Hello, I am new to the whole short wave radio subject. I am looking at buying a good one, hopefully one that can be hand crank recharged....But a good one that I can get "NEWS" from abroad in case power and information is "Cut Off" in my area of the central United States.

Let me know what you have and or have used. Let me know what you like.

I figure cost COULD go up in the range of $350.00 depending on what is DURABLE and has great range.

Should I be also looking at antenna suport systems for this?

Thanks in advance.

CP

This has been discussed ad infinitum here many times before. Try the search function. (Here's one.)

My $.02. Your infinitely better off with a $10 AM/FM radio. Major AM radio stations cover most of the country and have much more reliable reception.

(And I happen to own most of the popular wind up radios, as I collect radios period. They all have dismal shortwave performance, but even if they didn't, you want local information during an emergency, not the English language service of Deutche Welle or the BBC, all of which you'll only be able to pick up at night.)

Hi CentralOklahoma

The freeplay Summit has proably got most of the features you are looking for.

http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/portable/0938.html

If you are looking to do some amatuer shortwave SIGINT gathering and listening then the RFspace SDR-IQ (which connects to your computers USB port) could be just the ticket.

http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/commrxvr/0106.html

The Summit doesn't get good reviews. I'd recommend against Freeplay as a brand in general, particularly given their radios can't run on regular batteries. Yes, you can rip them open and replace their built-in NiHMs yourself, but do you really want to go to the trouble? (And where do you get replacements in an emergency?)

As for the SDR, why on earth would he want a spectrum displayer? My guess is the OP wouldn't know what to do with one, given the introductory nature of his question. It also requires a laptop, which is the last thing you'd want to have to power (or carry) in an emergency unless you're doing emcomms work.

Hi Fitzoid,



Lets hope that the rest of the world doesn't go down and we have to rely on SW info from the US. All I seem to get on SW from the US is a loony preacher going on about the rapture and requests to send him all of your of cash because you ain't gonna need it where all of us are heading. Maybe they think Jesus is a SW enthusiast

Actually, the most entertaining thing you can get these days on shortwave in the US (other than pirates) is Radio Habana Cuba. (How can you not love Arnie?

Thanks.

I would have to say that the review was quite well balanced. The SW performance isn't particulary good without the reel antenna especially in comparison to a other similarly priced SW radios. But the other similarly priced SW radios aren't equipped with such a wide means of powering the radio either. I'm afraid its all part of the design/production cost compromise. The Freeplay Summit radio does appear to be very well made though and more durable than other radios in the $50-70 range.

Its FM performance is very reasonable and sounds better than expected from the small speaker. It does have some other little annoyances as detailed in the review. As an emergency radio it can be used long term without using a dedicated battery charger connected to the mains. I purchased the Freeplay Summit around 4-5 months ago and have never had to connect it yet to the mains except for the initial 24hr charge. The radio is kept on a window sill and the NiMh cell charge is maintained from the built in solar trickle charge. Of course another solution would be the dedicated Solar charger, Battery charger, Eneloop NiMh cells and quality SW radio such as the alternative SW radios mentioned in the review.

It would have been nice if the NiMh cells were easily accessible and replaceable, but again this design approach was probably to ensure that the cells remain where they are without being scavenged to be used for some other gadget.

I purchased a GP-4L from County Comm but I can't seem to pick up much.

I think the main purpose of those incredibly cheap radios is for governments to dump them in quantity in some area and then broadcast propaganda locally. For that reason, they need to be essentially what radio people would call "deaf," as you only want them receive the intended local broadcasts.