Pure Digital THE BUG TOO > Reviews (7)

__A Concise History of radio__
Michael Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction in 1831, then his mate Alexander G Bell came up with the telephone a year later. In the vintage year 1977, Thomas A Edison recorded the first sound.. it was "Mary had a little lamb."

In 1990 a bloke called Reginald Fessenden used his trusty spark generator to send the human voice a mile, in 1901 Marconiflew his first kite and topped that with the first transatlantic radio transmission.

Morse code followed and not much happened apart from Radio Caroline sinking in 1980 and someone called the Hairy Cornflake on radio one making a daft record about CB'ers.

But then came DAB - Digital Radio Broadcasting also know as Eureka 147. The DAB was designed in 1980, but as of 2006, approximately 1,000 stations worldwide broadcast in the DAB format. An upgraded version of the system was released in February 2007, which is called DAB+. DAB+ is not compatible with DAB, which means that only receivers that support the new standard will be able to receive DAB+ broadcasts.
The reception of DAB remains crystal clear because DAB uses obstacles like the South Shields Erotic Gherkin tower, the Twister and the Geordie Alps as reflectors creating multipath reception conditions to optimise receiver sensitivity. DAB automatically selects the strongest regional transmitter and gives you the digital quality without the hiss, crackle or pop.

DAB radios can carry text and soon pictures and even video on their display.

You don't have to remember number's its all stored and the name of the station appears on your screen.

I have wanted a dab radio for ages but because of the price I thought I would wait a bit to see if it dropped. My partner was looking in Hughes window and saw this bug too on sale for £29.90. I went in to have a look. It was the last in the shop so they took it out of the window for me, I asked to see it working because i was not 100% sure i would receive dab in my area, he put a postcode in the computer and said i would get limited stations because the BBC had not covered this area yet, but i could return the bug too if I was not satisfied. so off I went to test it out.

__What does it look like__

As you can see from the picture, it looks a bit like number 5 from short circuit, it has a base with speakers and buttons which include navigation button for volume and channel select, info, changes the information on the digital display, menu, this enters and exits the options menu, record, this records the radio to the SD card, standby, REVu/Snooze, press to pause the radio, hold to use the ReVu or press to snooze when the alarm is going off. On the back there is a slot for the SD card, USB port, digital out, telescopic DAB areal, stereo out 3.5mm analogue out, 3.5 mm headphone socket and a 9v power socket. On a flexible neck is the blue LCD display and short cut buttons. My one is silver but I think they come in white and graphite as well. The LCD display has 122x32 pixels, this screen is blue with white scrolling text.

You can change what you see on the screen from the station and song information to time, time and date it also has a signal strength bar which to my surprise was two away from the best signal. Last but not least the animated bug too eyes, which are just for fun.

__What is ReVu??__

This allows you to pause and rewind the radio, the bug too constantly stores audio and text from the station you are tuned into on its memory . The amount stored depends on how long you have been listening to that station and the date rate of the broadcast, usually it can do about four minutes, once the memory is full it will start overwriting the beginning of the stored audio.

__Turn on and tune in__

First you must fully extend the aerial and plug in.,select where you live, either united kingdom or the rest of the world and start a search for all the digital radio stations in your area then you will hear the first station stored on you bug too, to change this you need to rock the navigation button left or right and press the centre of it to select the station, this button is in the middle of the base. to change to volume you also use this button left and right but no need to press the middle. This is it all the stations you get are stored and stay there even if you put it in standby mode.

__Stations I get in my area__

Kiss, Magic, Planet rock, Radio Broadland, The Beach, Traffic radio, BBC radio Norfolk, Chill, Classic FM, Gold Norfolk,Talk sport, Virgin, XFM, X(was traffic), well that's enough for me to listen to and the possibility of more in the future.

__Features__

You can set up to twenty alarms or timers and pick different radio stations or SD card tracks for each or choose the alarm sound which is a beep beep beep,
Sleep mode, this will automatically switch its self into standby mode after a set amount of time from fifteen to ninety minutes..
Electronic program guide (EPG) this provides programme schedules and information for those DAB stations that broadcast it, you can use this function to set up a timed recording or automatically tune in to a timed event.
Transfer files to and from your Pc, there are two ways of doing this from your SD card or through a USB cable you can check for upgrades using this as well.
It has a very basic equalisation which include; Flat, bass boost, monitor,studio,club and arena.
Changing the brightness of the LCD display in normal or standby mode.
Animation set-up, select whether the animated eyes are on or off.

__ My overall opinion__

I think this is a great idea for someone who knows nothing about DAB it is easy and simple to us, i love being able to rewind the radio even if it is only for a few minutes. The sound quality is a lot better than my normal radio, I have had my bug too for two weeks now and have not heard any interference at all. It is loud there are two 3inch x 1.5 oval, 8 ohm impedance speakers on either side of the base and it goes too loud for my little kitchen. For £29.90 I couldn't go wrong but i don't think i would have paid the original £140 that Hughes reckon it was!!! So if you see one cheap snap it up!!

thanks for reading
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