The installation from the CD-ROM took close to ten minutes and I was 260MB of hard disc space down. There is a single sheet of instructions that form the getting started guide, once the program is loaded there is online help available. Should you need more assistance it is available on a premium rate (60p minute) line.

The requirements are not high a 500MHz processor, 128MB of RAM and a Broadband connection.

Once you open the program you select a Genre from a huge list of styles, the press release says over 70, you can optionally select a range of other items. However for those inpatient souls - like me - you can press the start button once a Genre has been selected. It then goes off and finds Radio Stations with your type of music and starts downloading. During my tests it had up to five stations listed at any one time but it was never ripping from more than three.

See also: DAB Radios

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First word of caution if you do not set it any limits it will continue working until your hard disc is full. The getting started sheet warns that in two days it can record upwards of 3000 tracks. In my case in the first hour it had downloaded and ripped twenty tracks.

So after your initial 'play' it's probably best to press the 'stop' button and play some of the tracks just to see if it's what you like. In my case most was quite acceptable to me.

Now to study those other six options that allow you to be more selective and limit the download content. Firstly Favourites, this refers to a radio station or station and not to an artist. Second Wishlist, this could be song but more likely to be artist. The other four options are under the sub heading of Limit. First Stations where you set a number. Second Bandwidth where you decide what - if any - limit of Mbit/s to set. Next Data where you set a limit of xxxMB to download. Lastly and perhaps the easiest is to set a time limit for downloads of say 1 or 2 hours as an example.

During installation - like many programs - you are asked if you want to register if you say yes you are shown a registration form, should you select the only other option you are shown the same form so it seems registration is not optional. With a lot of programs that do not need an Internet connection should you choose online connection if you do not connect then the details are never sent but as RadioTracker 2 spends all it's times online your details will of course be sent. As I used my correct details I have no way of knowing if it would stop working should you give incorrect details.

It is possible to listen to stream as it is downloaded and perhaps more likely to be in demand is the ability to make Ringtones, this facility allows you to fully edit a downloaded track in three steps into a Ringtone. RadioTracker 2 supports over 300 mobile phones.

There is a warning on the back of the DVD case box that warns about the probably illegality of downloading copyright material, it also stresses that RadioTracker 2 is exclusively intended for personal use.

The stated price from the link below is £19.99 but most Avanquest software is available from dealers.

www.avanquest.co.uk/shop