I have lived in the same flat in Paris for 15 years and never had any trouble picking up R4 as clear as you could wish on 198 LW. But for the last two months the signal has all but vanished. Is this to do with the Droitwich LW transmitter or, more probably, an act of spite by the BBC suits who don't like expats listening to a service they don't pay for? (as if there were still a radio licence...)

Thanks for the tip and to the ex-colleague in the south of Spain who had some suggestions/questions and alerted me to the existence of a wifi portable. In fact we have two broadband connections so can listen on line, the problem being we can't carry the PCs around the flat and are stuck in the rooms where the PCs are. As it happens r4 reception online has been fairly patchy for some days: keeps cutting out/ making bubbling sounds. Not the case with r3/WS. Wonder why.

There are several 'apps' for iPhones, iPod Touches etc that, when connected via a Wi-Fi link, can access the wonders of "Internet Radio".

My iPod Touch is capable of many hours of portable listening on a single charge.