Can anyone recommend two emergenciy radios.
One is a portable for my train commute to/from work each day. Most AM/FM radios don't receive AM reception very well.

The second is for home use, so size doesn't matter. Whew, finally.

Thanks.

First, what do you define as an "emergency" radio? Do you want something with a hand-crank for power, or something that takes batteries? For the portable, do you want something that is as small as possible, or reasonably small with great reception?

For home, GE makes an AM/FM radio that is very highly regarded for its AM tuner. But it uses 120 or batteries. You can also pick up a Grundig FR200 with the hand crank for $40. It also has a light and does shortwave. Reception is decent.

For something portable, check out the tiny radios at CountyComm.

1. No radio is going to work very well in a subway. But since a subway exists where you are, that says you're in an urban area, so signals should be plenty strong outside the subway.

2. The sensitive GE radio is called the Superadio 3. It runs on six D cells and is great for pulling in distant stations. It has good sound and a big enough speaker to fill a room pretty well. It will run for a couple weeks nonstop on a set of alkalines. It's just kind of big for portable use.

3. In an urban environment there should be plenty of news and updates on FM as well as AM. You can get crappy 2aaa-powered FM-only earbud radios dirt cheap at places like Walgreens. The circuitry is not too bad, they're just cheaply made, you have to jiggle the earbud wire to make good contact, etc. The Countycomm radios are much nicer but they are bulkier. Walgreens also sometimes has one-piece earphone radios that are really tiny (they use watch batteries) and good for EDC. They are terrible radios but again, in a city, the signals are very strong, so the radios work ok.

4. I wouldn't bother with a generator radio unless you're moving to the south pole. Just keep spare batteries on hand.

This is my idea of a emergency radio! :-)

-john

Where portability is not a big issue, I've always been partial to Freeplay radios for an "emergency" radio. I have the big one, that runs off either the hand-cranked internal spring, solar panel, or a jack for external power. It's not my every day listening radio, but I can pack it away confident that no batteries have run down or leaked over time. Just the peace of mind knowing that as long as I can get a hold of the radio, I can have some contact with the outside world is worth it to me.

The reception is decent and the sound is very good. On a sunny day, you can still crank up the volume quite loud while running just off the solar panel. Comes in handy when I'm doing work outside for a long time and want to listen to the ball game. The nice thing is that if the spring is wound, the radio will automatically switch between solar and spring power to maximize playing time. It takes, oh, a minute to fully wind the spring and you can get about 45 minutes of radio, but playing time varies with the volume. I don't have the accessory LED light, but that would be a handy addition to keep with the radio in case of emergency.

Now, before anyone pooh-poohs the Freeplay saying that it's unnecessary because a C or D cell-powered radio would play for weeks or even months, that's true. I just like the idea of battery independence.

I also have the Coleman Outrider, which is a portable model. I believe that it's licensed from Freeplay also. Unlike the first-generation portable Freeplay radio, which was spring and solar powered, the Outrider is powered directly by solar or by its sealed, rechargable battery. The battery can be charged with the AC adapter, hand crank, or solar. It's a nice, but heavy, radio, but I prefer the spring-driven models for emergency use in extended blackout conditions. You get longer playing time for a given number of hand-cranks. Although the spring does slowly unwind even if the radio is not on so, it doesn't take much cranking to fully wind it up again. Actually, I like the unwinding feature since even if I store the radio away fully wound, the spring will return to the unwound state for longer life.

The big Freeplay I bought quite a while ago and I don't remember where. The Outrider I bought at an REI store.

Anyway, just my 2 bits worth. <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for the feedback. I made a purchase from County Comm last month and was debating on one of their radio models as well. I have a cheapo earpiece that was a tradeshow giveaway. Around my home, it worked great. But on the train, outside of the tunnels, it was horrible. It could be the unit and I have several others.

I'm not in the subway as much now, maybe 5 minutes of a 50 minute ride. So I'm just looking for a portable to keep on me or in the car. Even my car radio fuzzes on AM in certain areas.

The main thing that helps AM reception is bigger antennas. Try one of these: http://selectatenna.com - obviously it's not so portable though. With a moving receiver you're generally better off with FM because of AM fading like you describe.

The crank radios I'm familiar with have a rechargeable battery inside that's subject to failure and leaking just like any other battery. The crank simply charges it up. I don't know if the Freeplay works like that. It sounds like it might not, if the internal spring is generating power directly without a battery. That's more mechanically complex though, and may require more maintenance.

HombreWales,

Small-
For an emergency portable radio it is no contest. The Sangean DT-200V is the hands down winner for AM reception. There are many people that use this radio for AM band DXing (long distance listening). It uses common AA batteries with outstanding battery life. (AA lithiums would give it a shelf life over 15yrs and would function well in cold weather). It has a built in speaker or you can use headphones to extend battery life further. Of course FM is there for your entertainment. The icing on the cake is the inclusion of TV band. In my experience, the better funded TV coverage of disasters (even audibly) beats out the coverage provided by the radio broadcasting media. The best deal on this radio is via amazon.com, $49.99 with free shipping.

Sangean has some really slick AAA portables as well. The downside is reduced AM performance and the realities of costly (per mAH) and poor performing AA alkaline batteries. Fortunately Eveready has re-introduced AAA lithium batteries. While expensive, the extreme shelf life and run-time are worth the extra. I will soon be using these in my AAA Sangean. The other downside to these little guys is the lousy performance of the built in speaker. I really consider these to be headphone radios.

Mid-size-
If you can find a small AM/FM/SW radio from Sangean or Radio Shack that uses C batteries, you may have a winner. In my experience the C battery radios tend to have amazing runtimes (the discontinued Grundig YB-305 is a perfect example of this. I own three, and no, none are for sale).

Large- The GE Super Radio III and the Sangean 818/Realistic 390 are legendary. Both use D batteries. The GE has superb audio and extreme battery life, with low cost. The downsides are occasional quality control issues and putzy analog tuning. This radio can be had all over the web for $40. The Sangean/Realistic is a solid performer with good audio and good battery life. It also gives you the ability to listen to Shortwave and SSB communications. The CS version gives you cassette tape capabilities with a smaller speaker (reduced audio performance). Sadly this fine radio has been discontinued. It can still be found on the web for around $170-$180. Also keep an eye on eBay.

Rant-
Unfortunately many of the newer and mid-size and larger digital radios have gone to AA battery use. These radios have dozens of bells, whistles, gee-gaws, and festoons, but at the cost of dismal battery life. As an example, I have two very similar AM/FM/SW radios. A Grundig YB-305 running 2 C batteries, and a Sony 7600GR running 4 AA batteries. Loaded with Nicads and heavy use, the Grundig gets its batteries changed every 2-3 months. With the Sony and similar usage I burn through a set of batteries in 7-10 days. What a sick joke (plus the audio on the Sony is dismal). The American consumer and the manufacturers that feed their stupidity have their priorities backwards. I fully expect the next generation of radios to take pictures, act as a hard drive, and have cell phone capability as well. All this will be done with the batteries down graded to AAA or AAAA. Pathetic. Just Pathetic. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> (Going to listen to my Grundig to cheer up).

Good luck, TR

I was going to question why people always expect good Am reception out of a radio. FM was invented because of bad recpetion with AM, there just isn't a lot you can do about it.

> You can get crappy 2aaa-powered FM-only earbud radios dirt cheap at places like Walgreens. The
> circuitry is not too bad, they're just cheaply made, you have to jiggle the earbud wire to make good contact, etc.

The battery life may be very poor. I've seen cheap single AAA ones that claim 5 hours. In an emergency you might want it on continuously, so as not to miss important bulletins, so while 5 hours is better than nothing it's not very good.

The first generation of Freeplay radios did not use any batteries--only spring and solar power. My Freeplay has a clear case and you can see that there is no battery inside. They later added the rechargable batteries, probably because people wanted to be able to store more than one "spring-full" of energy. I was just looking on their website and it appears that all of their models now include a rechargable battery.

As for durability, the mechanism looks pretty simple and the spring looks quite robust. It's a ribbon of metal about an inch wide. The most delicate part seems to be a single slender rubber belt that connects two gears together. Particularly with the clear case, perhaps UV or just plain age could conceivably make it deteriorate. But considering that the Freeplay company started out making tough, inexpensive radios for remote settlements with no electricity or where disposable batteries are scarce/expensive, I suspect that the band is plenty tough (although what we can buy is not the same model distributed in Africa, at least what was originally distributed).

I don't know of any current hand-cranked radio that doesn't use an integrated rechargable battery. Sometimes, you can find the first generation, spring-powered Freeplay and the portable model on sale. My portable Coleman Outrider (aka Freeplay Ranger) does not use a spring. The hand crank drives an internal generator to charge the battery. The current, full-size Freeplay Plus still retains the spring, which then drives its generator and charges the battery or powers the radio directly.

The battery life of those cheap Walgreens AAA radios is excellent. Mine ran for something like 15 hours on a 750 mAH AAA NiMH charge (I did an overnight test). With alkalines it should be well over 24 hours, with lithiums even more. They use very little power because there's no speaker, just earbuds. They are really minimal radios though, FM-only (though stereo), no tuning dial (press a button and it scans to the next station). Mine has a volume control but some of them don't even have that.

The little earphone radio that I EDC runs on three button cells and might run for only a few hours. I should measure the current drain (to estimate from) or do a runtime test sometime.

I think the issue with your Sony radio isn't AA's vs C's but that it's using excessive power for some unknown reason (whether design or defect). A C cell holds about 2x as much energy as an AA. AA's are pretty much standard for everything now.

I have one strong bias when it comes to emergency radios: forget AM or FM or short-wave. If you want good, constant coverage in an emergency, get a radio with a TV-band tuner. I come by this bias after having been through multiple hurricanes here in Florida (two of which caused me to gather up wife and child and evacuate…those hurricanes weren’t anything like Katrina, but I don’t roll the dice like some folks do). AM/FM radio coverage in an emergency is a distant second to what you can get from TV. Don’t worry about not having a picture; it’s still better than what radio stations provide. Even radio stations that simulcast do so only fitfully, and then only for a short-while. Shortly after the storm (or whatever emergency) has passed, the radio stations go back to frivolous entertainment while the TV stations keep on providing useful information.

My pocket radio is a Sangean DT-220V. It takes two AA batteries and has both speaker and ear-buds. I had to have a speaker even in the small radio so that when I am huddled in the bathroom with aforementioned wife and child, they could also hear the tornado warning broadcasts.

My larger radio is a Sony ICF-36. That takes four AA batteries and has an AC adapter.

The Sangean is pricey (I think it was around $60 when I bought it); the Sony was cheap ($25).

p.s. I also have a BayGen Freeplay, but it lacks the TV-band tuner, so it’s more of a conversation piece.

I have a small two AAA radio which must last over 8 hours, Koss brand IIRC designed for people to take jobbing and such.

Amen, brother. I have a Sony M37V which get AM, FM, weather, and TV. It came with a pretty good heedset, but I carry it with Koss earbuds. It runs for over 12 hours on one AAA [having gone to sleep with the thin on two nights in a row] It is a little bigger than a pack of cigarettes.

I got a County Comm a while back, but without the roll out add on antenna, the SW is pretty useless. With it I get Australia, and multiple BBC stations. Still, for the price it's great. It is at least as good as a Grundig 100.

pizzaman, Thank you for the detailed response. I like the idea of the Sangean DT-200V, due to the TV band. My first question is, there are variations of the DT-200. The DT-210 and the DT-220. They are all in the $50 - $55 range. The descriptions are vague and the only real difference I can see is the size and shape. Is it a pick em? Or does the DT-200V stand out?

Also, any reason the mid and large sized radios don't have TV band?

One word about TV reception though...

TV, as you know it, is going to go away is less than five years. Digital TV is going to be the next big thing. Once this happens, your existing TV receivers will be simply AM/FM radios, as the TV part will be useless.

Just something to think about before dropping big bucks down on one of these radios.

I don't think so. Not with 420 million receptors out there.

Jose W,

My advice is to go to amazon.com and read all the user reviews for each radio. There are many radio geeks here as well as pedestrian users. I value these reviews highly.

Go to: http://www.amazon.com , click on the "electronics" tab. Then in electronics do a search for "Sangean". There are many good options here.

If long distance AM is important, than the DT200V gets the nod. If size is more critical then one of the compact AAA models may be the way to go. Also, check out the DT-300-WV. It adds weather band to TV/AM/FM.

If all else fails, choose the radio that has a user interface you are comfortable with. The user interface is probably the biggest difference between these radios. Some require you to scroll through all programmed stations, where others have single button entry to select a programmed station. The reviews will likely help you decide the best combiniation of features and size for your use.

For emergency use I am a huge fan of lithium batteries. I am totally jazzed that AAA lithium batteries are available again.


Not a clue.

Cheers, TR

Randjack, the FCC and media industry is determined to shut down analog television so they can peddle HDTV complete with copy restrictions and the broadcast flag, so they can stop from recording off the air with VCR's. It's a gradual phase-in. First they require all new TV's sold to have digital capability. Then when 85% of the households have TV sets that can receive digital signals, they can shut off the analog system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Channels_Act

One more quick tip. The Amazon.com site also has the owner's manuals availble in pdf format in the "Product Details:" section.

Cheers, TR

Something similar is happening in the UK. Digital can make better use of the bandwidth, and our government can make a fortune by selling the difference to private industry. It'll take another 5 or 10 years.

Although that's the plan, I could see public outcry extending the deadline for many years. There will be too many old analog TV's still around that people will not want to replace.

I don't know what to say other than, insanity.