Cubicle Radio in Faraday Cage Office

I'm trying to avoid streaming music at work, but I also get bored real quick listening to my couple thousand MP3s. Sometimes the radio is all that will do. Unfortunately, radio signals are difficult to get in my office, so my phones built in am/fm antenna is worthless.

I've got a little $30 mini-amp at home, but its antenna and am/fm reception is worthless as well. Size wise (little bit larger than a pack of cigs) its perfect though. I won't need to run speakers.

I'm looking for a small yet powerful digital am/fm radio, and when I say powerful I mean in terms of reception. I don't however, want a huge antenna sitting on my desk.

Any suggestions?

I'm not aware of any radio stations that don't stream online. Why not go that route, through their website?

Can you stream radio with your phone? I've used the TuneIn app for a while, and it works very well and has an impressive collection of stations including the local FM stations.

Unless there's company policy against streaming, it's the easy answer. iHeartRadio, Slacker, & Pandora. If you can't use the company's bandwidth, do you have a data plan on your phone?

There's your typical GRM response giving advise you expressly excluded as an option in your original post.

• Lee

Maybe stream over the Internet, but be aware that this could become a bandwidth problem since these services don't use multicast traffic. We had a lot of people at my office streaming radio over the Internet, and we had to encourage them to get old-fashioned desk radios because it was bogging down our connection.

My suggestion would be to get more mp3s, but I have almost 21 thousand and still hear stuff more frequently than I would like.

Get an emusic subscription. It'll get you more MP3s.

I can't stream at work and I don't have enough data to stream to the phone.

I'm wanting cheaper than the monthly subscription of eMusic (i've used it in the past).

How much is a satellite radio every year? Actually NVM I probably wouldnt get sat signal in here either.

Car dealer I worked at had an XM/Sirius display, its antenna was sitting on the 2nd floor break room window seal, the display was edge of the showroom near the sales offices on the ground floor. If you can get the antenna near a window you might be able to do satellite.

• Lee

PHeller wrote: I can't stream at work and I don't have enough data to stream to the phone. I'm wanting cheaper than the monthly subscription of eMusic (i've used it in the past). How much is a satellite radio every year? Actually NVM I probably wouldnt get sat signal in here either.

I think i was paying $18/month for Sirius XM for all channels and internet listening. You can do an a la carte option for a bit cheaper.

Keith has also said a few times how to get it for even cheaper. Start service, cancel over phone, when they ask why your cancelling, cite cost value, they'll throw you some ridiculously cheap 6 month offer. Wash, rinse, repeat as necessary.

I plan on equipping every car and at least two stations in our home with SiriusXM once we move, and i'll be using this strategy for all its worth.

Yup, Sirius works best on the 6 month plan. I missed my last cancellation date and got nailed for the full amount. Luckily, they will give you a pro-rated refund.

PHeller wrote: I don't however, want a huge antenna sitting on my desk. Any suggestions?

Clearly, the answer is to bore a neat little hole through your office wall and run a piece of co-ax to one of these:

I have a couple test lead wires about 18" long clipped to the antenna terminal on the back of my office radio. I just move them around until the signal is good. You can try the same thing with any piece of wire to see if you can get a decent signal; there are specific lengths for optimal antenna design if you want to get serious about it, but anything is better than nothing.

Use use a RCA "Superadio" High Performance Radio in my Screen room are at work with some good results. I do not get a lot of stations, but I do get about three strong FM's and two AM's. I work near DC and Baltimore - closer to Baltimore so there are a few quality stations in this market.

bigfoot, is there a headphone jack on the RCA?

How close are you to a window? You could always build a full wave (just a length of wire) antenna tuned to your favorite station.