I am looking for recommendations for a portable, affordable emergency radio (Hand crank/solar, AM/FM.) I do have a Ham radio, ICOM 735 and am looking for a back up radio.

Would appreciate make and model number.

Many thanks in advance.

Blake
www.outdoorquest.blogspot.com

Eton solarlink FR-360.

Usual disclaimers. Got mine with credit card points.

AM/FM/Weatherbands, solar, crank, battery, plug in w/transformer. Has a flashlight with blinker onboard. Tells time, has alarm. Can be set to only go off with Weather service warnings. For the money, around $35-$50, a really good value imho.

My Suggestion is the FR160

http://www.etoncorp.com/product_card/?p_ProductDbId=916255


I purchased one from radio shack for 30$ And so far Im pleased. Its by far not the best Radio ever but compared to many other AM/FM Radios its pretty darn good. The three Bulbs fort he LED light Are focused into a single Halo with lenses and is a decent brightness. The battery pack looks to be one easily findable such as a Wireless House phones pack. At low volume it seems to last at least 3-5 hours with 10 seconds of 4 revs per second of cranking. I think It suggests to crank it at 2 revs for 10 minutes to get 8 hours. Just be carefull on the handcranks as they seem to be all plastic construction.

Look at the Sangean MMR-77. This is a great little radio that sips on batteries.

Eaton. Mine needs a crank for the radio every 10-15 mins of use. YMMV

I've always wondered "why doesn't someone make a small protable crystal radio? A diode as a detector, a High Z earplug, a small tuning cap, and a few other part - NEVER NEEDS power, and works with AM radios

KG2V... made one for my 7th grade science fair, used an actual germanium crystal and wrapped the coil around a Quaker Oats box...still don't like oatmeal... used a diode detector model in class for a semiconductor example... kids were always amazed it worked

I really like our Grundig FR-200. A/C power, battery and crank. It's never let us down in the 6 or 7 years since we got it as a gift.

I've had good luck with Freeplay radios. Mine is a slightly older version with no flashlight built in, but it cranks and recharges by solar.

Has kept us informed through many power outages, never failed.

LINK

http://midnightscience.com/kits.html#kit2
among others

Probably because they don't really work, and their performance is easily surpassed using a Ferranti ZN414 Tuned Radio Frequency Circuit Amplifier in a match box circuit.

http://www.mds975.co.uk/Content/trfradios.html

Even then the performance of the ZN414 was pretty woeful compared to superhet designs which are now standard in most AM radios.

Thank you all for your suggestions and comments!!

Greatly appreciated.

Blake

www.outdoorquest.blogspot.com
www.outdoorquest.biz

I don't know - I used to make them as a kid all the time (using a diode detector) and always got 1/2 decent reception

I used to make these as a kid - tiny things that worked for up to 2 stations!

If anyone is interested in listening to SW radio but does not have a SW receiver then this link might be useful.

http://sdrspace.com/ListenForFree/tabid/425/language/en-GB/Default.aspx

You can download the SDR radio software and install on your PC, then connect to networked RFspace SDR-IQ or Net-SDR radio receivers etc then listen to a much wider set of SW bands that are commonly available on most SW receiver sets. It is very impressive as the networked SW receivers are at geographical locations all around the world.

I think the idea is to tempt you to eventually get your own $500, $1000 or $3500 RFspace SDR receiver.

Edit - BTW doe anyone know of a real time morse code translator application that will output text from the beeps from a computer sound card or .wav or mp3 file.

Hi,

Two I know of are CWGet and CWDecoder. They work by interpreting data from sound card input. They are generally meant to work with CW received from a ham radio, that is, feeding ham radio output into the computer sound card input.

Not sure if this will work with audio coming "out" of the sound card.

If you don't have a physical SW Receiver, what probably will work is if you have two PCs/Laptops and fed the output from the SDR receiver machine (line-out) into the computer sound card (line in) with the CW software.

Note, these software packages are often volume sensitive. You usually have to fiddle around to get the volume going into the machine with the CW software just right (usually volume going in need to be very low – as in the just barely audible range). Also, it may not work well if you would try to use the Microphone in as opposed to the line-in. Some sound cards may only have one or the other. Others may only have one sound input port, but the sound card driver may have a software setting that allow it to be used as either a Microphone-In or a Line-In, at any one time

Edited to make a clarification

buckeye

I was REI yesterday and saw a Grundig and bought it based on your short recommendation on here. I got home and realized I didn't get the FR-200 but the super compact am/fm shortwave w/digital display. The MINI400. Did you realize that Grundig is an eton product?

Anyway, its about the size of my iPhone, a smidgen wider but thinner. Do you know how hard it is to find a compact radio with external speaker? Pretty hard. I'm going to use it (with headphones) on my long runs were I can't get the radio through my iPhone app (Oo Tunes)

Comms, that sounds like a great buy. I'll have to go looking for one of those! I've got another brand/model pocket radio and want to upgrade. Thanks for the hope and I hope it works well for you!

You're not kidding. (By external speaker, did you mean a built-in speaker? That's what I mean...) I have been looking for a real compact AM(/FM) radio, the kind that was everywhere 30-40 years ago, and even at RS say 10 years ago (no RS in Canada now). I have a "last resort" Optimus that works perfectly, just it's been beat to hell and I'd prefer a newer one for reliability. I have plenty of larger AM/FM/SW and ham radios, but this is for my backpack.

I was pretty interested to hear of that ZN414. Never heard of it before. I used to be quite into AM radio chips, but mostly the superhet types. Anyway, I have a couple of those tiny "matchbox" AM radios, earphone only. One I got in Canada, it is the long-defunct Clairtone brand, probably from '68. The other I got in England, virtually identical electronically, Sinclair brand, '70. They still work, use button cells that last for ages. I always thought they were crystal-based with an audio amp, there's 1 transistor in there IIRC. Unless of course it's not really a transistor and something similar to that ZN414 came out in the late 60s.

I hear ya, cfraser. I've got a little blue handheld that works really well but I have no idea who makes it. (The only lable is "Made in China".) I think it either came from Radio Shack (The Source in Canada) or in a pre-packed emergency kit I won as a door prize at an event. I really wish I could find another. The Grundig FR-200 is great for home use but I'd like a few small ones for our packs. I'll have to have a look for the Mini400. Sounds like a great buy!

^ My Optimus from Radio Shack is blue (cat.#12-794), but made in the Philippines. Uses 2xAA (what I try to "standardize" on for availability/price/longevity) and runs for almost ever on a set it seems. Only problem it has is looks, looks like I spilt some heavy DEET on it plus dropped a whole lot... I use this radio every day. All my more modern and small portable gizmos have FM only.

CC Crane has some decent small AM radios, but a little more digital (and pricey) than I exactly had in mind...I specifically didn't want synthesized tuning for "emergency" use.

Edit: OMG, this lady has a ton of the type of radios I actually want, go to the index for amusement. Here's the Clairtone mini e.g., it does in fact have 2 transistors, but is older than she thought. Clairtone was a big Canadian brand in the 60s (maybe before too).
http://www.transistor.org/collection/clairtone/clairtone1.html

What would really be useful would be a free Software Defined Radio (SDR) app for the iPhone or iPod;

Something like this;

http://digitalconfections.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46&Itemid=54

But you would need a small SDR front end receiver. Basically Just an RF wideband amplifier, local Oscilator and IF mixer before the IF signal is digitally converted by the audio ADC within the iPhone.

Something like this, but using the iPhone + SDR app instead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfdgxZPc2BI

Thanks buckeye for the morse code programs called CWGet and CWDecoder, but unfortunately I couldn't get then to work to well.

cfraser, yes thats what I meant. Like the old transiter radios. I have one from the early 90's but I haven't found a suitable replacement and I've look high and low for months, including RS, Amazon, radio websites, etc. Everything now is too thick, has all kinds of doo dads on it or not pocket portable. I'm pretty happy with the MINI400 I picked up. I also have a hand crank eton w/ flashlight, etc, so this is a different source for info/music.

Am_Fear, I am trying to move away from digital radio apps for my iPhone, as use for long term preparedness. I've tried Pandora, I Heart Radio and a few others but they suck a tremendous amount of battery and as I've mentioned in other threads, I run and cycle in desert areas that have no cell phone service, ergo, no iPhone radio apps work there. That being said, I have settled on Oo Tunes for my iPhone and use it constantly in cell areas. Every channel I listen to is there and it has police and fire scanners for most major cities including mine.

Here's one you might like:

http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-RF-P50-Pocket-Radio-Silver/dp/B00004T1XE/ref=pd_sim_e_1

I also recommend you Grundig FR-200.

Regards,

My smart phone has an fm radio built in - IF I remember to carry headphones...

To me, the old Freeplays that are spring-powered are the quintessential "emergency radio" to me. I have the larger table-top model and it has great sound and good reception of AM/FM.

I like them because they don't require alkaline batteries which can leak or have rechargeable NiMH cells sealed inside which eventually self-discharge or wear out (I'm not aware of any radios that use low self-discharge NiMH cells built into them). To me, that's very important since an emergency radio often is stored away for long periods of time without any use or checking on.

The solar panel powers the radio directly during daylight hours, and at night or when there isn't enough bright sunlight, the spring is a tad noisy but works every time. The spring only lasts for roughly half an hour, depending on the volume, but I can live with that.

Unfortunately, Freeplay doesn't make the spring-powered models anymore, it seems. They've replaced that with hand-cranked dynamos and NiMH batteries. Bleh. That said, I do own one of them and have been pleased with it. I just don't consider that my main emergency radio.

Actually, I did see a battered box at a local TJ Max store the other day that had the smaller spring-powered model. Still selling at their original approximately $50, though, so I passed. But this thread has got me thinking about it again, though.

I've been quite happy with the portable Eton G3 World Traveller Radio.

http://www.etoncorp.com/upload/contents/307/Grundig_G3_specs_122210.pdf

With Digitally tuned AM/LW/FM-stereo, the complete Shortwave
spectrum with SSB (150-30000 KHz) and the VHF Aircraft band (118-137 MHz) it is quite a good sensitive tuning performer.

It also has an inbuilt AA charger so will charge the 4 AA cells from an external 8V power supply so doesn't need an external battery charger. It also has Line In/Out so can even be connected directly to a solar powered Hi-Fi Amp and Speaker.

added new power backup for the Grundig FR200

AFLM... purchased the charger you recommended, and with the Goal Zero 7w solar panel, charged 4 AA Sanyo Eneloops from the charge they had when received (one bar on the charger..didn't have a meter)to full charge in about 4 hours of bright sunlight...decided to standardize with the AAs because of the Grundig FR200 which has worked well for many years... was hoping I could run a small 1.5v hobby motor for a fan using light from a Dietz lantern...even tried adding a incandescent Coleman mantle, ala an Aladdin lamp but even with the extra light, didn't work... will try a couple of Peltier modules for thermocouple next...possibly a Sterling or turbine blade to run a fan

I have the Tecsun Green 88 which appears to be the OEM version of the Grundig FR200. Its a nice radio with a choice of power sources. The flashlight is handy to have, but the dial isn't illuminated. Can't have everything I guess. I also found it tricky to tune to SW stations which are close together. Took quite a bit of fiddling with the fine knob.

The Nicd battery looks like the type you find in some cordless phones and you can run off 3 AAs and wall wart as well(not included). The Nicd battery got really warm after a few hours with the wall wart plugged in, so I wouldn't leave it plugged in as standby.

An alternative would be to rely on rechargeable AA by solar power as suggested by Les above.

I've been thinking about the TECSUN PL-380 DSP radio as its rechargeable via USB, and auto and solar USB chargers are becoming common. I have the Joos Orange charger which I like a lot.

The portable X-mini II Capsule Speaker will improve the audio quality of most small portable devices such as MP3 audio devices, Cellular Telephones, portable SW and DAB radios etc. The audio quality using a cheap portable $30 Lava40 DAB radio was excellent. It is very small and compact as well.

KISS

thats the trick!
A standad batterie powerd radio, NiCa's and a solar recharger.

Works for us the past 20 years, don't se why it should not work in the future.

A quick update. As found in an earlier entry of this thread I purchased a Gundig 400 at REI a few months back. I have used many times in and out of my house and one a few bike rides of 3-4 hours in areas where I do not have cell phone reception to stream radio apps through my iPhone. (using Oo Tunes)

Use in residential areas and locations close to suburbia but otherwise cannot get cell streaming (specifically the Bush Hwy near Saguaro lake) the reception is good. I would say great if the digital dial did not drift off channel a few digits causing loss of reception. Even with the Hold in place, it still drifts.

The sound production is as good as expected for these areas.

I took the radio to Canyon Lake deep in the Tonto National Park, my usual training grounds with zero cell service for any carrier for at least ten miles. In the past I have used larger boom boxes out here with decent reception and of course car radio reception is decent. The Grundig was terrible at reception and I turned it off after attempting several large stations.

I am a bit disappointed. I expected the reception to be as decent as a a boom box or car. Maybe more a failure in my expectations with limited experience rather than a failure of the radio.

Thus, I recommend the Grundig for the intended purpose I believe I mentioned in my earlier posting. A portable am/fm radio with external speaker for emergency and recreational purposes in a urban or bug in situation. Based on my albeit limited sampling, I do not recommend this unit for any travel outside of large urban areas or spotty reception.

I may purchase the 'transitor' radio in the link above as a comparative. The quest continues?

Though many people like emergency radios, I am not one of them. They actually don't seem all that ideal in an emergency situation.

Size. In order to include generators (hand crank, solar, or anything else), emergency radios tend to be a bit on the big side.

Reliability. I don't like tools with too many functions. They tend not to be robust. Some emergency radios do AM/FM & NOAA, and can shine light, recharge your cell phone, cook dinner for you, etc. That's just more things that can break. I like splitting up these functions into different tools.

Power generation. In an emergency, do you really want to waste your precious physical energy cranking the radio for a full minute just to get sixty minutes of power? Maybe you are hurt. A stash of batteries, to me, is a much better solution. Four AA batteries can keep a small radio running till kingdom come.

I'd suggest a high quality radio like the Sony ICF-S10MK2, which costs under $15. Hams apparently love this radio because it's so sensitive, and offers analog tuning. This allows it to pull in distant stations that digital radios can't. Add a small, hand-held weather radio with SAME encoding. Then some batteries. This setup will take up less or the same amount of space, and it will be more robust and convenient in an emergency.

In a weather-related disaster (tornado, hurricane, etc.), you can monitor the weather on the weather radio, and get crucial information from local radio stations at the same time. If one radio dies, you can still get some information from the other. And you don't have to crank, shake, etc. Just make sure you have your own flashlight and battery-powered cell phone charger.


Da Bing

If FM radio stations are all that is required then the Sony Ericsson MW600 Stereo Bluetooth Adapter has a nice little FM radio receiver built in. It even has a RDS display. The sound quality of the Stereo Bluetooth is pretty darn good as well with the supplied ear bud type headphones.

The adapter weighs less around 13 gms and is about the size of a AA Cell.

Well, not to be too disparaging, but I seriously wonder what really useful information a person might get by listening to the radio in an emergency situation these days? I have a couple good battery radios, including various transceivers (I've been a ham since 1973), but I'm not optimistic. Anybody have any direct experience, like from the Katrina situation for example? How useful was a battery am/fm radio receiver in that particular disaster?

I lived in the New Orleans metro area at that time, and had an emergency radio (AM, FM, weather bands, and a flashlight).

One of the problems was having no knowledge of what frequencies were locally available on the weather bands; anything else broadcasting emergency data (some broadcasters went back to music almost immediately with no more than sporadic updates) kept spouting the same five minutes of information, most of which was not much help. It took several days to hear a location listing relief supplies in our area. It's not that sources of help weren't being broadcast, but it wasn't being made available nearly as often as the drudgery of cookie-cutter snippets being fed at almost all hours of the day.

When electricity was finally restored in my area, television broadcasts were basically the same except, of course, video footage.

In the days after hurricane Ike radios were the primary source of information. I kept a small battery-powered radio on around me at all times because it was so useful!! Since we didn't have power or phone lines, tv's and the internet weren't available. Most radio stations moved away from their regular formats and focused on delivering news such as where FEMA was passing stuff out, tips on dealing with insurance, estimates as to when power would be restored, gas stations that were open, and a plethera of other useful information. Not only was this information useful, but the effect it had on morale was just as important. The radios gave me and my neighbors links to the outside world. Plus we really enjoyed making fun of the miserable people calling in to complain that help wasn't coming fast enough while we were partying because our neighborhood was prepared.

-Blast

If the power grid goes down, you probably won't have TV, internet, and phone -- well, maybe not if you have a landline, but who has a landline these days? So the radio can become the only source of outside information. And I'd think power would be one of the first things to go.

Thus far the radio has served me well in extreme weather, though I have not encountered Katrina-scale disasters. But like another poster said, frequently the broadcast information is repetitive and not necessarily directly relevant. The broadcasters are just throwing everything they know at you. But that's often better than trying to get information yourself.

Da Bing

we didn't get hit by Katrina by the Grace of God, but the 04/05 season brought 3 of them pretty close to me... I had sustained winds of about 90mph gusts to over 125...power out for about 6 days... land line was up, though it is vulnerable above ground feed to the fiber optic box in my back yard...

we have very good storm coverage in the Tampa Bay area, and the TV stations simulcast on radio...I had an older (pre digital switch over) battery TV and used it along with the Grundig...for entertainment listened to the BBC in the light of a Dietz lantern..something I imagined Londoners did during the Blitz

upgraded to a digital portable and am looking for one of the pocket portables...found my old 9 transistor from the 60's and it only gets rock and roll

Power transformer blew not far from our house. 80k without power when it happened. My backyard temp gauge was reading 135* and my indoor was jumping from 79 to 91 really fast.

Only source of info at the house was from our 'emergency' radio. Gave me enough info to realize we were pulling back to our folks place that had power. A few hours later we had power.

Sidenote, using the iPhone app Oo Tunes, I had placed the local police, fire scanner in my Favorite file and got to listen to the police work the traffic and surprisingly the news people around for safety.

So, it sounds like in a real disaster scenario, an AM/FM radio could be handy, given enough batteries and a decent radio.

Now, the other half of my question. In a Katrina-esque situation, how useful was being able to monitor local amateur radio repeaters, etc., as compared to the local commercial AM/FM radio stations? In other words, was a ham license and gear extremely useful?

A great radio for emergency use is the Sony M37, which is also my everyday radio - light, small, powered by one AAA battery. It usually is coupled to ear buds, but can be connected to speakers. It has both AM/FM as well as weather channels, which could be critical in many emergency situations.

It may also be useful to listen to police radio during an emergency. There are police scanner apps available for Android and for iPhone. It may not be legal in your state, so please check the local laws.

Da Bing

Yes. I was in Katrina an many more. In each case, being able to ask questions proved valuable. Being part of the dialog is much better than being a spectator. This was especially true during the first 48 hours or so when information was spotty and the situation was extremely fluid (no pun intended).

Not only was I able to ask specific questions but I also contributed the the general knowledge. Plus many of the folks I was working with were hams so we had excellent communications for our coordinated activities.

But my reason for having a ham license goes well beyond disaster communication. So I am not sure if it would be worth while for that specific use only. You just would not have the skills and understanding to use the system well if you just waited to turn it on when the disaster happened. So if you do go the ham route, please learn to use the system. Like anything, there is a learning curve.

Nomad

Too late, I've been licensed since 1973, and have an Extra Class license.