Zoltrix Radio Plus supplies PC radio support while working

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): Many, many years ago my dad had a radio. Boy, was it a behemoth compared to the pocket radios we have today! At the time my family lived in Payakumbuh, a very small town in West Sumatra, and for the early part of my life we never had any electricity. The radio could use a car battery, but even a spare car battery was hard to find in the late 1950s.

Entering 1960, our conditions improved a little, and my Dad was able to buy a small generator set for our house. We ran the noisy genset for just three to four hours every night. That was when we enjoyed the radio's company. Otherwise, life in that small town was as quiet as it is on top of Mauna Kea, the highest peak on the island of Hawaii.

That radio had a couple of vacuum tubes, and the reception was never truly clear. There was so much static. But that was typical of AM broadcasts. The antenna ran along an outside wall. We had so much fun, nonetheless. Unfortunately, one day a mouse decided to enter the cabinet to eat the cables and the speaker. My dad had to drive 35 kilometers to Bukittinggi to get it fixed. The repairs took a long time, because even replacement speakers were not readily available then.

Needless to say I have bought myself several radio sets in my life and I have gotten more of them as gifts. But when a friend, Mr. Mohan, called me recently and told me about his find in Orion Plaza, Glodok, downtown Jakarta, I became curious. He said he had bought a radio card for his PC for Rp 62,000 (US$26). "It's a giveaway price," he said, "The sound was quite good. You should write about it."

I said I'd have a look. And so I went to Computer City. Sure enough, it was a hot thing over there. Almost every computer store had it. Some stores include it as a bonus if you buy a new PC from them. I bought one to test at home and listen to my favorite station, FM 89.65, Radio Classic.

Being able to listen to radio broadcasts while using your PC is not exactly a novel idea. Polytron has been marketing their PC monitors that have built-in radio tuners and speakers. But you have to use the buttons on the monitor bevel to change stations and volume.

Radio Plus

A stark contrast to my dad's radio, the Radio Plus card from Zoltrix is a short expansion card that you can easily plug into a free ISA slot in your PC -- provided you still have one left. The electronics were so minimal that I think this card should not occupy a slot by itself.

There is only one jumper that you can modify if the card's I/O address happens to conflict with that of another card in your system. I was able to get it working without having to change the jumper. There are two ports at the back of the card, one for the supplied antenna and another for a pair of speakers.

What are the features? Radio Plus lets you store 99 settings so you can jump from one station to another just by entering the station number. It can hold far more settings than the number of stations we ever have in any area.

The sound was clear enough even when I was using a pair of very cheap speakers. The radio can pick up more stations than the tuner in my stereo system can.

To select a station, you can press its preset number and click the 'Enter' key. Or you can click the 'Freq' button and enter the frequency directly using the numeric keypad on the right side of the panel. You can also scan the stations manually; all you have to do is click the 'Tune' button and then the left or right arrows underneath the numeric keypad. If the reception is not optimal, you can fine tune the radio by clicking the 'Fine' button. Each time you press the left or right button, the frequency will increase or decrease in increments of .025 points.

You can close the radio panel but still have the radio playing in the background. Even when I rebooted the PC the radio was unaffected: I could still hear it. There are alarm and slumber functions, too.

If you have a sound card, I guess you can channel the signal for the speakers into the line-in port of the sound card.

All the function buttons release too quickly. Sometimes I find myself changing the preset station while thinking I am still fine-tuning the locked station. I end up changing the preset number.

The left and right arrow buttons do not repeat, so you have to click your mouse button again and again if you want to change to another station that is far away. Zoltrix should have made the two keys like an ordinary keyboard. We should be able to click it on and hold it down while the counter should increase automatically.

There is an automatic scanning function, but it will erase the existing station settings. This means you will have to enter your favorite stations again into the memory. There is no on-line help, either, although there is a 'Help' button. You will have to keep the slim manual handy.

Finally, for a little more than Rp 60,000 you can get a full- featured mini-combo radio plus cassette recorders that will let you listen to AM broadcasts as well as record and play back music. While Radio Plus is a nice bonus for your new PC, it should not cost so much. Technically, because of the few electronics required, it should simply be integrated into the sound card. Otherwise, you may end up having more than one pair of speakers for your PC, which beats the purpose of having a radio function in your PC.

Bargain speakers

Speaking of PC speakers, the range can easily overwhelm you. At Computer City you can even buy power computer speakers from world-class manufacturers such as Nakamichi, Altec Lansing, Yamaha and Aiwa. I once indulged myself in the spectacular sound coming from a pair of Yamaha speakers and subwoofer. But the price was not worth it. For the same price, we could buy a sophisticated powerful amplifier and a pair of decent speakers.

But I did come across a pair of speakers that was worth buying: a CDSonic pair of speakers, which you can buy for about Rp 110,000 at Computer City. They are not loud enough to get people onto the dance floor, but the sonic quality is comparable to others costing three times as much.

Like most PC speakers today, the heavy, modern looking speakers don't require external AC/DC converters. You can plug in the cables, push the on button, and immediately start listening to your Placido Domingo CD. They have control buttons for bass and treble, but no balance control. They are fully recommended.