Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#4
![]() |
|||
|
|||
![]()
On May 2, 12:00 pm, wrote:
Thing about those cheap wind up radios (and similar gadgets) is the cheap wind up springs might fail when you need to use the radio in emergency situations.A set of quality Alkaline batterieswww.rayovac.com should hold their charge while sitting in storage for about a year.Then you can use those batteries in storage in something else and put another fresh set of batteries in storage. cuhulin I really like the "Freeplay" brand of wind-up radios; their spring design seems sturdier than any of the others. The original models ran on spring power driving a generator only, so there were no NiMH batteries to charge/discharge and eventually wear out like the later ones have (& I think all the competitors). The very first one marketed here had an SW band, but there were also AM/FM only models; I have some and have given some as presents, in addition to later-generation Freeplay models. Some of those have solar cells and can operate in bright light without winding. There is one digital-readout wind-up AM/FM/SW model that I bought a sample of to try and want to caution people against -- the Kaito KA-008. It just doesn't work worth diddly. The digital display eats up too much power for that usage -- it has a clock, which of course constantly loses the time. The AM (MW) band performance is pathetic -- absolutely no selectivity and strong stations cover many many kHz swaths, making the advantages of digital readout worthless. Even installing alkaline batteries, they're drained quickly even if the radio is off. I was able to get a few strong SW stations but no better than one of the little "toy" cheapies. It has an analog readout twin, the Kaito KA-009 -- I was wondering if anyone has one of these and can offer comments on it. 73, Will |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
![]() |
||||
Thread | Forum | |||
Wind Bag | Policy | |||
(OT) WIND 560 Chicago | Shortwave | |||
wanted air-403 wind gen | Homebrew | |||
UHF in the wind | Swap | |||
I'm looking for a wind-up s/w radio. | Shortwave |