I ran across the following radio and picked up a pair of them. They're $12/per where I bought them and seem to be a great option for the BOB--AM/FM/weather, AAs or hand-crank powered and about the size of two pocket radios sandwiched together. Anyone have any experience with these?

Jensen MR550

I bought one several weeks ago, from a Walgreens. After removing it from the package it ran for several hours until the power source drained. I found that it receives good reception on both AM & FM, the weather band is a vague. As for winding it up, after about a minute of steady winding (slowly, as long as the charge light is lit) I get about 15-20 minutes of power on this radio. For the price, I paid $19.00, I believe it's worth having it in my backpack.

I have a wind up radio/flashlight that won't hold a charge worth a damn.

I have a Grundig FR200 that works well, if a little big for a BOB.
I got a $5 am/fm radio from CountyComm that does pretty well, and it is tiny.
May have to spring for one of the GP4 shortwave radios with a built in LED light. (from CountyComm)

The Countycomm radios are surprisenly good!!

Dave

I don't see the point of this type of gadget unless you're going to some remote area for several years or something. For a BOB, I'd say use a normal AA or AAA powered radio, with lithium batteries if you're concerned about storage life. Countycomm has several nice radios of this type, which have shortwave coverage. They will all run for dozens of hours without a battery swap, plenty for several days of several hour a day listening.

Agreed, just be sure and get the wire antenna -- I listen to BBCAustralia on mine.

I'm telling ya man, get yourself a crystal radio kit and forget the batteries. They last forever, and all you need then is an earpiece. Saves on weight too. <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

I've never seen a crystal set that was in a very good case. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> Any suggestions?

Well, I've built circuits I could fit in a film canister that seem to work pretty good. I guess for less than $10 a guy could find a way to build one that could go in an Altoids tin easy enough.

Hey, they're not the best thing going, but they never quit. The best part is finding suitable antennas and ground connections. If you play around with them a little you can really pull in some weak signals with them.

You're right, though, I don't ever see any commercially available ready mades. This is for those who like to know how their gear really works, and how to make it go. For $10 you can buy a nice transistorized radio, new even, and not have to screw around with anything but the batteries.

Still, I do like getting something for nothing. Kinda like using sunlight to start a fire. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />