World Space Radio

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kliever

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Looking to increase on-board entertainment this year (fed up of world service) I note in Feb PBO an advert for a world space rec. that goes on to say "no subscription nec. service presently free to air (FTA).
Have any forumites experience of these receivers and what programmes would I expect to get in med. area.
brgds
John R
 
Yep. Go to their website and there is a list of stations. It also shows which are currently Free to Air. They keep changing the FtA stations.
 
But having looked at their website and the BBC site it *appears* that only the world service is available on Afristar which covers most of the med and africa. It would be great if domestic radio was available as well. Does anyone know?
 
I have used one (Hitachi) for 3 years now. THere are many channels but like cable TV you will soon narrow it down to a few you like. In the beginning it was totally FTA but they have gradually introduced subscriptions for the popular channels including BBC world service. Never-the-less I for one feel it is worth paying the GBP75 (or whatever the rate is this year) to give a wider range of excellent digital quality news/entertainment.

There are two beams of Afristar which are received in the med. In the Eastern med the BBC service on that beam is a special mix for the middle-east. As you move west to the west side of Greece and all of Italy and beyond the eastern beam is difficult or impossible to receive with so the Rx locks onto the wetern beam. This has a special African service for the BBC, mostly in English but with a number of French language transmission periods. Still very useful but the news chosen for Africa whist the Mid East flavoured news is really more appropriate for those in the Med.

My radio came with a small square "dish" antenna about 12cm x 12cm which I just put onto the coachroof and point it south. It can be used whilst sailing until you tack at which time you reach over and turn the antenna south again. In port at a fixed mooring it is perfect but at anchor it can be annoying as you move around and lose signal from time to time. WorldSpace did talk about developing an omnidirectional antenna during 2003 but when I enquired they said that it had not been successful and they were not proceeding. On the otherhand there has been an anouncement that they were working with one of the European digital radio groups to make their service available in motor cars. Obviously they would need a good omni for this.

Clearly Worldspace are looking for any way they can to achieve a good income flow from the enormous setup expenses so you can expect that most useful/popullar channels will be subscription in the due course of time.

They have a weather channel but unless it has improved dramatically over the past 9mths, the information is not specific enough or at fixed times for it to be of any use for passage planning. Stick to Navtex and looking out the porthole.

Ray
 
I bought a Joyear last year. Good quality sound, cassette adaptor to plug into boat's stero.

However, I got pissed off with the drift to subscription as other posters mentioned. I used to listen to Virgin Radio and Jazz FM. They also had CNN.

Yes, problems at anchor, even on a marina berth from time to time with passage of fishing vessels.

I've still got it, but haven't yet decided to pay subs. Oh - and I thought BBC Africa was a load of crap.

Unlike other post, I thought that the weather channel was quite (maybe we're talking about different channels), the times were regular, detail was adequate, they appeared to be computer driven voice broadcast, so assume no live forecaster interpretation before transmission.
 
I have been cruising the med for two years and Worldspace is the only reliable link with the UK broadcast stations I have found. The comments regarding the lack of omni-directional aerial are true but I have found there is very little loss of signal in marinas or when sailing on constant headings. I have a HitachiKH-WS1 which I bought as a 2nd hand set as I was told Hitachi have stopped production. I think that is a shame as the service is 100% reliable, unlike SSB. The Worldspace website is supposed to have a link to give information about the weather channel but I cant find it. A schedule giving times of broadcasts for each area would save having to listen to the unwanted stuff. The sub is about £75 a year and I consider it worth it, you get live football on Talksport (or Talkcrap if you dont like football) The music channels are brilliant and cater for all tastes. The news channels very adequate for keeping up to date (although biased toward American broadcasting). I rate a receiver and subscription a good buy if you want English language broadcasting 24/24
 
Hmmm, I think I conclude from all this that I will not be getting worldspace. Most cruisers have decent HF radios and I find that with all the frequencies pre-programmed, I can get the BBC world service pretty much 24/24, albeit with not great sound quality.

I certainly agree that the world service directed to Africa is of 'variable' interest, but it does include good world news and it is not intended for consumption by expats!
 
HF (SW) radio is fine for news or other speech programs but digital satellite radio comes into its own for high quality music with a range of styles. Of course its up to the individual as to whether it is worth the subscription fee. Even though we have a good selection od CD's to play it is very nice to be able to have a continuous supply of classical, jazz, country and/or pop (although we are still looking for a channel to suit the "baby boomers") to switch to.

Ray
 
Thanks for all the replies, I shall now invest the princely sum of £119 and try it out. The main reason I want one is because I'm fed up of the world service.
John R
 
I was just about to order one. Which one have you gone for, and from where?
 
If you think of it, could you give some feedback when you've formed an opinion?

David
 
Re: World Space Radio Discontinued

It seems WorldSpace have stopped their weather service due to lack of demand. A shame especially for those of us who bought the radios! /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif
 
Re: World Space Radio Discontinued

I went over to Sea Teach to look at one a couple of weeks ago and they didn't know how to set up their demo model. It looked very difficult and very, very, sensitive to antenna orientation. It didn't look as thought it was going to work at anchor. Aside from the lack of weather (which doesn't bother me because we have plenty of other sources) how do you find the service? Where are you using it?
 
Re: World Space Radio Discontinued

Hi Lemain, It is not difficult to set up really. but if you are not in a reception area you cannot get a feel for the sensitivity of the antenna position. I have an Hitachi which has a demountable antenna with a small folding stand. I simply place it on the coachroof and point it south with about 45deg to horizon. Unless I am at the edge of the beam then the signal romps in. The initial set up of choosing and storing channels takes time because you have to step through the channels sequentially and store the ones you want. My radio has a non-volatile memory for the channel locations. Problem is most of the radios on the market seem to only have 10 memories which initially seems a problem but in the end we found there are about 8-10 channels we listen to frequently.

At anchor without a breeze to hold you steady it can be annoying when you drift around from the capture angle of the antenna which is probably 60-90 deg but the Greece and Turkey where we often had a line to shore or were anchored in a local port it was not a problem and in Italy where you are more often in a marina it was naturally totally stable. Apart from that, even if you do drift a bit you just put your hand out to swing the antenna a bit. Worldspace did talk of work being done on an omnidirectional antenna but I think it went into the "too hard" basket.

As a high quality source of continuous music of various genre it is great. As an easy to listen to source of news from various countries and organisations is also a feature for us. Of course there is the matter of the PNDS 90+ for a subscription to cover some of our favourite channels but we have found it to be worth it.

Ray
 
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