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