I've been browsing google looking for some decent hand crank radios out there, and unfortunately 99% of the radios I've seen are bloated and do not even seem very durable.

I'm looking for a KISS style radio- a basic self powered capable (ie a Hand Crank) two way shortwave radio about the size of a PRC 90 USAF survival radio, or smaller, to perform pretty much the same function.

Unfortunately, finding a PRC 90 that still functions is rare, they are not self powered, and even if you can find a working one, the original batteries are discontinued and rare. Even with the CR123 battery conversion kit, I don't even know the legalities of actually USING the radio. It was designed and built with US Military survival in mind... if I turn it on and start talking, will I find someone knocking on my door? I don't even know it the frequency it operates on is still in use, if it's emergency only (civilian and military) or military emergency use only, or if nobody uses that frequency at all anymore.

As for commerical self powered products, all the ones I have come across during my searches seem extremely bloated. Most of them have flashlights, solar panel chargers, a rather brittle construction and an odd turd like shape that does not permit easy packing.... all incredibly annoying as it increases the size and weight of the item you're really after; the radio. Maybe having a self powered requirement is too much to ask, and I should just stock up on extra batteries for a more conventional radio. I guess without that constraint, I can buy a tiny hand held 2 way radio with the 2 mile range (5 miles would be great, but I dunno what's involved in getting an FCC licence) that can pick up AM/FM signals as well. Some of these also have the added ability to pick up NOAA weather alerts, and act as scanners, so they're a pretty good idea regardless of not having a hand crank option.

Before doing that though, I was just wondering if anyone knew of a non bloated self powered radio. Even one that doesn't transmit, but only picks up AM/FM

Why do you want a thing like that? Countycomm has some nice AA powered shortwave radios for $10 or $20, about the size of a cig pack. They'll run for days nonstop on a pair of AA's, especially lithiums. That's more than enough runtime for any reasonable bugout purpose. If you're going on an expedition, I'd say get a solar charger, that hand crank stuff is just silly.

However, Grundig does make a crank radio that's fairly popular.

Batteries are always an issue -- have a hand-crank back up.
Also -pack your electronics in foam, then in a hard case ( even tupperware is better than nothing. Come to think of it a kids metal lunchbox would work well.
tro

I'd love to see reviews (formal or informal) on hand-crank radios that are affordable.

The Eton FR-200 has AM/FM/SW1/SW2 in a hand crank unit. (Batteries and other charging methods/devices are options.)

It's gotten good reviews on the net, it's lightweight, incorporates an LED light and the reception is pretty good from my limited experience.

I have the Grundig FR200, and it is a decent piece of equipment, for the price.
I have the older version with the incandescent light, have heard that it is possible to convert to an led.
I wouldn't want to crank the thing everyday, but for backup use, it works fine.

My personal advice (I'm a ham radio operator, call N2ZLQ, and I've been SWLing and scanning for a while now) is that shortwave radio isn't all that useful in a disaster. Most SW stations, especially domestic (US) stations, are run on relatively low budgets, and most run pre-recorded programming that is religious in nature (and often pretty well "out there"). They don't have news departments or field reporters, so what you're likely to get is either speculation, or widely available elsewhere. The European stations are generally better funded, but being from such far-off places, you're not going to get much information of local or immediate relevance. The most useful information is going to come from (a) public safety bands - police, fire, and so on - you'll hear what the first responders are saying, (b) local broadcast stations, and (c) amateur operators. Most of this activity takes place on the VHF and UHF bands, so that is where you want to start.

If you want a SW radio, buy it for the pleasure of listening to shortwave radio. Besides, if you buy a SW radio and only pull it out when the big one hits, you'll have no idea how to set up your antenna, where to find various stations, and so on - the SW spectrum is a *big* place, and conditions vary from hour to hour and day to day; the station that's coming in at 20 over S9 right now might be gone tomorrow, or even in an hour. (The FM band from 87.5 to 107.9 MHz has about 100 "channels" spaced at 200 kHz, the AM band has about 120 channels from 520 to 1710 MHz in 10 kHz increments (in the US), broadcast TV has 68 channels - all roughly the same total number of channels, which you can thoroughly scan in a few minutes. The SW band runs from 2 to 30 MHz, with 5 kHz channel spacing - that's almost 6,000 possible channels! If you don't know where to look for stations, you're absolutely sunk). An up-to-date copy of the World Radio TV Handbook or Passport to World Band Radio is essential, and there's no substitute for practice - fling that wire around every which way to see what gets reception and what doesn't. See what stations you can pick up and when, and keep a record of it. Otherwise you won't know where to start when you need to use the radio.

That said, forget about the hand-crank radios. Compared to comparable battery-operated radios there is no comparison. The battery-operated rigs are lighter and smaller, usually have more features (most notably, station presets), and the audio is generally much more pleasant to listen to. And digital frequency readout for me is crucial - an analog dial is a nonstarter, for the reason above - there's just so much stuff crammed into that dial it's impossible to find anything! Just stock up on batteries and you'll be fine. I have an old RadioShack SW receiver that runs on 6 D batteries. I use it for several hours almost every day (usually for medium-loud FM radio playing at work) and I usually go several months between battery changes. even with AA batteries they should last a while. If you're that concerned about power, keep the display backlight permanently off, turn down the volume or use headphones. Those batteries will last forever, and when they do run down, you have extra, right? Or run it off a 12 V DC gel-cell pack using a jury-rigged DC adaptor cord.

But enjoy SW for the purpose of enjoying SW, not to prepare for a disaster.

As far as emergency preparedness goes, do yourself a favor and get an amateur radio license - the Technician class license requires no knowledge of Morse code and you should be able to pass the multiple-choice quiz with a few days, perhaps a week, of studying. And you'll learn a lot of things that will be useful. I'm a volunteer examiner for ARRL/VEC myself, so I see lots of people who take the exam. It's not bad - you can download practice exams on qrz.com .

Then go out and buy a wide-coverage amateur transceiver - in the last few years handhelds have become amazing in their capabilities! The only key thing is to buy an improved antenna - try to get one that's about 10-15 inches long (or longer if you don't mind a big long thing sticking out). With one of these, you can pick up:

1. Broadcast AM radio - great for local news and weather, and at night you can pick up domestic stations reliably from up to 500-1000 miles away via ground wave or short-skip sky wave propagation, and sometimes further. So even if your local area gets nuked, you'll still pick up AM radio, at least at night. And if your area gets nuked, your long-distance SW reception will be iffy at best in the short term because of the nature of the ionosphere.

2. SW radio - enjoy it for the purpose of enjoying SW radio. Depending on the quality of the receiver, you may also be able to pick up amateur HF signals, but this is best done with a dedicated SW receiver (make sure you get one that can decode SSB signals, as this and CW (morse code) are what virtually all amateurs use.) Just hang a hank of wire from the antenna jack and your reception will improve greatly.

3. Broadcast FM radio / TV (audio only) - not as good as AM for getting news, but still useful. More "entertainment" though. Reception range is limited to line-of sight (100 miles max)

4. Amateur VHF/UHF bands - sometimes the best source of reliable, speculation-free information. And with a Tech license you can transmit on these bands as well.

5. Public safety bands - most of these radios are sophisticated enough that they can double as a public safety scanner. You can store several hundred channels in memory for quick retrieval and usually there's a "scan" feature to quickly flip through them looking for activity. Make sure your radio picks up the 108-137 range, the 144-170 range, the 450-480 range, and as much as possible of the 800-900 MHz range, where public safety, utilities, marine, aircraft, railroads, FRS/GMRS/MURS, police, fire, EMS and so on, operate. You can also find NOAA weather radio at 162 MHz, assuming RIck Santorum doesn't get it shut down. The low VHF band (30-50 MHz) isn't used all that much anymore, though your local volunteer fire department or ambulance corps might still be on it if you are in a small town; it's worth finding out since you usually have to pay more money to get low VHF coverage.

I currently have a Yaesu VX-7R, which I'm very pleased with. It's about $330, but there are similar models that are about $100 less, such as the VX-5R, and even the VX-2R at about $150 is quite capable. Kenwood and Icom have similar offerings.

>>Come to think of it a kids metal lunchbox would work well.<<

Also protects it against EMP, if you're *really* worried about the Big One...

If you are looking for a battery less radio for disasters - you could do a LOT worse than a "crystal" radio - with a modern diode detector, and digging up a high Z earplug, they can be tiny, never require batteries, but are limited to fairly strong AM signals

I have to second physics recommedation of the VX-5R radio. It is very small, the battery lasts for days if you are monitoring, and you have the option of transmitting on amateur frequencies.
Free software is available for download to program the radio, and you can use it as a limited function scanner.
Joey KI4DUK