hand crank radio advice

Discussion in 'General Survival and Preparedness' started by fritz_monroe, Nov 4, 2007.


  1. fritz_monroe

    fritz_monroe Guest

    I'm looking for a quality hand cranked radio. I'd prefer U.S. made, but if that's not possible, that's fine. I know I want AM/FM and weather. TV an SW would be a plus. I don't know which would be best. If there was an EMP, it would take out the local TV stations, so maybe SW would be the way to go. I did locate one on Amazon by a company called Kaito, but I've never heard of them, I'd prefer a well known company.

    So, any recommendations? Any specific models to look at? Any companies to avoid?
     
  2. Bear

    Bear Monkey+++ Founding Member Iron Monkey

    After looking at a bunch of them and trying them ... I like this one alot...

    Sony ICF B01
    http://b2b.sony.com/Solutions/product/ICF-B01

    easy to crank... lasts a long long time... small and orange color is easy to find... I bought 4 of them... their $38 on sale here...

    Bummer is made in China though... oh well...

    [​IMG]
     
  3. Seawolf1090

    Seawolf1090 Retired Curmudgeonly IT Monkey Founding Member

    Bear, that one looks fairly easy to crank. I have an older el cheapo from one of the mail-order mags - it works, AM/FM only, bit has a tiny crank!

    I recently bought a yellow crank-radio with weather band from the Great Wally Mart of China - the tuner and LCD display are shot! Don't bother getting one there. POS!!
     
  4. fritz_monroe

    fritz_monroe Guest

    Looks like a decent radio, however I would like to have weather band on it.

    I've heard mention of Grundig, but don't really know all that much about it.
     
  5. sniper-66

    sniper-66 Monkey+++ Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    Bear! That is funny! A Sony product made in China, guess they are not nly after the US, now they are taking over Japan!!
     
  6. fritz_monroe

    fritz_monroe Guest

    Well, corporate greed is universal. I'm sure that Sony gets a fantastic price on those things.
     
  7. Bear

    Bear Monkey+++ Founding Member Iron Monkey

    So far I'm pretty pleased with this one... I've got the Baygen and the grundig... but they are big... I wanted something smaller and more compact for my small bags that's always in the cars and office...

    One crank session... not too long... i think about a minute... and this little sucker lasted a full 9 hours on a local a.m. station... not full volume but good enough... I like the light... and when the earthquake and hurricanes hit... there's pretty much only one station that manages to stay on anyway through the worst of it and thats an A.M. station....

    Good reception... and well built... its made in china... but hey its a Sony.... so no ... Baloney.... [LMAO]
     
  8. RobertRogers

    RobertRogers Monkey+++

    I like the crank idea, no batteries.
     
  9. fritz_monroe

    fritz_monroe Guest

    Thanks for the info. Based on Amazon dot com, it looks like it isn't a current model. I'm looking for one for the home, so I'm not overly concerned about the size. My get home bag has a personal radio with ear buds. Takes batteries, but for that I don't mind a couple AA batteries.

    I'm curious if the Grundig will allow you to charge the AA batteries by cranking.
     
  10. sniper-66

    sniper-66 Monkey+++ Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    I was at the local Tractor Supply Center and they had a bunch on sale, but I didn't have the money at the time and now wish I would have found a way, it was US made and had a radio, flashlight, and weather for about $40.
     
  11. Canadian-guerilla

    Canadian-guerilla Monkey+++

    i picked up the Grundig FR200 about three weeks ago

    i'm debating about whether to take it apart
    and see what else i can use the crank/batteries for
     
  12. bubbajoe

    bubbajoe Monkey+++

    http://www.freeplayenergy.com/

    look at the freeplay product line. i own a freeplay plus. it is solar/dynamo or ac. it is a little large for a BOB but its a great radio. the plus has a steel dynamo spring most others companies use plastic. the plus also comes with a 3 led light .
     
  13. fritz_monroe

    fritz_monroe Guest

    I will definately take a look at the Freeplay products. Looks pretty nice.

    What I really want to see is a crank radio that has AM/AF/SW/TV/Weather Seems like every product is missing one of the bands. Anyone find one?
     
  14. NVBeav

    NVBeav Monkey+++

    I had a friend in the Peace Corps a while back -- he had a multi-band radio, but he used a solar charger for his batteries. A good hand-crank system would be nice to supplement with solar charged external batteries.

    We bought a few hand-crank light/radio units from Costco for power outages, and my daughter "tested" them for us... Let's just say you'll do well to test whatever you buy. [beat]

    The first "charge" worked very well and lasted a long time. By the time the battery was on it's 3rd charge, I could see we'd been had -- we got what we paid for: cheap junk. Now the hand-crank charge lasts only a few minutes.
     
  1. JA40
  2. ED GEiN
  3. Southbound
  4. hitchcock4
  5. Bandit99
  6. Bandit99
  7. DKR
  8. DKR
  9. BTPost
  10. scpn
  11. Hanzo
  12. DKR
  13. Asia-Off-Grid
  14. ED GEiN
  15. hitchcock4
  16. 3M-TA3
  17. 3M-TA3
  18. AD1
  19. hitchcock4
  20. Imasham
survivalmonkey SSL seal        survivalmonkey.com warrant canary
17282WuJHksJ9798f34razfKbPATqTq9E7