This CAN'T be that hard !?!?!
2I have a 93 year old step-father-in-law whom can barely hear, so headphones are not an option. All he wants is an AM/FM radio with NO/zip/zero/zilch/nada other bells & whistles. (Yes, he gets confused & aggravated easily … so no bluetooth/wireless/CD/memory stick or card - you get the picture - “KISS”. He wants a good, old fashioned AM/FM radio, & is getting fairly fed up with my inability to supply him with same. Trouble is, for the sanity & health safety of everyone else he lives with, we all need one simple little thing to make it all happily livable - a remote control which will mute that radio’s volume upon command. Maybe it’s me … it just sounds like it should be child’s-play easy … & yet here I sit, drink in hand, (ears) & hair on fire, with 3 ( yup, 3) radios purchased wherein the remotes work for everything BUT the radio portion of the show! It’s not a question of cost - can ANYBODY out there tell me what make/model to ask for & where I can buy it from? This is a serious beg for help I am sending out into the fellow Mehrican ether … anything, anybody?
- 11 comments, 22 replies
- Comment
How about one of these two? Both can run on battery or AC power and include the power cord.
https://www.amazon.com/Sony-ICF-506-Analog-Tuning-Portable/dp/B06Y11B6L8/
https://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-RF-2400D-AM-Radio-Silver/dp/B00007KDX6/
@yakkoTDI
missing the remote that is crucial to their needs…
@chienfou DOH! I completely missed that part.
/giphy DOH!
I have no experience with this radio but maybe the Sangean WR2? It claims to have a remote, but doesn’t have a pic of it. Kind of pricy.
If the mute button is for the use of those in the house besides your F-I-L you could consider using a ‘smart plug’ that would cut the power to the unit when activated. It’s not very elegant, but it might do the trick. I have some plugs that are controlled by a simple on/off remote that would work for this purpose. No need for wi-fi connection, just simple RF. Something like THIS for instance.
Bose Wave Radios are fairly simple. All controls are on the remote. You might consider an Amazon Echo. No remote but he can yell at it to do things.
Thanks for input so far - at least I am laughing now, & not feeling like the only one in the lifeboat. Yes, the “power in demand ?” plug might be the only way. We have something like this for our own stereo system, & it works well. I will look a bit more for a simple radio w/remote - & continue to welcome any & all suggestions.
@scfd0766 One caveat with the remote control plug setup: turning it “off” is unplugging it, so there will be things that don’t like that treatment, i.e. CD changers getting mechanically stuck or clocks or other settings getting reset. The best solution is to use an old-school table radio in conjunction with the R/C outlet.
/image clap on clap off the clapper
@stinks
Brilliant! That’s even better than my solution. No remote to lose, anyone can do it.
@chienfou @stinks but what if someone claps in a song
@chienfou @stinks @tinamarie1974
Good point!
@Kyeh @stinks @tinamarie1974
if you’re happy and you know it clap your hands… hey, who turned off the radio??
@chienfou @stinks @tinamarie1974
How about one of these?
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/616TH+lHMkL.AC_SX569.jpg
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YJBTSWY
$16 and about the size of a TV remote (so I guess it is its own remote
). Fits in a shirt pocket for easy carry and listen.
Easy to access MUTE button right on the front. Volume control on front also. You can program it for him (which isn’t that hard to do) to get all the local stations you want. Holds a BUNCH of preset AM and/or FM stations. Additional feature: there is a LOCK button on front, so you won’t be as liable to change settings by simply having it push against your body.
I got one about 6 months ago and used it so much i ordered a 2nd one (sometimes I’d forget to charge it up before the football game, so a spare is nice). Love it.
Uses earbuds (supplied, or use your own). No external speaker. Charges via USB (charger and adapter supplied) – plug into an A.C. outlet.
Manual is typical; not the best. If you get one and have questions on the operation, I’d be happy to answer.
@phendrick
/image https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/616TH+lHMkL.AC_SX569.jpg
Not sure what happened to that link in above post
@phendrick If that is actually an FM stereo radio, it’s a fairly good deal.
@PooltoyWolf Yes, and yes.
I recommend it, if you like to have one in your shirt pocket.
Only downside for me (with my bad hearing) is I have to go up to about 29 or more out of 31 on the volume scale to hear it through the supplied buds. I use mine mainly for sports broadcasts while I roam around my house. One battery charge will take me through an NFL game, but I turn it off at halftime to make sure. Probably lasts longer for someone who can use it at lower volume. Wasn’t loud enough to compete with a lawn mower or such.
Then again, I usually have to use an amplifier when listening to a pod cast on my laptop, even with good ear buds.
Built-in antenna does a good job. I get as many or more stations on this little gem as I do on my car radio, both AM and FM.
Also, another disclaimer: Obviously, it is NOT a Walkman radio. Marketing there taking some liberties!
@phendrick This unit very likely uses the headphones plugged into it as the FM antenna, and I’d be using my Sony MDR-X10s with it, hopefully improving both sound quality and reception!
I’m totally with your step father-in-law. KISS. Just went on a hunt for a microwave with minimal options. Buy my cars that way. Washing machines. Anything mechanical. I’m surprised some enterprising company hasn’t picked up on the clear need and put out a large product line named “KISS”. Kind of like Amazon Basics, but even more committed to the basic principle.
@romellex - We lost both my parents years ago in their 80’s, but my adorable 85 yo MIL just keeps on ticking. I mean this seriously when I say she VERY loved, by one & all, & so when she achieved her 70’s & Cupid’s arrow made a 2nd landfall in her life, we kids rallied to support the two “lovebirds”. But if somebody would just open a KISS storefront like you have described, man would things get a whole lot easier. We live in the country, & they moved into the house next to us, so we are their go-to source for … basically … well, everything - including old -fashioned radios.
@romellex @scfd0766
10 years ago moved my parents right next door to my house (shaved off a piece of our property) and built a house that was a copy of the one they left in St Louis. Made it a lot less confusing for Dad with his dementia. And yes, we were ‘tech support’ for him and Mom until his passing a few years back. Now we are the caregivers for Mom (90+). She still lives at home but comes over for lunch daily and we have some cameras up to watch her for falls in some of the common areas (den/TV room, kitchen etc) She has basic cable (half dozen channels, no cell phone (cordless land line), no computer any more ( started to get a bit happy with clicking sketchy links), Doesn’t cook any more other than making her morning toast and heating a cup of hot chocolate.
A KISS store would be awesome for locating things that she needs that break down since we currently have KISS enabled stuff for her already. For instance when we replaced her washer she had trouble getting it to cycle since she wouldn’t push the button long enough to activate, then was pissed that she couldn’t open the lid and add stuff to the top-loader since it locked when the cycle started…
POPSOCKETS! COURT DOCKETS! FOLK ROCK HITS! AWESOME!
@chienfou @scfd0766 I’m totally with your mom. I had when machines do something I didn’t ask them to do, as they are trying to “help” me.
@chienfou @romellex @scfd0766
The fucking washing machine and dryer! Omg! What stupid moron had to go and change the whole design of those. I need kiss ones of those too bc I get calls about them all the time. My father is 81, blind and hard of hearing. He eats through a peg tub (can’t swallow anymore from throat cancer) so he doesn’t use any kitchen stuff. We can’t take him out of his house bc it’s the only place he REALLY knows and has a hard time anywhere else. We have cameras set up (he fell down the stairs a couple years ago and broke his neck in three spots) and between my brothers and I someone goes over there just about every day. We even have ropes set up to guide him from his room to the bathroom and room to his chair bc he’s gotten turned around before and confused. I had to cut out the mute button from the remote bc he kept pressing it and couldn’t understand why there was no sound on the tv. He loves the Alexia be bc he can ask it all kinds of stuff but his cancer came back last year and ate a whole through the hard pallet of his mouth so now when he talks all the air goes out his nose and it’s hard to understand him and Alexia doesn’t respond bc it can’t understand so it’s one less thing for dad to enjoy.
@Star2236 Your father is very fortunate to have you, and I know you’ll never regret time/effort/$ you spent caring for him.
@romellex
Thank you, and you right I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I have a better relationship with my father than my brothers do bc they lived out of state for years and they regret it now.
You know, I like the smart plug idea, but here’s another thought: What if you find a radio that when you plug into the speaker jack, it mutes the radio’s speakers and only outputs through the speaker plug?
Then, the radio itself is super simple. All you would need to do is plug the simple radio into the remote controlled speakers then. Might be easier to find simply controlled remote speakers than the radio, because it is really easy to implement all sorts of bells and whistles, so as soon as you ask for anything over basic, they start adding in all the other stuff as freebies since it is usually just software and maybe some cheap button inputs.
@smerk85 Well, or you could maybe just buy a small FM transmitter, that allows you to select the frequency, like the kind you would use to retrofit an older car so you can stream music off your phone. So long as the FM transmitter is within range of the radio, you would effectively mute the radio by simply turning on the transmitter with nothing plugged into it, and tuning it to the same station the radio is tuned to(kind of “jamming” the signal).
Something like this out to do it as an effective mute only button. You could even plug a microphone into it if the Stepdad in law is having trouble hearing you, and amplify your voice as an added side benefit:
FM transmitter(amazon)
Alexa echo, ok google, and Siri will do this I think.
Then use voice commends or use phone as remote.
Or play thru tv and use tv remote. Or something.
@f00l not sure those do FM radio with adding specific skills then it’s not easy to browse stations. Also require Internet connection and associated router/app setup.
@medz
Yep. Amd you gotta agree to let them listen to whoever’s speaking, if you used the miked version.
Like the clapper suggestion above, your best bet is probably to get a remote controlled power switch/plug and just plug a dumb radio into that. The remote will kill power to the radio effectively muting it.