David writes:

How do you use this thing if you're a step away from Strip Mall
America..; or out in the middle of Africa, out on a lake or up in the hills..
- or just taking a walk !

You are totally chained to the nearest low powered repeater..
else the thing is an expensive paperweight

Eventually broadband over mobile phone networks will be cheap enough so that
listening to internet radio on portable devices will be practical.

Obviously, this is unlikely to solve the "listening in the middle of Africa"
problem, but then, let's face it, there isn't much to listen to out there
on a portable radio anyway.

Internet streaming provides a variety of stations that you just can't otherwise
get. I like shortwave broadcast radio as much as the next person here, but
currently there's no other way for me to listen to the stations in Europe that
I'd like to hear, here in Australia, other than via internet streams.

That said, I probably wouldn't buy one of those expensive dedicated streaming
receivers. My HP ipaq with wifi does a perfectly good job on its own.

Cheers,

Paul

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