[BC] The $5.00 radio

[Kevin Tekel]

Willie wrote:
 > Of course... it needs to be in a WiFi hotspot, or it's a decoration,
too.
 > Radio is still absolutely TOPS for portability & economy. You can buy a
 > $5 radio and (usually) hear the news or the ballgame. You don't need
 > Internet service, just a signal.

A few years back, Wal-Mart was selling a Lennox Sound AM/FM pocket radio
for $5.00 and it had more than acceptable performance on AM.

I did some DXing on mine one night, and it delivered far better results
than I expected -- although this was long before nighttime IBOC ruined the
band:

http://mysite.verizon.net/tekel/len-dx.mp3

And it also has delightful semi-wideband audio response on AM, at least
once you add a 10 kHz notch filter to cut out the carrier whistle:

http://mysite.verizon.net/tekel/len-cjbc.mp3

The overall performance and sound quality significantly exceeded that of
Radio Shack's final AM-only "Flavoradio", especially through the built-in
speaker.

More recently, Wal-Mart was selling an FM-only radio for $1.00, but it is
more useful for its built-in flashlight than for its crude, awful-sounding
"Scan/Reset"-type "Auto-Scan" mono FM tuner, which has acceptable
reception but sounds like it's using AM slope-detection of the FM audio,
and is easily overloaded by any kind of nearby VHF signal... not to
mention that its included earbuds, which are falsely labelled as "STEREO",
are out-of-
phase!