Crank Radios

Briggz

Briggz

Joined
Oct 18, 2002
Messages
1,575
OK ,I did a search to see what the opinions and most were severals years old. The best seemed to be a RS 12-803 but it is not made any more. Other options? Someone get something nice for Xmas?

Smaller would be better but I would sacrafice size for performance.

While we are at it any opinions on crank lights?
 
I have an Innova Outdoor small crank radio, AM/FM/Weather and it works really well.

Also have 3 different models of Baygen Freeplay that are all great, but not what I'd call "small".
 
Just before last Christmas I saw in Lowe's home center some Dorcy crank radios with LED lights. Price was in the $20-$25 range. One I noticed in particular was AM/FM/Weather and the other was AM/FM/TV.

The light functions varied among models. I wound a couple of them up via their crank handle and set them to constant-on mode, walked around for probably 15-20 minutes and they were still glowing brightly when I came back. So the runtime looks good for a little cranking time.

I didn't find one that had the particular combination of functions I would have liked, so didn't buy any of the Dorcy crank radios. I may regret that yet, since my emergency radio at the house uses AA batteries.

(edit to add) Last Confederate, do you have a link to your Innova radio?
 
Speaking of hand-cranked apparatus, I thought I saw something somewhere about a hand-cranked device that charges cell phones. Any leads, anyone?
 
http://www.ccrane.com

Has some great stuff. l.e.d. lights, radios, ect.

They have about 6 different wind-up radios that I remember.
Also check out their "orphan" pages. Pages of low inventory, sale, returns ect at great prices. :thumbup:
 
Well I have an account went out there and they recommended the Grundig. Picked up the FR300 (think that is the right model) at Cabelas. We will see.

Thanks for the advice folks
 
Briggz said:
Well I have an account went out there and they recommended the Grundig. Picked up the FR300 (think that is the right model) at Cabelas. We will see.

Thanks for the advice folks
Click to expand...

Good choice, great radio from a looong time manufacturer.

Skam
 
I have a Freeplay I've had for like 10 years. The crank part still works some but slips. It winds up. The solar part still works fine. The reception is excellent. It cost me 25 bucks at Big Lots a sort of discount store that buys unsold stuff from other stores. I got a little hand crank recently from the local Harbor Freight store. This one also has good reception, but instead of winding up when you crank it it charges a little battery. I think this may be more trouble free than the freeplay. I think it cost 20 some bucks.:thumbup:
 
What would you guys think is better to have on the radio short wave or weather channel??? Also radio shack has a radio for $40. Seems to be a good radio too.

Sasha
 
I picked up innovage outdoor AM/FM/weather radio form a dept store that was cheap but it surprised me how tough and able to be up a signal.
 
Sasha, I would go for weather channel over short wave, if you have to make a choice...but I would bet all of the radios mentioned here offer both.

Weather channels will give you the up-to-date situation in your area, very important during blizzards, hurricanes or tornados.

With short wave you mostly get Christian radio sermons, national radio broadcasts in English from various foreign countries, or you get a bunch of radio heads talking about their equipment. Interesting, and I'm not knocking any of it, I like to listen to it all sometimes on an old 5-tube Hallicrafters...but not very useful in a survival situation.

My current emergency radio is an old Radio Shack that has AM, FM and WX (weather), takes two D-cell batteries.

I'll say it again, do a little research and find out which local radio stations (usually AM) are going to give you up to the minute news on a local emergency situation. Forget television, they are way too slow getting anything on air and then it's very sketchy and brief.
 
Weather or Short Wave? The way I see it, it depends on the emergency and your area. National disasters, no power grid, bedlam, etc, the short wave operators network together so you will know exactly what is happening. With weather band it would be critical near shorelines and tornado areas, storms etc.

Wish I could find a radio that hand cranked, charged my phone, and carried both frequencies.
 
I don't know how good the antennas are on the new small combo AM/FM/SW/WX radios, but traditionally good short wave reception required a good long outdoor antenna, no matter how good the radio is...okay if you plan to stay put but not good if you're bugging out and on the move.

Originally, Citizens Band had the potential and promise to deal with local emergencies, but the only people who seem to use it now are truckers who keep each other informed of highway conditions, or local idiots who have no discipline (and no, I'm not calling truckers idiots). I think in an emergency, CB channels would be overloaded with hysterical people screaming at each other. Just my opinion.
 
When I was a child, my father would connect our portable SW radio to a fence (which is a long outdoor antenna) or the metal porch railing, basically anything bigger than the radio is better than the radio or at least it was back then.
 
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