That's it - you can officially take me outside and shoot me! - I'm middle aged.
I've long held the belief that middle age is not simply a measure of the time you have spent on earth - according to that I'm 46.
I've long since given up any aspiration to wear 32" trousers, I can still manage 34" at a push, but I'm really most comfortable with a pair of 36 inchers.
It isn't that you find yourself more often than not going 'Uffff!' when you bend over - I've been doing that for about five years.
It isn't even when you realise that you take your glasses OFF to read something or scribble a note - as has happened increasingly over the past year or two.
All are indications of the inevitable passing of the years. No - I've reached the technology cul-de-sac, or so it appears!
I remember noticing in my mid twenties with absolute astonishment that my parents couldn't do even the simplest of tasks, such as programming the video recorder. 'Good grief' I thought - what it must be to be really old! (ie 46)
My particular waterloo has apparently come from Wharfedale's (or should I say Argos's) DAB / FM radio.
I don't consider myself stupid by any means.
I could even explain what Frequency Modulation is, what a Multiplex is and that DAB stands for Digital Audio Broadcasting.
For goodness sake I even design IT systems for a living and have to specify complex networking infrastructure - so I wouldn't consider myself one of the sandals and shaggy beard set.
Nope - the radio has me flummoxed.
Yes I'm a man, yes I should've paid more attention to the instructions, no they didn't make any sense once I'd read them three times!
The radio looks for all the world like a bog standard bedside alarm clock, which is comforting, because that's exactly what I wanted it to be.
There's nothing actually wrong with my old alarm, except it's got one of those old analogue tuners which it's hard to get the station quite right, and changing channels in the dead of morning is just too much hassle.
No - Digital is the way for me, I suppose - nice big button, don't like the programme? - just press another button & the problem solves itself, or so I thought.
So I thought wrong!
There's a display, a couple of silver buttons on the top marked with reassuring phrases such as SNOOZE and ALARM, it even has what look like a couple of edge-on volume and tuning knobs at the side (one of which is actually a 'real' volume knob.
But after that point, it all goes rapidly downhill.
The tuning knob is actually a thumbwheel (not in itself a bad thing) but is the source of nearly all my frustrations.
You see, you turn the radio on, and it starts auto-tuning - very clever! You don't even have to set the time, because the nice people at the broadcasting stations send a timecode along with the programme data.
No - it's how to get the blessed radio to work properly that gets me! The radio picks up a 'pop' station, audio quality is pretty miserable - but then so's the speaker, forget the 'stereo digital quality' nonsense, this is a cheap mono radio that happens to have a digital receiver - it isn't pretending to be a home cinema system!
I listen to the pop tune and I think 'ye gods' - I start twiddling with the thumbwheel looking for something sensible and familiar like Radio 4, or even 3.
I notice the apparently arbitrary station names appearing on the display as the knob is turned, but is it me, or is it just about three or four stations which are displayed - and not the 30-odd promised when the auto tuning completed.
I find radio 4, and think OK - surely it'll switch over in a second, but no, it resolutely stays on the pop station.
I repeat the process and this time press another button. At that point it sticks on radio 4 - I try and set it as a 'favourite' but take several attempts (most of the time it resets itself to the pop station again)
Trying to programme other stations on other favourites finds me getting increasingly cross, it either overwrites the existing station on a channel I don't want, or zaps me back to some previous position on the station list like some technical version of 'Snakes and ladders'.
The instructions are no b***dy use - they simply describe what the names printed next to the buttons mean, it doesn't actually EXPLAIN how to actually set anything up!
After fourtyfive minutes I restrain myself from throwing the pathetic little heap of plastic at the wall.
I'm afraid I've reached my wit's end on this one.
It's back to Argos tomorrow morning clutching my receipt, and waving a copy of their 'money back if not entirely satisfied' policy.
More details
Alarm Quality
Satisfactory
Clock Quality
Satisfactory
Evaluate this review
How helpful would this review be to someone making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
This product has not yet been reviewed. 
