Mobile Radio for Pocket PC (CF card with FM radio)
Listen to FM radio controlled by your Pocket PC device.
(version 1)
In this review we take a look at FM radio receiver, that consists of a card in Compact Flash (CF) format in combination with mobile radio software either for Pocket PC or for Windows XP (for usage in laptop with CF to PCMCIA adapter).
In this review we use the following setup:
Toshiba e800 WiFi - Pocket PC with 640x480 resolution
FM203 from Prolink -mobile radio CF card
Why radio as CF card? Why not some simple separate radio instead? Possible rationale:
changing radio channels and volume is possible through software (a program for Pocket PC) - so you donīt have to take away your glance from the display of Pocket PC to change things in radio
support for 3 FM radio systems: USA, Europe and Japan - selectable by software - it comes in handy when travelling - then you can listen whole band
fast usage through touchscreen
memory: 3x6 = 18 radio stations - quick changing of stations with stylus
There are some desired features, that this radio doesnīt provide:
audio recording from radio
direct frequency entry
using loudspeaker of Pocket PC for playback (one must use stereo headphones)
RDS (a textual information broadcasted by some stations)
no possibility to name each radio station - only frequencies are visible (i.e. numbers)
Here is a photo of a Pocket PC with mobile radio attached at the top:
... where you can notice, that in high resolution (640x480) the software for radio controlling takes just small part of the screen - itīs not scalable - but it is not a problem, because it works fine.
Here is a photo of the mobile radio card alone:
... and here is a screenshot of the radio software in manual mode:
Manual mode is not very useful, because you have to find yourself which frequency is the strongest on for given radio station. In automatic mode you just tap on the direction and the software finds next radio station automatically:
The menu of the radio software is not big:
... and it contains mainly the band/region selection dialog:
... which is useful when travelling - it allows you to scan the whole frequency band for given region.
Conclusions: this mobile radio for Pocket PC may be useful particularly for people who travel a lot. Control over Pocket PC is pleasant and reception quality is aceptable - for such a low price. For some people it would be useful though to buy a bit better version of the radio card: a version with RDS.
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