-D5 model?
8. You pick up a medium-size radio and it feels suspiciously light in your hands. You pick up a similar sized vintage Panasonic or Sony and it weights three times as much. This is telling you something, not good, about the lighter radio.
9. Radios with LCD lights so bright that they could illuminate an airport.
10. Radios with remote control but no other interface for controlling the radio.
11. HD radio because it requires messy external wires, antennas, and STILL gets lousy AM at night and in rainy conditions.
12. Being teased for several months by an appealing radio like the Redsun 3100, hearing about its “imminent production” on various message boards and then discovering it’s nothing but vaporware.
13. Headphone jack in the back of the radio.
14. Weird volume setting that fades every time you turn the station and then restores to original setting after a few seconds like on the Sangean CL-100. 
15. Speaker so bass heavy that you get distortion even at low volumes like on the Sangean K-200. 
16.  One of my pet peeves is medium to large sized radios without separate bass and treble controls. The Sangean PR-D5 and LB-100 are good examples, but there are many others (Gary).
17. Lack of a stereo/mono switch on a radio capable of receiving stereo FM. Radios are more sensitive when receiving mono FM than they are receiving stereo FM. Two examples of radios with this flaw are the CCRadio-2 and the Grundig Sat 800 (Gary).
18. I'll add one - radios that run on "C" batteries when they would run just fine on smaller "AA" batteries (Brandon).
19.  the scarcity of stereo in both portable and table top radios. Even when the speakers are of only moderate quality, the sound of music on FM is tremendously improved by stereo capability. Just compare the Sangean Sonido to the PR-D5 (Tim).
20. My peeve is the general dearth of quality radio program production. The BBC World Service sets the gold standard. Balanced exposition on a seemingly endless variety of subjects. NPR/PRI do some good work but their perspective is much more narrow (Keith, citing more of an overall radio crisis than a peeve but who am I to exclude this radio "peeve"?).
21.  Peeve: Itty bitty teeny weeny little miniscule diminutive buttons, especially when marked with tinier print! (Thanks, Bill)
22.  Radios with whip antennas that don't tilt and swivel (thanks, Gary).
23.  Radios that display the time rather than the frequency when listening to a station. I think the CCRadio-2 does this. Either show both the clock and the frequency, or let the user set whatever default is preferred (thanks, Gary).
24. Why did they put a detented tuning knob on the Sangean ATS-909? It doesn't enable you to quickly go through the bands. 
25. Why can't you get rid of that annoying beep every time you do something? The ATS-505 lets you turn it off without mods. 
26. Why is the Grundig G6 memory system too easy to overwrite? 
27. Why did Tecsun make the stand on the PL-660 so flimsy
28. Why did Tecsun make the antenna on the PL-660 so loose and floppy? (Thanks, Jules, for 24-28)
29. Radios where you can't turn off the lights. Many have a back light on/off switch but in most cases the lights still come on when you tune it or do something else even if the light is set off. That's fine but also have a real off setting. (The Tecsun PL-660 is one of the few that has a real off setting as well as a smart off setting. Why can't other radios do this too?) In the good ole days radios did not have lights at all. One radio I have even has a light on the power adapter that plugs into the wall. 
30.  power adapters that get hot. 
31.  tinny sound. The whole purpose is to listen to it. 
32. insufficient tactile feedback so you can't use it in the dark with having it light up. 
33. radios which lose your presets when you change the batteries. 
34. hideous blue background screens on internet radios 
35. internet radios with no ethernet connection. 
36. only available in black. I never take my radios to a funeral. 
37. expensive add-ons (overpriced case, AC adapter, etc.)

 

Posted at 05:54 AM in Radio Lovers Can't Be Cured | Permalink

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COMMENTS

 

Interesting. I thought it was just me. I'm always accidentally replacing a memory with the station I just punched in.

Posted by: Ken K. in NJ | August 26, 2011 at 06:29 AM

My comment above was about #26, the Grundig G6, but somehow the cut&paste got truncated.

Anyway, I don't really agree with two of the pet peeves:

#5-FM Wire antennas. I find the wire antenna acceptable (and even preferable) when a sticking-up real antenna looks out of place, such as the JVC stereo system in the family roon, and my Horizon Solo in the Living Room. In both cases the wire does a perfectly fine job and is tucked away where it's not visible.

#18 Radios that take C batteries instead of AA's. I'll take a C battery radio over an AA battery radio any day if the radios are of similar size. The C's last much longer, and seem to provide more power to the speakers.

Posted by: Ken K. in NJ | August 26, 2011 at 12:38 PM

A few of mine: (1) radios where you can't turn off the lights. Many have a back light on/off switch but in most cases the lights still come on when you tune it or do something else even if the light is set off. That's fine but also have a real off setting. (The Tecsun PL-660 is one of the few that has a real off setting as well as a smart off setting. Why can't other radios do this too?) In the good ole days radios did not have lights at all. One radio I have even has a light on the power adapter that plugs into the wall. (2) power adapters that get hot. (3) tinny sound. The whole purpose is to listen to it. (4) insufficient tactile feedback so you can't use it in the dark with having it light up. (5) radios which lose your presets when you change the batteries. (4) hideous blue background screens on internet radios (5) internet radios with no ethernet connection. (6) only available in black. I never take my radios to a funeral. (7) expensive add-ons (overpriced case, AC adapter, etc.)

Posted by: A. Black | August 26, 2011 at 01:26 PM

I didn't mean to truncate Ken's comment. Sorry.

Also, I agree with Ken that C and D batteries are preferred. I'll take long-lasting big batteries anytime.

Posted by: Jeffrey McMahon | August 26, 2011 at 03:09 PM

These are great!

To toss in my thoughts on battery sizes:

While I agree that the longevity of C's is preferable to AA's, I'd rather have AA's. I've got about a million and a half battery powered items, most either take AAA's, AA's or D's. About 3 take C's. They're kind of like the redheaded stepchild of the battery family, and I wouldn't mind seeing them go away permanently.

 

Comments

[Dan]

* Chinese radios that turn on into a sleep timer mode instead of just staying on.

* Rubberized bodies. They don't wear well, the attract dust, and they just feel strange to the touch.

* Radios that have multiple band selection knobs; e.g. one for AM and FM, and another to select just what am band to tune (MW, SW bands, etc).

* Scrolling RDS displays, This is more the fault of radio stations than the radios themselves, though.

* The increase in prices of Tivoli radios that resembles inflation in Zimbabwe.

* FM tuning that defaults to AFC. It's not 1968 anymore.

* The inability of radio manufacturers to make an HD receiver that doesn't kill the sensitivity of analog FM.

[Brandon]

I prefer the AA's mainly to keep the weight down and also because they're cheaper to purchase in rechargeable form. Obviously if the radio is large enough and it consumes beyond a certain power threshold, then D batteries are appropriate.