Technika DAB 307

When I packed up work almost three years ago to give birth to my daughter Holly and to become a full time mother and housewife, my radio became my best friend during the day. However about a week ago, my trusted Alba Radio/Tape/CD player became a victim of a two year old's temper tantrum and came in collision with the laminate floor, when somebody couldn't get her own way. Oh I can't wait for January when she goes to pre-school for 3 days a week instead of the two mornings I get now.

So my old radio still worked but the volume was either so loud you could hear it in space or so quite that you could not hear it at all, the aerial had snapped off and if you walked within 4 foot of it, it would crackle and spit at you. Enough was enough, I had started to miss listening to radio 2 so I asked Darren if I could buy myself a new radio. Of course I should have known it would not be that easy. He said OK and that he would meet me at our Tesco when I went to pick Holly up from pre-school.

I would have picked up the cheapest radio I could find but no, it seemed I would be entering the digital age. By the time I had reached Tesco, Darren had already made my choice for me. He had settled on the Technika 307 DAB/FM radio incorporating an alarm clock. I managed to get a quick glimpse of the picture on the front of the box whilst paying at the checkout but that was it.

I arrived home, got Holly out of the car, grabbed the radio and rushed into the kitchen to start setting up. Unpacked the box and removed the radio. I must admit I was quite pleased with the look of it, it reminds me of an old fashioned transistor radio with the wood look on the top and bottom, although there are no twisty knobs. The radio is quite a compact size, 15 cm x 25 cm, 7 cm deep and sits on a base of 1 cm. From the side the shape of the radio is nearly a Z. The plastic wood looking top and base is about 1 cm with the rest of the radio is a brushed silver colour. The radio has a carry handle on top and an aerial.

The radio has two round speakers and between these are 12 buttons in rows of three and above them is the display screen (2cm x 7cm). The 12 buttons are arrow up and down and select (allows you to go through the stations available and select). Under these are Pre-set (you can store up to 10 of your favourite DAB or FM stations), Menu (manual tune, Auto scan Local and Auto scan National) and Info (gives you information on the station you are listening to). Next comes the Sleep, Alarm/snooze and Volume up. Finally Standby/on, DAB/FM and Volume down (speaks for themselves). At the side of the radio is a jack point where where you can plug in either headphones or earphones. The cable is a reasonable length or the radio takes 6 x UM2 batteries (medium size round ones).

So I plugged the radio in, in the kitchen and pressed the standby/on button. The screen came up with Welcome to Digital Radio and clock not set. The clock should automatically set itself and find its radio stations, however I got nothing, not a sausage. Oh so great its not going to work in this house. I know Darren has a Digital radio that he listens to a night and that is at the front of the house, so I moved the radio into the lounge. Plugged it in again, this time however the clock did set itself and the radio found 30 radio stations, which for Derbyshire is quite good (bearing in mind my Mum and Dad are still on Terrestrial TV because they can't get a digital signal). It found all of the BBC stations and selection of local stations and national stations. All radio stations are listed in alphabetical order. I only ever listen to Radio 2 so this is fine by me. The instruction book says you can pick up stations for a lot of European countries but I supposed this is if you live somewhere where digital signal is strong and easy to obtain.

When the radio is in standby the clock remains on although I never leave it in standby mode, (I like to save electricity). When you switch it off at the plug and switch it back on it automatically goes to the last station you were listen to. When the radio is on, the screen shows you what station is playing and shows you some information (i.e. local news and weather on some of the local stations) radio 2 shows who is presenting the show and what record is playing at the time. This is quite handy if you like a song that is playing but do not know what it is called or who sings it, you can rush and look at the screen.

When you set the alarm, it tells you at the side of the screen that the alarm is on (a bell comes up) and you can either have the radio come on or a buzzer. If you press the snooze button the alarm goes off every 5 minutes until you switch the alarm off. I will never use the alarm but you never know when it could come in handy.

One thing I have noticed, Darren's digital radio has got a pause and rewind button but this radio does not. Mind you Darren paid a lot more for his radio.

I must say I was surprised at the clarity of the radio, I thought FM was clear but when playing with the radio I accidentally clicked to change to FM and I could really tell a difference, the digital was very clear indeed.

I love my new best friend, it is so easy to use and the quality of sound is so crystal clear. This radio is now out of harms way at the bottom of the stairs and protected by a stair gate so little hands can not reach it.

The radio seems to be made exclusively for Tesco and they sell it for £39.97 in-store or on-line and comes with a one year guarantee.

Many thanks for reading. Anna