Ringing in the New Year in Glorious Monaural Sound.

I have not confessed this here before but I am a dedicated NPR listener. And somewhere buried deep amongst my life goals is the desire to one day have a story on This American Life; which is my favorite radio show (though I do also greatly enjoy Car Talk). I had been enjoying this pastime either listening in my truck or on a small digital Sony radio I had originally bought for the gym (it was also my sole means of news gathering in the days following hurricane Katrina which was a unique experience to share another day). Like all newer digital pocket radios it used the headphone wire as its antenna. Which for the TV FM-transmitters at the gym was just fine. For indoor talk radio listening, however, it was often too staticky and needed to be set at an unbearable volume to make any channel's speech intelligible. In search of better reception I spent an entire day researching antiquated radio technology and learned: that dipole antennas have the best FM reception but are apparently unavailable for pocket radios; that monaural radios are much better at reproducing speech than stereophonic ones; and also that I needed to invest either in a very expensive Sangean digital pocket radio or get a pocket radio with a better antenna (which in hind-site seems rather elementary). Then, I went shopping and found this amazing monoaural analog pocket radio still being made by Sony.

It was only $10 and with it's excellent reception, built in speaker and throwback style I have become quite enamored of it. I have not even bothered to listening to it by earphone yet as the built in speaker works so incredibly well. I just throw it in my shirt pocket and get on with my business. I have to also admit that even for music stations the monaural sound is wonderful, and for me a bit nostalgic. It reminds me of the radio in my first car a 1964 Mercury Comet, that was all mid-range. I do know that in many audiophile circles, where people still bother to listen to music on vinyl, monaural musical recordings are sworn by and I think now I know why. I was so taken with this radio that I wanted to protect it like the great consumers of old in our country. So I sought to make a carrying case for it like I had seen on transistor radios from many decades ago when they were so expensive they were expected to and needed to last. I bought some heavy vinyl fabric, made a template, and got down to it. Here is the end result:

I am not too ashamed of it as it is only my first try. I hope to improve upon it by switching to fabric snaps to fasten it rather than stitching it together and fastening it with a sewn on button as in this prototype. I also hope to fabricate more than one so that I may have some color/style to choose from. I will post any further accomplishment.