The whole point of radio backlights is to make the display visible in the
dark. I noticed that there is a trend towards blue LED's, and this is a
very bad idea. Degen's DE-1102 radio uses these, and also Radiolabs has a
modified ATS-909 that uses a blue backlight. Grundig also has a number of
products which appear to use blue backlighting or keyboard lighting. I
imagine pretty much all future portables will be like this.

I have a DE-1102 myself, and I find that the backlight is pretty much
useless, as although it does allow me to see the display, the blue light
kills my nightvision, and also the blue LED's used are rather dim compared
to traditional orange LED's that could be used. I find that other radios I
have had, with orange lighting, are much easier to read in a hurry. The
blue color is also closer to the black color of the LED lettering, which
doesn't help.

An example of this tomfoolery:
http://www.radiolabs.com/images/prod...thumb_mask.gif
I don't know what other manufacturers are doing this, but I really wish
they would stop. I guess this is what happens when design teams get
compromised by marketing.


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