Following my previous post on two attempts at joining the morning news and the morning bathroom routine, in both cases something is too wrong. Memory lost and instable signal are no-go.
Initially I admitted my failure to
provide a suitable device and let the family member head to the shop to
look for a replacement. Then an idea strike: why not use the FM radio
into that old Samsung Galaxy S phone that was gathering dust? Just fit a
3.5mm jack (with enough wire) to behave as an antenna and set the output through
the internal loudspeaker.Bingo! While an overkill, it is battery powered, rechargeable and does not loose memory when the battery goes flat (but you can monitor it easily). It has more than enough audio power to fill the bathroom and costs nothing. Last but not least there is a self power-off setting at 30 minutes! The only drawback is that the RF-GSM part has to be ON to receive FM radio. But that works even without a SIM card inserted.
As shown in the picture, if the FM station is close/strong enough a 3.5mm jack alone acts as a perfect antenna (picture shows a 5mm to 3.5mm adapter). Probably it also helps not to overload the input stages resulting in better reception!
Let's see how long this solution lasts.
Note. I know I could have used an Android app to listen to the Internet streaming transmission. But who knows if there is still a working app around for Android 4.x? And how it would compare with power consumption? And the current over-the-air solution works even during power outages.
