Emergency radio

[jazzboypro]

Hello all.

There are some new threads about emergency preparedness/emcomms going on. It made me thinks about radio options just to get the news and what the hell is going on. I have a Grundig/Eton satellite radio that is AC or battery powered radio that works fine. I was thinking or something that could use Crank/solar as alternative power source and in my searchers i saw this Radio

Any thoughts about it ? do any of you use it ? Any other suggestions ?

Many thanks
73 De VA2FCS

 

[vagrant]

Use the radios you have and build/buy a solar & LiFePO4 battery solution.

 

[mmckenna]

Any thoughts about it ? do any of you use it ? Any other suggestions ?

Years ago someone gave me a radio almost identical to that one. My son was little back then. He got to playing with it and broke it.
It wasn't a robust radio, and I figured it was going to fail sooner or later. He just made sure it was sooner.

$80 is a lot for that.

I agree Vagrant, just get a solar charger and some good rechargeable batteries. The Grundig is a much better radio, and likely a few batteries and a solar charger will be cheaper.

 

[mc48]

Look at the Midland ER310.

 

[tweiss3]

Why not look at something like the IC-705. You use the 7610, so similarity of the menu structure is key, and shouldn't be overlooked. Depending on how much transmitting you intend to do, you can stretch a battery significantly farther.

I do agree with the above, look at a 15Ah+ battery and solar charging setup. FYI, 7610 uses between 3-3.5A for receive only, while the 705 uses only 0.5A on receive.

 

[jazzboypro]

Thanks for the suggestions. I already have a 120 Ah LiFePO4 battery to power my radios. The 705 is nice but a bit expensive for my intended purpose. I do like my Grundig/Eton radio I still use sometime when I’m outside. The solar charger sounds interesting. Any suggestions on a good brand of solar charger ?

 

[tweiss3]

Bioenno Power has a decent set of panels & controllers compatible with LiFePO4 batteries. I have no experience with them for solar, but I do have their batteries and have no issues.

 

[jazzboypro]

Thanks I will check them out. So far I have looked at Bluetti

 

[Boombox]

Or..... Just get a good AM/FM/Weather band radio and extra batteries. Sangean PR-D4W would be good. Or choose the SW/AM/FM radio you have that is best on batteries, and just buy spare batteries.

I personally wouldn't trust crank radios. Any crank up flashlights I've tried just didn't work well. And you've got to crank them for a couple minutes to get a few more minutes of light.... No idea how the crank mechanisms in crank radios hold up.

A GE Superadio will work on a set of batteries for days, if not months (depending on use). My Sony ICF-38 ran for 36 hours continuously during a power outage before the 4 AA's went south.

 

[MUTNAV]

I was considering a Kaito KA-600 also at one point, then realized that the solar panal is a little small for practical use and tried to reverse think the whole idea of what it is, and eventually came to the same conclusion that everyone else came to pretty quickly.... except I have a lot of 18 volt Ryobi batteries and Ryobi has a 18 volt battery charger that can be solar charged. Now to get a better radio for myself.

This was also addressed a little in

Emergency shortwave radio help

All - over the years I've collected my share of "emergency" AM/FM/SW radios. You know, the kind with the hand crank and solar panel, able to charge your cell phone when the SHTF. None of them have a jack for an external antenna. It is certainly possible to lose local AM and FM, and find...

forums.radioreference.com

Thanks
Joel

 

[jazzboypro]

I will keep the radio I already have. I will test how long the batteries will last The radio requires 4 AA batteries. I will keep looking for a battery solution to charge other stuff and I would like to be able to recharge the battery with solar panel if I need to. I like Bluetti but their solar panels are not really made for Canadian climate. I think their battery can work with third party panels but I will send them an email to make sure. Do any of you know of a good brand for solar panels ?

 

[wenzeslaus]

Look at the Midland ER310.

it's an emergency radio because it sucks batteries like there is no tomorrow!

 

[wenzeslaus]

the Kaito KA-600 looks fantastic. when you go to use it, it won't be.

I got a KA-500 (analog) and discovered that the solar panel isn't enough to run the radio by itself. it takes forever to charge the NiMH battery, and putting it in the sun gets the radio hot. sometimes way too hot. the worst thing about it, to me, was that it absolutely SUCKED batteries. it draws 164 mW of power, where a normal analog radio takes around 20. I would estimate the KA-500 lasts about 44 hours on a set of 3AA batteries. any other typical 3AA analog radio will last 300 hours or better. the reason why? it's not analog. it is DSP with an analog dial. and the freq stepping on SW is a ridiculous 25 kHz.

the KA-500L uses an 18650 battery. on the product page, they don't mention that it doesn't take any other batteries! you don't put in AA batteries. just that 1 rechargeable battery is all it has. nothing else. I think if they did mention that, sales would decline.

so I don't trust them.

this KA-600 radio, does say it takes 3AA batteries, but now being a digital radio with everything but the kitchen sink, must gobble batteries like candy. and I'm sure the solar panel won't run the radio by itself. the stepping is probably better than 25 kHz because they can't get away with that when people get to see what the tuner is doing on the display.

so it probably would make a nice emergency radio as long as you have AC power or a case of spare batteries.

forget about solar power coming form a solar panel on the radio. it won't run the radio by itself. and half the time it will be dark outside, and you may be inside sheltering from rain/tornados/frogs etc. without sunlight. you need a crank and rechargeable battery (600 mA NiMH is plenty) and a pack of spare batteries.

Grundig FR-200, Eton FR-350, or if you want a digital radio get one of the Tecsun pocket radios.

or, one of those Borg Johnson HS-912R cheap radios actually are the most battery efficient of all that I have tested. it's a pocket AM/FM/SW/TV that takes 2 D batteries, each of which is worth more than 5 AA batteries, so that is equal to more than 10 AA batteries. I estimate the ol' BJ should last 1600 hours. after that? pop in 2 more D batteries and keep going.

 

[krokus]

I had a Grundig FR-200, and it worked decently. I prefer the analog, to not have energy wasted running displays. That said, the solar cell on the FR-200 was not enough to run the radio in FM mode, for long.

Here is the OEM version:

Tecsun GR-98 Hand Crank DSP AM FM Shortwave Emergency Radio with Flash

The Tecsun GR-98 is the latest DSP emergency radio designed by Tecsun. It is an all-in-one radio with AM/FM shortwave band along with many emergency features such as LED flashlight, Siren/Alarm light, hand crank. It comes with build in rechargeable battery pack and AA battery option (AA...

kaito.us

 

[MUTNAV]

I had a Grundig FR-200, and it worked decently. I prefer the analog, to not have energy wasted running displays. That said, the solar cell on the FR-200 was not enough to run the radio in FM mode, for long.

Here is the OEM version:

Tecsun GR-98 Hand Crank DSP AM FM Shortwave Emergency Radio with Flash

The Tecsun GR-98 is the latest DSP emergency radio designed by Tecsun. It is an all-in-one radio with AM/FM shortwave band along with many emergency features such as LED flashlight, Siren/Alarm light, hand crank. It comes with build in rechargeable battery pack and AA battery option (AA...

kaito.us

What is the step size on shortwave? (couldn't find it easily), or does it have the same problem as the before mentioned KA-500.

Thanks
Joel

 

[krokus]

What is the step size on shortwave? (couldn't find it easily), or does it have the same problem as the before mentioned KA-500.

Thanks
Joel

Mine was analog tuning, not digital. Old fashioned knob & dial cord. The new ones mention DSP, but that does not require digital tuning.

 

[MUTNAV]

Mine was analog tuning, not digital. Old fashioned knob & dial cord. The new ones mention DSP, but that does not require digital tuning.

I'm trying to find a tech manual or data on this radio. not much available so far. If you know where to get the info please tell.

Thanks
Joel

 

[wenzeslaus]

AFAIK the KA-500's are all digital. would be interested in an analog one.

a lot of times you can tell a DSP because the AM freqs are linear, don't look like a log scale and get all bunched up on the end of the band, and FM goes down to 76 (or ?) FM because it has to, the microchip is encoded that way.

so, if the old ones are analog, that might be a giveaway.

I looked at the manual, it didn't say anything about stepping. I'm sure no reviews mention that. I discovered it when tuning on the one I had, it sounded funny, so I counted the steps between 2 freqs on the analog dial, came out to 25 kHz. didn't bother to check what they were on AM and FM before I sold it.

if anyone has one, you can check it. all you have to do is listen and count how many steps between 2 frequencies.

 

[wenzeslaus]

aha! some used ones have 600 and 700 on AM and don't have 1600 because the rest of the numbers are scrunched up to the right. FM starts at a normal 88. SW does 3.2-8.0 and 9.0-22 instead of 3.2-10 and 10-22.

maybe those are analog.

 

[MUTNAV]

Just a general semi on-topic question, since this deals with emergency radios. Why is emergency preparedness month September, but the national alert test is for October 4th, and the major Russian nuclear exercise the 3rd, Conspiracy theories aside, wouldn't it make more sense to do that all in September , on one hand, it would be nice for everything to be tested at once, so individuals can see what works best for them. (cell, am/fm radio, tv, sirens, whatever). Maybe even see if hams could have an impromptu field day.

On the other hand, it may take too much co-ordination do co-ordinate everything (I'm sure the Russians wouldn't be aboard with any of it anyway).

Thanks
Joel