Portable multiband radio - anyone listen to shortwave?

desmobob

desmobob

Joined
May 5, 2003
Messages
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I was over at the County Comm site picking up a couple of peanut lighters and checking out the other interesting stuff they have when I spotted this:

http://www.countycomm.com/gp4light.htm

It's a tiny portable radio that receives AM, FM, SW1 and SW2. It also has a built-in LED light and has a wake-to-the-radio alarm. $22 It's the perfect travel radio for me!

I always carry a little GE AM/FM portable on my hiking and bicycle camping trips, but this one is smaller and more capable, and the alarm will be a welcome feature. It also has an LCD digital tuner readout, rather than the tiny and impossible analog things little portables usually have.

I spent last evening listening to shortwave broadcasts (radio Havana, Cuba, mostly) and found it to be quite interesting. I went back to County Comm and ordered another one to keep in my truck with the other BOB-type gear I keep there. It runs on two AA batteries, so a couple of lithium cells will have it ready to use for 10 years or more!

They even offer a version packed in mil-spec protective packaging for long-term storage, $25. Neat. They also have a different (looks identical) version for $16. If you haven't checked out the County Comm site, it's fun, and loaded with inexpensive and interesting gadgets, tools and survival stuff. No, I'm not associated with them in any way...

Stay sharp,
desmobob
 
I own several SW sets, among them a small Bell & Howell I got out of a catalog of assorted cheap stuff (Lillian Vernon maybe?) that my wife got in the mail. It was cheap, like ten bucks so I bought it just for laughs. The little son of a gun surprised me, it is very compact and actually works quite well. Anybody got any interesting times and frequencies to recommend?
 
I know Radio Shack used to sell a few inexpensive multi-band radios that covered AM, FM and SW. Its been a while since I was in a RS, so I don't know if they still carry them or not.

I actually used to listen to a lot of SW back when I was in high school and college (I had an old tube SW reciever, and later a new digital one). It seems like in the last 10 years or so there is less and less good stuff on teh SW bands any more. A lot of the better english language (VOA, BBC, CBC, etc.) broadcasters cutting back or dropping their service since in these days of satalite TV, the internet, etc., because they don't need expensive SW broadcast facilites to reach the whole world.
 
The GP4L is a great little radio. The LED light is handy in a tent, but you can't use the light and the radio at the same time.

A long wire for the antenna helps a lot with any short wave receiver and I think a headphone helps with weak signals too.

The Grundig Mini 300 is another nice hiking radio. It is made by Tecsun and you will find it with other names on it, like Eddie Bauer, etc.

I have a Radio Shack DX-380 that I use for my alarm clock and everyday listening. It's too big for hiking, but fine for car camping and a disaster radio.


Having a radio with some reach is a good thing to have for regional disasters. I live in earthquake country and it is possible that local FM and TV broadcasts could be wiped out if The Big One comes. Being able to pull in distant AM stations and SW broadcasts could be helpful.

We were camping on the Olympic Beaches at Cape Alava and while listening to the radio, I found that we had luckily survived a tsunami warning over night. There was no tsunami, but if there had been, we would have been hit hard--- we were sleeping just a few feet above the high tide line.
 
I've got a Grundig Yacht Boy 400. I went through a phase some years ago listening to short wave and SSB. Now, the radio is tuned to the local AM station for news, weather, and talk radio.
 
In the urban area, there are too much noise in HF bands these days.
But in the wilderness like remote islands, shortwave maybe the only available broadcast and without no noise.

well, maybe satellite communication will be available in those islands but I prefer shortwave.
 
CSG said:
I've got a Grundig Yacht Boy 400. I went through a phase some years ago listening to short wave and SSB. Now, the radio is tuned to the local AM station for news, weather, and talk radio.
Click to expand...

I've got a YB-P 2000. Yacht Boy, huh ? Picked mine up from a pile of stuff a neighbor put out during spring cleaning. The only time I pull it out is when the local TV commentators get too bad to listen to for football. Last time I used it the radio was about 15 sec ahead of the TV. Enabled you to watch where the play was going. Just had it on now listening to some FM classical station. The song ended and some girl comes on and says "What was that song ? Check our website...." Then some gawd awful commercial came on. No wonder no one listens much.
 
I have several including the on from County Comm which is ok and light but does not draw distant signals very well . I like listening to the right wing /Christian rhetoric, although I wonder how SW will do under the fairness doctrine coming down the pike.
 
Fairness doctrine is not likely to be an issue. If anything, it's curious how the whacked-out US based SW broadcasts have lasted so long, as the SW bands are usually reserved for international broadcasting and audiences, not domestic ones. And non government US based SW broadcasters seem to be very uniquely American in topics and presumably audience.

I tend to think SW is of pretty limited use for emergency in the US. Plain old Am and FM commercial transmitters are simply too numerous and powerful. However, SW can be a fun hobby. I find some it fun to once in a while spend a cold winter night turning the dial to hear exotic or mysterious sounds from around the globe.
 
I think that SW is one of the emergency broadcast systems in canada, at the very least if you were picking up the BBC or something, you'd get news if the local towers were down, ice storm style.
 
I take my Sangean ATS 505 Car camping a lot.
It is about the elast expensive SW you can get that has Sideband.

You should do a bit of research before you buy.

Kick around on the UniversalRadio website and look at DXing.com.
 
A small radio with shortwave is nice to have, but for small and inexpensive I think in Noth Ameica it is more important to have good AM reception. FM will tend to be local, but AM, especially at night, can travel for hundreds of miles or more. I am in Chicago and at night can often pick up Minneapollis, St Louis, Denver, NO, Atlanta, etc and many east coast cities. Not much luck here with AM stations west of the Rockies. This is with small (3x5 inch) older analog Sony, panasonic, and Grundig portable radios using 2 AA cells and no external antennas. Some of these radios also have SW capabilities which work well enough for the stronger international stations. Not sure how the modern sw radios compare. Battery life on analog radios is generally better than on digital radios, but digital is easier to find a station if you know what frequency it is on. In a long term emergency situation, I would take the battery life tradeoff, considering I would be "spinning the dial" to see what was on the air. Small earphones help to hear weak signal and keep volume lower to minimize battery life (earbuds can fit in a film can).

An SW radio that can tune sideband would cost more, but would enable you to listen to hams - this could be extremely valuable. There were some very small ones available a few years ago, but relatively expensive - not sure about current models.

For good bang for the buck and space considerations i would consider a small Sony AM/FM model that runs on two AA batteries. Sony generally has good long distance AM capabilities. However I am intrigued by the County Comm shortwave and will probably pick one up at some point. Please understand that I have limited experience with recent radios and my comments are based on radios I have actually used. Also, these comments are made with portability/BOB in mind. For home use or car survival kit, larger quality radios are more readily available and worth considering.

Good luck!

Fred / KB9MVU
 
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A small radio with shortwave is nice to have, but for small and inexpensive I think in Noth Ameica it is more important to have good AM reception. FM will tend to be local, but AM, especially at night, can travel for hundreds of miles or more. I am in Chicago and at night can often pick up Minneapollis, St Louis, Denver, NO, Atlanta, etc and many east coast cities. Not much luck here with AM stations west of the Rockies. This is with small (3x5 inch) older analog Sony, panasonic, and Grundig portable radios using 2 AA cells and no external antennas. Some of these radios also have SW capabilities which work well enough for the stronger international stations. Not sure how the modern sw radios compare. Battery life on analog radios is generally better than on digital radios, but digital is easier to find a station if you know what frequency it is on. In a long term emergency situation, I would take the battery life tradeoff, considering I would be "spinning the dial" to see what was on the air. Small earphones help to hear weak signal and keep volume lower to minimize battery life (earbuds can fit in a film can).

An SW radio that can tune sideband would cost more, but would enable you to listen to hams - this could be extremely valuable. There were some very small ones available a few years ago, but relatively expensive - not sure about current models.

For good bang for the buck and space considerations i would consider a small Sony AM/FM model that runs on two AA batteries. Sony generally has good long distance AM capabilities. However I am intrigued by the County Comm shortwave and will probably pick one up at some point. Please understand that I have limited experience with recent radios and my comments are based on radios I have actually used.

Good luck!

Fred / KB9MVU
 
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