I didn't want to hijack JRR's flashlight thread, so I'm starting a new one. But in lasd02's post, he shows a photo of a Sony hand-crank radio. Member Eagle first brought it to our attention last May in this post, but at that time, I think the radio was still only sold in Japan. I guess it finally made it to the US--and at Target!

I have a thing for a good hand-crank radio. Lasd02, is the rechargeable battery user-replaceable? Probably not, but I thought I would ask. NiMH batteries eventually wear out, and I hate the thought of having to toss a radio because the battery can't be replaced and won't hold a charge anymore.

And how's the reception?

Arney,
Unfortunately, the built in battery is not replaceable but it does have a separate compartment to house user-installed batteries. Again unfortunately, the built in generator doesn't charge the user-installed batteries. I share your "thing" for hand-crank radios and this model from Sony has been the best so far. I have a Jensen, Eaton and a couple of made in China crank radio's and the Sony gets the best reception (despite it's dial tuner), and seems to be the best built of the bunch. As you may be able to see in the pictures, I have a piece of tape over both switches (LED & radio), to keep them from moving to the "on" position while in my BOB, that happened to me several times before I taped them down.

Thanks for the feedback, lasd02. Well, at least it has a separate battery compartment. It won't be a hand-crank anymore, but if the internal battery goes bad, at least I can still use the radio with my own batteries and not have to throw it out.

What kind of external batteries does it take? 2AA?

It takes 2AAA's. Looking at the specs on Sony's website, they claim only 15min. of LED or 1 hour of radio on a full crank charge...that sounds to me like maybe it's only got a couple of those button cell batteries built in.


http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHO...s&var2=

15 min of LED or 1 hour of radio? Whoah, that's a lot less performance than I expected. Both the light and radio should run a good long time on fresh alkaline AAA's.

Sorry for the confusion, the AAA's will last much longer, the 15 min/1 hour times were for the hand-crank charged, built-in batteries.

Oh, no, I understood what you were saying. Just thinking how disappointing those runtimes are and how much superior a couple of lowly AAA's would be in comparison to the built-in battery.

Still, it looks cool and sounds like it's pretty solidly built. I'll keep an eye out the next time I'm at Target. Which section was it in? Camping?

They have them in the Electronics section. All 3 Target's I've seen them at have them situated way down low in the radio area. They are packaged on a blister card. I'm a little disappointed in the built-in run times myself, but Sony generally puts out a quality product and this radio is no exception.

> is the rechargeable battery user-replaceable?

I have one that uses a capacitor instead of a battery. I have no idea how long capacitors are good for. Who would know?

Hey that is pretty slick! A decent Sony wind-up radio at Target. I will definitely be checking this out next trip. Thanks for the heads up!