Degen DE 1105 review update – it's broken!

My Degen 1105 is more or less out of service. Why? Because the aerial fell out! The telescopic antenna is fitted into the body of the radio, so there’s no joint for it to turn around outside the set.
Two segments of the aerial have fallen out. So it’s fairly useless – you can put the segments back in, but they just fall out again, and the connection is unreliable, needless to say.

This reminded me to root out the DE 1102. All AM is dodgy on that, MF and HF. I think the ferrite rod came lose first, and then I poked around at it zapping the shortwave coverage.
I'm a bit disappointed at the build quality of the Degens now -- they feel very solid, but mine have both failed inside, mechanically.

MSF time signal changes

the UK's reference source longwave signal is changing, as reported on Media Network. They are moving transmitter site. So the fixed phrase will have to change! "MSF Rugby" is becoming MSF Anthorn.

During yesterday's test, I noticed the singal meter on my radio-controlled watch was blank – and that never happens when I'm in the UK or Ireland! It was 11:56, and the test was due to finish at 12:00, so I put the watch on the window sill and told it to "GET" – it hadn't updated in the early hours. The watch has a little signal meter, of three bars – that mean time data and date data are both being received. For a few minutes it could only get one bar. After that it reached two – which I think means time data is being received. Then by 11:58, it started to get full strength, but it kept fluctuating between level 2 and 3. After 12, I asked it to calibrate again, and it did no problem.

It's possible my wall clock missed an overnight calibration too, as I was half-woken by an odd whirring in the middle of the night. Once I figured out what it might be, I noticed that I could still hear the second hand ticking merrily along, so I imagine it might have been the minute or hour hands doing their thing.

I never opened my eyes though so who knows!


ooooh. But now I've jsut noticed: the wall clock is a minute slow! Golly.

BTW, the watch is this Casio, and it's fab!

Beyerdynamic DT-770 Pro headphones

I was given a pair of these in late January. By all accounts they are very good. I’m not in any position to judge to be honest, as I haven’t much to compare them to.

I’ve been using them at home in the place of the DT-100s. So far I have this to say:
They’re very comfy. They block out a ton of outside sounds, I reckon more than the DT-100s.

So far the sound quality has only struck me in one example. I am now much more aware of the hiss in recordings made on the Edirol R-09 with its built-in mics.

I haven’t compared them directly, but for isolation alone, the DT 770’s absolutely wipe the floor with the Sennheiser HD-480 (modified by Canford) that we use as standard issue in the BBC. I’ve seen training videos of BBC Radio 1 newsbeat presenters using the DT 770s. Good!

Being very childish…

China National Radio have moved their web addresses to one: cnr.cn.

All very good, I'm sure. So I have to look for vulgar juvenile fun. Click the link for 中广演播厅。

And look at the web address that appears.

Sorry, but it must be done :-)

More in the Guardian

http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,2021124,00.html

It opens thus:

Access denied


Frustrated by government jamming and dwindling audience figures, staff at the BBC's China service are worried about an increasingly uncertain future. John Plunkett reports on the dilemmas facing the corporation

Monday February 26, 2007………



There'll probably be an update tomorrow – after a big announcement today.

Article in the Guardian

So now I know why the press office sounded pressured today…
http://media.guardian.co.uk/radio/story/0,,2013029,00.html

Upcoming posts

I've been shamefully absent! But I promise to update the blog in the next week. I'll be adding to my reviews, of the AKG K27i headphones, the Pure PocketDAB 2000, and the Degen DE 1105.

I'll also add a review of sorts, of the Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro cans.

In the meantime though: I'll be at the BBC Chinese stand in Chinatown on Sunday -- Chinese New Year -- so if you're around, come and say hello! We might even give you some freebies, if you're nice to us.
And speak Chinese.
And fill in a questionaire.

Maybe.

See you there!

Updating Blog – losing Chinese

I've jsut updated my blog, from the old Blogger to the Google Account thingamy. Fairly painless. All I had to do was re-order the sidebar, and retype the one bit of Chinese here, the link to Heather's blog. The Chinese doesn't look as clear as before, at least on Mac OS X.
Otherwise, all good.

Little Star -- good documentary on RTE R1

I've a backlog of Documentary on One podcasts -- that's from RTE Radio 1. It's a weekly 45 minute slot.

At the top of the list was one from December. With a name like "Little Star", I assumed it was something Christmassy, and put off listening "for the time being".

I had a listen at the weekend, and it's really good! Bear in mind the podcast removes the cue, so I heard it without any info at the beginning. I hope the cue was short! Cos this documentary has lovely surprises in it.

It's a very good documentary. No flash effects, but an interesting enough story presented very well.

Reuters AlertNet MediaBridge

A pleasant surprise today in the inbox from Reuters AlertNet. Their MediaBridge.
They describe it as:

"tools and services developed to help journalists cover humanitarian crises through a handy one-stop shop on our website, "AlertNet for journalists":

http://www.alertnet.org/mediabridge/index.htm

New features include hotspot mapping, which allows you to search, scan and zoom in on the world's crises through an advanced Microsoft mapping system, and e-learning for journalists, where we'll be constantly adding new humanitarian training modules on topics ranging from how aid works to understanding famine.

This is in addition to our other tools developed as part of MediaBridge. All our free services can be accessed from the microsite link above, including up-to-date crisis briefings, aidworld contacts and the AlertNet World Press Tracker."

I've kicked the tyres, and I like it! I think it applies as much to someone bound to an office in London as elsewhere. I have an idea of the strength of radio, and wish I could use it for humanitarian good. After all, my first radio job was Reports From Developing Countries, and I still regret not having done a better job of it. But that's another story! Right now, I'm happy the Reuters Foundation has given us this. I've put a link in the side column, and I intend to be a regular visitor.

Music royalties might get paid by Chinese radio stations

Last month, that bastion of radio blogging, Radio Netherland's Media Network, carried this story.

Methods and standards of paying royalties should be promulgated this year. A law about paying royalties has been on the books for six years, it says, but since there wasn't a method in place...

In 2004, when I was a feature producer in China Radio International (CRI), I got a talking to for refusing to use James Bond theme music on an interview with Sir Roger Moore (Yes, it is far and away the biggest interview I've ever done!).

The interview was for Unicef, and made only one mention of Bond in the whole 23 minutes. But the main reason I didn't want to use the music was because it's very distinctive and I didn't want to be held responsible if an angry Hollywood studio came along demanding.. well, demanding anything at all. Working in CRI encourages cowardice (at least in people like me, and party members. But not everyone...!)

So. For the second time that year, the features editor Li Peichun sat me down and explained earnestly: look, we had a meeting once, and "we decided, copyright doesn't apply to us".

I got away without using the music, as we were close to TX.

It's going to be a huge shock to the system for Chinese radio stations to start reporting the use of music. However you can be sure the regulations won't be enacted, or maybe enforced, until the main broadcasters have the "methods and standards" all sorted out -- in other words automated into their audio databases and playout systems. I wish that were the case in the World Service! Still, it keeps me busy on admin shifts.

Some more stuff on royalties and copyright in China. In 2006, I believe CRI received a letter from AP's legal representatives, demanding they stop cutting and pasting AP stories onto their website. This would have suited some of the editors there: stories referring "the wrong way" to Chinese history, politics etc have appeared on the CRI website. (example) You can hardly blame the short-contracted and under-paid web staff, way down at the bottom of the pile there, for copy-pasting longer stories.
Of course if the editors don't check it properly, that's another matter.

The Sound of Life

I'm listening online to a series from July - September. It was on Radio 4, and is called The Sound of Life. It's about sound in the natural world, and in natural ecosystems (not Sound Ecology, something I've only just discovered. I'm looking forward to learning more about that, though it's a bit daunting for now).

The Sound of Life is a good programme. Traditional Radio 4, sure, but there is a lot of nature sounds, more so than in the usual nature and science programmes there. So far, I'm loving it.

So far means I'm on programme three of eight. Here is the webpage, with all eight episodes there to listen again.

Oxfam Alpaca

It's not related, but I've quite fallen in love with this ad since I saw it yesterday :-)

Radios for Christmas in Ireland

A few weeks back, a friend asked about getting a DAB radio as a gift for someone in Ireland. Here's more or less what I wrote:

There's isn't a full DAB service in Ireland, just a trial of the national stations, around Dublin and Louth. Some border areas can get DAB from the north, but I doubt anyone on the south-east, where Welsh TV is widely received, would be able to get DAB. Maybe, on a hill, with a big aerial on a big pole. But not all that convenient, especially when you have satellite.

There's only one set that'll be much use in Ireland, and it's from an Irish-owned company. This Morphy Richards, only available from one place in the UK.

Comparatively future proof DAB, and DRM, the international equivalent (only a handful of stations there -- including both my current and previous employers), plus a good old AM FM radio and SD card slot.

I should recommend a Web radio to be honest -- not those useless MP3 only jobs of yore, but the ones you see advertised on www.reciva.com – some available in Currys as well as online. You need to have a wi-fi router at home, but once you have that, you have a fab choice of stations -- though I'm not sure about battery life, if they even run off batteries.

Maaayybeeee a Sky Gnome, which basially relays the output of whatever you have ont he Sky box to about 50m away. Ideally though, you'll need a second Sky box, hidden away somewhere to let the Gnome user listen to whatever they like without disturbing whoever wants to watch TV!

+=+
Since then: More people say Santa is bringing RTÉ a DRM transmitter tuned to 252kHz – yay!

Handy quote about the BBC

Online I'm reading an article from yesterday's Media Guardian. I haven't finished it yet, but so far there is this dandy quote (which you may interpret as you like!) about the BBC:

"If the BBC has a persistent bias, it's less political than, so to speak, attitudinal - a set of shared secular, liberal, urban, European values and prejudices so deep under the skin that many don't even notice they are there."


The article is by Timothy Garton Ash.

France 24

France24 has launched online, 24 hours before going launching on TV.

Overall I'm impressed! The presentation is nice. The anchors are standing, with a gooseneck mic to the left and right.
Standing improves your voice on-air, and every little helps in a glass walled studio!

I started watching a few minutes after it launched, but the stream was very jittery and I gave up, just a moment before Andrea Sanke's little outburst.
Later on in the night the stream has been a lot smoother.

I like the way the camera switches to a wider shot between the cue and a new package. But in one package I saw, an English speaker (Nancy Pelosi) was voiced over into French, and it wasn't corrected for at least 2 hours. And they have been repeating the same packages, not reversioning.

The news agenda really doesn't look like anything new, I have to say. Lots of agency footage, with, so far, the same perspective as we would expect from the two market leaders.

There's isn't much incentive to chose it over CNN, BBC World, or EuroNews. It hasn't struck me as a different European offering. I think I'll stay with Al Jazeera International for a different perspective. A couple of CCTV 9 style promotional pieces haven't done too much to endear! But I must say again, it is very slick, I''ve only seen & heard it over online streaming, and I enjoy looking out for voices familiar from RFI!

After less than ten hours on-air, the "Frenchness" seems to be in the features more than the bulletins. But I'm not going to judge them this early, of course!

Quote from Jon Snow

I spent a pleasant afternoon in the SOAS library on Friday. Amongst the reading, was Jon Snow's autobiography. I didn't get much past the opening chapters,(time constraints, nothing to do with his writing style!) Anyway, he modestly introduces:
"my wider tale, one from which this reporter emerges at least as blemished as anyone he reports on".

To us all!

Outlook – Ramallah & Jerusalem

I'm listening to Outlook's Schoolday 24, bringing 16 year olds in Ramallah and Jerusalem together. Gripping stuff. Like the similar programme on World Have Your Say in September. Awesome.

Children on the radio, and China

One of the first feature programmes I made was in China Radio International, on Children's Day. Incidentally, in China June 1st is referred to as International Children's Day – while most non-communist countries use that to refer to the UN Children's day, on November 20th.

I went off to one of the international schools outside Beijing – what a school! It was only my second or third interview, and I wasn't to great – I didn't write down their names, and so kept forgetting them. Oops. And it was a little bit difficult to mic me and three children – one with a very quiet voice.

Anyway. They managers in CRI weren't terribly impressed with the content of the interview. I'm deeply ashamed of the utterly awful studio intro and closing I added – gaaaa! I'm not a presenter, no way!

Being a good new producer, I asked one of the bosses what I should have done to make a better show for Children's Day. "I would have interviewed one of their teachers".
So who would I interview on Teacher's Day, I thought. Frankly, I wasn't too impressed. I knew as much then as I do now, that Children need to be heard, and need to be listened to. We can learn a huge amount from children, about growing up, about living, about how adult prejudices are carried on down to younger people.

Later, on the webite of Glenn Hauser's World OF Radio, I saw a report that that week, the CRI engineers had been testing a new DRM capable transmitter, relaying that day's news & feature hour something like 8 times. That resulted in co-channel interference of a regular transmission from another country. But that report finished with something like "a good journalistic job on the interview with foreign kids". I was unsure it wasn't tongue in cheek, but my was it rewarding!

Incidentally, after a few weeks of DRM test transmissions, that transmitter out in Kashi (Kashgar), was more than likely used for jamming, of Chinese language shortwave transmissions from abroad, such as my current employer!

But that'll not change anytime soon. We can hope to get more young people on the radio though

We simply have to get children and teenagers on the radio more!

Maybe if teens and younger are on the radio more, there would be less acceptance of doing something as "far out there" as having a 12 year old host of BBC World Service's The Interview. Not sure on that…
And teenagers may seem to have the digital technology and society to simply go and "Broadcast themselves" (to paraphrase YouTube). Not everywhere they don't.And compare the people who listen to the World Service with those who use MySpace…

Finally, Auckland's 95bFM has children's programmes: I've only listened once though, so I'll have to tune in again this weekend and publish on that later.

Generation Next

BBC Global News Division is doing a week of programmes about children and teenagers, and it's quite simply fab! Mostly on the BBC World Service, along with BBC World and BBCnews.com.

Yesterday was Schoolday 24, and I can't praise it enough. If you can't get to listen again online, at least grab what you can during the rest of the week on the radio.

This morning, heading into work, I was listening to young teens in Dar es Salaam, Delhi, and London discussing how they view the US presence in Iraq. Later, the Chinese Service did a live hour-long programme with Radio Guangdong, with a phone follow-up later on in World Report. Heading out of work I caught a global debate on science with young people.

And last weekend walking to Sainburys I heard Michael Palin interviewed by a 12 year old boy.

Sure, I work in the World Service: but I had nothing to do with any of the Generation Next output (other than putting one phone call through) – and I wish I had! It's awesome stuff, and I'll be listening back online.