portable radio

hardheart

hardheart

Joined
Sep 19, 2001
Messages
8,968
ahh, good old hurricane season, I see the store shelves stocking already. anyway, what's a good'un to get, perhaps a dynamo unit. are any of those combo jobs with the light/siren/cell charger any good? want to add to my BOB, even though either PD or the NG will have me busy in case of emergency
 
Check out this pocket-size radio from County Comm, and the carrying case on the same page. I keep my radio in that case velcroed to the carrying strap of my Bail Out Bag. But the radio itself will fit in a shirt pocket. http://www.countycomm.com/gp4light.htm

Not bad reception for a very compact backup. I recently got the antenna reel also, but I haven't been far enough out to see how much help it is under difficult conditions.
 
I have one (actually three) from the C. Crane Company. Small multiband with weather and shortwave. And yes, the reel antennas work great, mostly with shortwave but I also use one to get excellent AM reception. I haven't tried the crank radios. I do keep extra batteries on hand and don't store the radios with batteries in them.

Codger
 
The GP4 is a great little radio for the money, but a reel antenna will generally overload the signal selectivity of a cheaper radio. I have tried a reel antenna with mine, and it just pulls in all the powerful stations while squelching any weaker stations. I have been quite impressed with this radio, however. Great unit for the money.
For $49.95, you can get the new C.Crane radio http://www.ccrane.com/radios/shortwave-radios/ccradio-swp.aspx
It has been highly rated, but I have not tried it.
As far as the wind up/dynamo/solar radios go...I like the freeplay stuff. I have the large SW unit with light. I really like the option of charging solar or wind up. I had a really cheap chinese dynamo/solar am/fm radio. The dynamo died about the second time I tried it, but used the radio for 3 years outside thanks to solar backup :thumbup:
All this being said, I do not count on these in an emergency. I have a high end Sony SW as my primary emergency radio. You will need a short wave receiver with single side band (SSB) in order to listen to the emergency radio network set up by HAMs in cases of national emergency.
 
Howdy - I too, am currently looking for a radio – and I want a compact portable package as possible and affordable.

I want something that gives me the most options for news/weather/emergency info gathering especially in case of SHTF. So, I have been looking for a good AM-FM-NOAA (with SAME) small radio.

Chuck, Esav and Codger – you sure sound like you know your radio stuff. I am ‘Short Wave radio retarded.’ I have never understood just what the heck it is – and what its actual worth would be, regarding what I want. (I want it for land use, not marine purposes.) In a brief Wiki search, it refers to the questionable and variable worth of the Ham operator system.

Could you please clarify this for me and others who may be in my situation.
Is it better to have the SW capabilities or the NOAA?

Thanks to all of you.
 
Well, there's S.A.M.E. That is a local emergency service call that only activates when YOUR IMMEDIATE CELL has an emergency. This means sometimes the lead time you get on an event is SHORT (as in, say, quickly moving T-storms or tornados). NOAA is the general national weather, and I prefer it as an alert over a radio that has S.A.M.E. only.
In the case of a widespread faliure of communications, the HAM radio operators function as an emergency communications web for the region/nation. These can only be picked up on Single side band. A SSB shortwave radio is needed to pick up these transmissions.
 
Thanks, Chuck. More questions...

"These can only be picked up on Single side band. A SSB shortwave radio is needed to pick up these transmissions."

Are ALL SW radios "SSB's"? If not - how do you know if one is?
 
I have a crank up Gundig fr-200 I have had it for about 5 years or so, I t has seen a lot of use and abuse, they light on it isn't all that good but the radio is great , It has AM/FM and two shortwave .

I have used mine up north in the bush and out in the middle of lake erie and never had a problem, I used it alot out on the lake as my boat radio,

They have come along way with they crank up stuff since I got it so ther are probly better out there but I would recommend a Grundig to anyone,


http://www.etoncorp.com/product_card/?p_ProductDbId=6276

cya
jimi
 
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ETon Mini-300 for me - am/fm/sw:

SANY0002-11.jpg


You can see the antenna just sticking out the versipack pocket.

SANY0004-9.jpg
 
Most inespensive shortwave radios are not single side band capable. Here is one that has SSB
http://www.sangean.com/product.php?model=PT-80&prod_id=26
in the product description, it lists SSB

If you look for used shortwave radios, there is also BFO. BFO=Beat Frequency Oscillator and is like a manual version of SSB. You flip a switch to turn on the BFO, and then turn a BFO knob (slowly) until you can understand what is being said.
Both of these features require a labled button or switch to activate. You want to look for BFO, LSB/USB, SSB. These all indicate SIngle side band capability.
For used radios, I would stick with the better Sangean, Sony, Radio Shack (mostly made by Sangean and Sony) models.
A great resource if you are going to buy a shortwave is Passport to World Band Radio. You'll find this book invaluable. It's like a shortwave guide with listings of all the schedualed shortwave programming world wide. It has radio reviews, how to get started. It comes out every year, so be sure to get a 2008 edition.
 
I might mention that shortwave isn't just ham operators. A lot of commercial stations are now on shortwave, including BBC and many other international stations, many in English. It is interesting to listen to world news from their perspective, as well as music popular in other parts of the world. Reception depends a lot on atmospherics, but often you can receive signals from Australia, Japan, China, Russia, most of Europe and South Africa. No, for the most part those stations aren't critical to short-term local survival conditions, but it greatly opens the doors to even local information such as NOAA local broadcasts, and other local transmissions from both stations and from ham operators. And also these radios usually provide good reception in the more common AM and FM bands.

Codger
 
I also carry a small 2 way radio, my version is just FRS and only goes 2 miles, but they have units that can go 25+ miles now.
 
Codger_64 said:
I might mention that shortwave isn't just ham operators. A lot of commercial stations are now on shortwave, including BBC and many other international stations, many in English. It is interesting to listen to world news from their perspective, as well as music popular in other parts of the world. Reception depends a lot on atmospherics, but often you can receive signals from Australia, Japan, China, Russia, most of Europe and South Africa.
Click to expand...

My best shortwave story! I was stationed in Turkey, tuning in to shortwave stations one night, and got a country western song. Followed by a short burst of a totally unrecognizable language. More country western, more strange language. Gave up trying to ID the language and just listened to the music, coming in real clear.

Then another announcer came on in English and identified the station as the Northern Service of Canadian Broadcasting, broadcasting in Eskimo!
 
General listening is the best part...great programming from around the world, hearing other cultures' points of view. Never know what you might catch.
 
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