HI, Guys,
One of the best of those alternate-powered "emergency" sortwave-capable
radios is not being made and sold anymore. That was the one sold by Radio
Shack as the Optimus Alternative Power Multiband Radio. It was sturdily
built, had an easy-turning crank that yielded a very respectible playing
time with about 90 seconds of turning. It has the North American AM
Broadcast band, (medium wave), broadcast FM, the NOAA (National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration) weather band, and 6 SW bands, covering the
broadcast band portions only of 49, 41, 31, 25, 13, and 16 meter bands.
Radio Shack sold it for around $60 and quietly discontinued it some time
last year.

The FreePlay Ranger is the current implementation of the older FreePlay
models with AM and FM broadcast only, no shortwave. It has the strong
spring-wound FreePlay crank which dumps power into a built-in battery pack
and the radio plays off the battery. I believe this one has the solar panel
so it can be powered by bright sunlight, or bright light sources such as
strong light bulbs, and it can be powered from an optional accessory
external AC/mains power adapter, the ubiquitous "wall wart".

The FreePlay Plus is the largest, heaviest, sturdiest, and most variably
alternatively powered of the current crop of "emergency" SW receivers. It
weighs around five pounds, has astrong LED flashlight in one end, has MW,
FM, and SW coverage. SW coverage is from 3-10 MHz on one band, and from
10-18 MHz on the other band. MW (AM broadcast) is from about 530-1710 KHz,
and FM covers from 88.0-108.0 MHz.

Power is from the Baylis clockwork generator which charges a built-in
battery pack; or a large solar panel on top of the radio, or by AC power
through an extra-cost optional adapter. The adapter can also charge the
built-in battery pack, which, they say will run for 40 hours on a full
charge.

A hefty 60-second full wind of the crank will run the radio for about an
hour, depending on the volume level.

The Kaito model offers everything__all the power sources, including optional
regular AA batteries; the hand-cranked dynamo to charge built-in batteries;
a solar panel; and an AC power adapter which is also supplied with the unit.
You also get a pair of earbud headphones and a long-wire external antenna
with the Kaito. You get SW on three or four bands, plus FM coverage that
gives you the audio for TV channels 2-13 plus weather radio frequencies, and
most of the rest of the VHF spectrum between about 142 and 174 MHz. It's a
cheap radio circuitry and you get so much out-of-band imaging and overload,
that it's hard sometimes to really know what band you're actually hearing,
despite what the display claims depending on your chosen band settings.

Though it has no SW coverage, the Coleman OutRider, available from Universal
Radio and other places, is the most ruggedly built of all the
alternative-powered radios on the market at the moment. It has a solar
cell, and an easily-turned dynamo crank that gives you the longest playing
time with the least cranking of all these radios. The AC power adapter can
charge the built-in battery. AM and FM performance are about average among
radios designed to actually sell almost everywhere in the
under-one-hundred-dollar price range.

Most of the points made in this thread so far about the FR-200, I generally
concur with. It's a good little 40-dollar radio, and I was actually
surprised at the MW coverage. It earned itself a spot on a very short list
of radios that can actually hear and receive CHWO from Toronto on 740 KHz at
night, in this faraday cage where I live. Oh, 750 KHz is occupied by WSB in
Atlanta, and the public transit systems here in Atlanta could take me from
my door to the studios of WSB in less than 30 minutes. None of my other
alternate-powered radios can receive CHWO here on any night, even well
enough to cause one to suspect that a signal is even present at that spot on
the dial--forget about actually identifying it and extracting enough
information to convince a possible QSL-card provider that you actually
listened to the station. Just in case you wonder, the much-vaunted C. Crane
CC Radio, original model, has yet to detect CHWO at this location. The
Grundig S-350, the Satellit 400, the Satellit 700, the Satellit 210/6001,
the Kenwood R-1000, and the AM receiver in the Yamaha CR-2040 "Natural
Sound" Stereo Receiver, can all hear CHWO most nights in this Faraday cage
location.

Were I to rate the current crop of alternative power SW capable receivers
based on how well they actually do most of what they were designed to do, I
would probably choose something about like this order, starting with the
best and working downward. Some of the radios do some things better than
other models do the same thing:

FreePlay Plus, available for $99.99 from C. Crane Company--large, heavy,
multiple power sources, fine tuning control which works on all bands;
respectible FM coverage, but subject to overload from nearby strong signals;
very good MW coverage, but subject to interference from external noise
sources on the lower part of the band; surprisingly good SW coverage through
the full rage of 3-18 MHz.

Grundig FR-200 (Tecsun Green 88): small, light, easy to carry, with a nice
canvas-type carry case with a shoulder strap, and the radio has a nice
carrying handle. The fine tuning control works well. MW performance is
surprisingly good, even for semi-serious DX work at night. FM is average
with slight overload from strong nearby FM signals. SW reception is good on
the lower band once you get used to tuning in a crowded band and figure out
the quirks of the slight dial backlash as you tune. The higher of the two
SW bands is basically useless above about 16 MHz.

The Coleman OutRider doesn't do short wave, but it's a solid, easily
cranked, fairly respectible MW and FM broadcast radio, although the
bandwidth filter is too wide to let you DX with it.

Sony still sells a small AM/FM-only dynamo-cranked radio with an obnoxiously
loud emergency alarm, a light, and a small crank that's easy to turn once
you get a good hold on its small crank. It's about half the size and weight
of the Coleman model, and at its list price of $99.99, it's priced very much
out of line with the competition. Get used to its crowded dial, and its
signal reception is actually quite good for the class.

The Optimus Self-Powered multiband emergency radio is a real emergency unit,
since it has the NOAA weather band coverage. It also has a loud emergency
alarm and a light. Its coverage is fair to good on the 49, 31, 25, and 19
meter bands; FM is about average, and MW reception is quite good. It
receives NOAA reather radio signals better than many purpose-built dedicated
weather radio receivers, being matched in receiving ability only by the
weather-radio band of that CC Radio, original model among the radios I have.

The Kaito KA-007 would really be nice if its FM and VHF bands did not
receive every strong signal on all of its FM and VHF bands indiscriminately.
The AM section is actually fairly good, with the MW reception being the
best feature of the radio. It is small and light, but its odd shape and
size, combined with the long and flimsy crank handle makes it less
comfortable to crank the dynamo very long, and it needs quite a bit of
cranking to build up much playing time. You might find yourself using
regular batteries, AC power, or maybe a strong light source for its
back-mounted solar collector, more often than the cynamo crank.

The FreePlay Summit is a cheap Chinese direct-entry "digitally tuned"
single-conversion receiver mated to the FreePlay dynamo drive mechanism. If
you like a digital display, push-buton frequency entry, some station
memories, and push-button up/down scanning capabilities and want the
alternative power, the Summit might be what you want to get. I have not
seen or used it, so I can speak to the convenience and comfort of its crank
operation, or how well it actually receives signals in the spectrum claimed
on the display scales.

I saw quality-control problems and sample-specific flaws in two different
FreePlay Plus units I bought a couple of years ago and returned each radio
in turn because of them. Otherwise, I liked the radio. Now that production
of even this last of the South African-made FreePlay radios has now moved to
China, I'm hoping the quality control may have actually improved. I may
acquire another one to find out.

Reply to:
Brent Reynolds, Atlanta, GA USA

I got an "TECSUN 88 GREEN POWER",
dynamo powered outdoor radio last week.
It is relatively cheap, but it works great even
without batteries.
Is is astonished what those people from China
can produce nowadays.
Maybe there are only robots ? ;-)

wrote:

HI, Guys,
One of the best of those alternate-powered "emergency" sortwave-capable
radios is not being made and sold anymore. That was the one sold by Radio
Shack as the Optimus Alternative Power Multiband Radio. It was sturdily
built, had an easy-turning crank that yielded a very respectible playing
time with about 90 seconds of turning. It has the North American AM
Broadcast band, (medium wave), broadcast FM, the NOAA (National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration) weather band, and 6 SW bands, covering the
broadcast band portions only of 49, 41, 31, 25, 13, and 16 meter bands.
Radio Shack sold it for around $60 and quietly discontinued it some time
last year.

The FreePlay Ranger is the current implementation of the older FreePlay
models with AM and FM broadcast only, no shortwave. It has the strong
spring-wound FreePlay crank which dumps power into a built-in battery pack
and the radio plays off the battery. I believe this one has the solar panel
so it can be powered by bright sunlight, or bright light sources such as
strong light bulbs, and it can be powered from an optional accessory
external AC/mains power adapter, the ubiquitous "wall wart".

The FreePlay Plus is the largest, heaviest, sturdiest, and most variably
alternatively powered of the current crop of "emergency" SW receivers. It
weighs around five pounds, has astrong LED flashlight in one end, has MW,
FM, and SW coverage. SW coverage is from 3-10 MHz on one band, and from
10-18 MHz on the other band. MW (AM broadcast) is from about 530-1710 KHz,
and FM covers from 88.0-108.0 MHz.

Power is from the Baylis clockwork generator which charges a built-in
battery pack; or a large solar panel on top of the radio, or by AC power
through an extra-cost optional adapter. The adapter can also charge the
built-in battery pack, which, they say will run for 40 hours on a full
charge.

A hefty 60-second full wind of the crank will run the radio for about an
hour, depending on the volume level.

The Kaito model offers everything__all the power sources, including optional
regular AA batteries; the hand-cranked dynamo to charge built-in batteries;
a solar panel; and an AC power adapter which is also supplied with the unit.
You also get a pair of earbud headphones and a long-wire external antenna
with the Kaito. You get SW on three or four bands, plus FM coverage that
gives you the audio for TV channels 2-13 plus weather radio frequencies, and
most of the rest of the VHF spectrum between about 142 and 174 MHz. It's a
cheap radio circuitry and you get so much out-of-band imaging and overload,
that it's hard sometimes to really know what band you're actually hearing,
despite what the display claims depending on your chosen band settings.

Though it has no SW coverage, the Coleman OutRider, available from Universal
Radio and other places, is the most ruggedly built of all the
alternative-powered radios on the market at the moment. It has a solar
cell, and an easily-turned dynamo crank that gives you the longest playing
time with the least cranking of all these radios. The AC power adapter can
charge the built-in battery. AM and FM performance are about average among
radios designed to actually sell almost everywhere in the
under-one-hundred-dollar price range.

Most of the points made in this thread so far about the FR-200, I generally
concur with. It's a good little 40-dollar radio, and I was actually
surprised at the MW coverage. It earned itself a spot on a very short list
of radios that can actually hear and receive CHWO from Toronto on 740 KHz at
night, in this faraday cage where I live. Oh, 750 KHz is occupied by WSB in
Atlanta, and the public transit systems here in Atlanta could take me from
my door to the studios of WSB in less than 30 minutes. None of my other
alternate-powered radios can receive CHWO here on any night, even well
enough to cause one to suspect that a signal is even present at that spot on
the dial--forget about actually identifying it and extracting enough
information to convince a possible QSL-card provider that you actually
listened to the station. Just in case you wonder, the much-vaunted C. Crane
CC Radio, original model, has yet to detect CHWO at this location. The
Grundig S-350, the Satellit 400, the Satellit 700, the Satellit 210/6001,
the Kenwood R-1000, and the AM receiver in the Yamaha CR-2040 "Natural
Sound" Stereo Receiver, can all hear CHWO most nights in this Faraday cage
location.

Were I to rate the current crop of alternative power SW capable receivers
based on how well they actually do most of what they were designed to do, I
would probably choose something about like this order, starting with the
best and working downward. Some of the radios do some things better than
other models do the same thing:

FreePlay Plus, available for $99.99 from C. Crane Company--large, heavy,
multiple power sources, fine tuning control which works on all bands;
respectible FM coverage, but subject to overload from nearby strong signals;
very good MW coverage, but subject to interference from external noise
sources on the lower part of the band; surprisingly good SW coverage through
the full rage of 3-18 MHz.

Grundig FR-200 (Tecsun Green 88): small, light, easy to carry, with a nice
canvas-type carry case with a shoulder strap, and the radio has a nice
carrying handle. The fine tuning control works well. MW performance is
surprisingly good, even for semi-serious DX work at night. FM is average
with slight overload from strong nearby FM signals. SW reception is good on
the lower band once you get used to tuning in a crowded band and figure out
the quirks of the slight dial backlash as you tune. The higher of the two
SW bands is basically useless above about 16 MHz.

The Coleman OutRider doesn't do short wave, but it's a solid, easily
cranked, fairly respectible MW and FM broadcast radio, although the
bandwidth filter is too wide to let you DX with it.

Sony still sells a small AM/FM-only dynamo-cranked radio with an obnoxiously
loud emergency alarm, a light, and a small crank that's easy to turn once
you get a good hold on its small crank. It's about half the size and weight
of the Coleman model, and at its list price of $99.99, it's priced very much
out of line with the competition. Get used to its crowded dial, and its
signal reception is actually quite good for the class.

The Optimus Self-Powered multiband emergency radio is a real emergency unit,
since it has the NOAA weather band coverage. It also has a loud emergency
alarm and a light. Its coverage is fair to good on the 49, 31, 25, and 19
meter bands; FM is about average, and MW reception is quite good. It
receives NOAA reather radio signals better than many purpose-built dedicated
weather radio receivers, being matched in receiving ability only by the
weather-radio band of that CC Radio, original model among the radios I have.

The Kaito KA-007 would really be nice if its FM and VHF bands did not
receive every strong signal on all of its FM and VHF bands indiscriminately.
The AM section is actually fairly good, with the MW reception being the
best feature of the radio. It is small and light, but its odd shape and
size, combined with the long and flimsy crank handle makes it less
comfortable to crank the dynamo very long, and it needs quite a bit of
cranking to build up much playing time. You might find yourself using
regular batteries, AC power, or maybe a strong light source for its
back-mounted solar collector, more often than the cynamo crank.

The FreePlay Summit is a cheap Chinese direct-entry "digitally tuned"
single-conversion receiver mated to the FreePlay dynamo drive mechanism. If
you like a digital display, push-buton frequency entry, some station
memories, and push-button up/down scanning capabilities and want the
alternative power, the Summit might be what you want to get. I have not
seen or used it, so I can speak to the convenience and comfort of its crank
operation, or how well it actually receives signals in the spectrum claimed
on the display scales.

I saw quality-control problems and sample-specific flaws in two different
FreePlay Plus units I bought a couple of years ago and returned each radio
in turn because of them. Otherwise, I liked the radio. Now that production
of even this last of the South African-made FreePlay radios has now moved to
China, I'm hoping the quality control may have actually improved. I may
acquire another one to find out.

Reply to:
Brent Reynolds, Atlanta, GA USA

IG,

The Tecsun Green 88 "Field" Radio is sold in the USA/Canada by
Grundig North America (ETON Corp.) as the "Grundig FR200".
http://www.grundigradio.com/asp/Prod...ction=overview

Eton's Grundig FR200 Receives "Good Housekeeping's" GOOD BUY Award
The Grundig FR200 provides access to information and light when its
needed most.
GoTo= http://www.grundigradio.com/asp/december4.asp

FWIW: Tecsun has a 'newer' GREEN (Environmentally Friendly) Radio;
the Tecsun Green 138 has many good features and full coverage
from 3.2 MHz to 22 MHz
- - - NO Gap between 7.6-9.2 MHz as with the Green 88.
http://www.tecsun.com.cn/product/138/138-1.htm

The Tecsun GREEN 138 has a Slightly 'smaller' Vertical Format.
- - - More Portable at 88% of the Size and Weight of the Green 88.

Take a Look at eBay Item # 3064720193
= = = "NIB TECSUN GREEN-138 FM/MW/SW EMERGENCY RADIO"


ihtth ~ RHF
..
..
= = = Igor Gros wrote in message ...
I got an "TECSUN 88 GREEN POWER",
dynamo powered outdoor radio last week.
It is relatively cheap, but it works great even
without batteries.
Is is astonished what those people from China
can produce nowadays.
Maybe there are only robots ? ;-)

wrote:

HI, Guys,
One of the best of those alternate-powered "emergency" sortwave-capable
radios is not being made and sold anymore. That was the one sold by Radio
Shack as the Optimus Alternative Power Multiband Radio. It was sturdily
built, had an easy-turning crank that yielded a very respectible playing
time with about 90 seconds of turning. It has the North American AM
Broadcast band, (medium wave), broadcast FM, the NOAA (National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration) weather band, and 6 SW bands, covering the
broadcast band portions only of 49, 41, 31, 25, 13, and 16 meter bands.
Radio Shack sold it for around $60 and quietly discontinued it some time
last year.

The FreePlay Ranger is the current implementation of the older FreePlay
models with AM and FM broadcast only, no shortwave. It has the strong
spring-wound FreePlay crank which dumps power into a built-in battery pack
and the radio plays off the battery. I believe this one has the solar panel
so it can be powered by bright sunlight, or bright light sources such as
strong light bulbs, and it can be powered from an optional accessory
external AC/mains power adapter, the ubiquitous "wall wart".

The FreePlay Plus is the largest, heaviest, sturdiest, and most variably
alternatively powered of the current crop of "emergency" SW receivers. It
weighs around five pounds, has astrong LED flashlight in one end, has MW,
FM, and SW coverage. SW coverage is from 3-10 MHz on one band, and from
10-18 MHz on the other band. MW (AM broadcast) is from about 530-1710 KHz,
and FM covers from 88.0-108.0 MHz.

Power is from the Baylis clockwork generator which charges a built-in
battery pack; or a large solar panel on top of the radio, or by AC power
through an extra-cost optional adapter. The adapter can also charge the
built-in battery pack, which, they say will run for 40 hours on a full
charge.

A hefty 60-second full wind of the crank will run the radio for about an
hour, depending on the volume level.

The Kaito model offers everything__all the power sources, including optional
regular AA batteries; the hand-cranked dynamo to charge built-in batteries;
a solar panel; and an AC power adapter which is also supplied with the unit.
You also get a pair of earbud headphones and a long-wire external antenna
with the Kaito. You get SW on three or four bands, plus FM coverage that
gives you the audio for TV channels 2-13 plus weather radio frequencies, and
most of the rest of the VHF spectrum between about 142 and 174 MHz. It's a
cheap radio circuitry and you get so much out-of-band imaging and overload,
that it's hard sometimes to really know what band you're actually hearing,
despite what the display claims depending on your chosen band settings.

Though it has no SW coverage, the Coleman OutRider, available from Universal
Radio and other places, is the most ruggedly built of all the
alternative-powered radios on the market at the moment. It has a solar
cell, and an easily-turned dynamo crank that gives you the longest playing
time with the least cranking of all these radios. The AC power adapter can
charge the built-in battery. AM and FM performance are about average among
radios designed to actually sell almost everywhere in the
under-one-hundred-dollar price range.

Most of the points made in this thread so far about the FR-200, I generally
concur with. It's a good little 40-dollar radio, and I was actually
surprised at the MW coverage. It earned itself a spot on a very short list
of radios that can actually hear and receive CHWO from Toronto on 740 KHz at
night, in this faraday cage where I live. Oh, 750 KHz is occupied by WSB in
Atlanta, and the public transit systems here in Atlanta could take me from
my door to the studios of WSB in less than 30 minutes. None of my other
alternate-powered radios can receive CHWO here on any night, even well
enough to cause one to suspect that a signal is even present at that spot on
the dial--forget about actually identifying it and extracting enough
information to convince a possible QSL-card provider that you actually
listened to the station. Just in case you wonder, the much-vaunted C. Crane
CC Radio, original model, has yet to detect CHWO at this location. The
Grundig S-350, the Satellit 400, the Satellit 700, the Satellit 210/6001,
the Kenwood R-1000, and the AM receiver in the Yamaha CR-2040 "Natural
Sound" Stereo Receiver, can all hear CHWO most nights in this Faraday cage
location.

Were I to rate the current crop of alternative power SW capable receivers
based on how well they actually do most of what they were designed to do, I
would probably choose something about like this order, starting with the
best and working downward. Some of the radios do some things better than
other models do the same thing:

FreePlay Plus, available for $99.99 from C. Crane Company--large, heavy,
multiple power sources, fine tuning control which works on all bands;
respectible FM coverage, but subject to overload from nearby strong signals;
very good MW coverage, but subject to interference from external noise
sources on the lower part of the band; surprisingly good SW coverage through
the full rage of 3-18 MHz.

Grundig FR-200 (Tecsun Green 88): small, light, easy to carry, with a nice
canvas-type carry case with a shoulder strap, and the radio has a nice
carrying handle. The fine tuning control works well. MW performance is
surprisingly good, even for semi-serious DX work at night. FM is average
with slight overload from strong nearby FM signals. SW reception is good on
the lower band once you get used to tuning in a crowded band and figure out
the quirks of the slight dial backlash as you tune. The higher of the two
SW bands is basically useless above about 16 MHz.

The Coleman OutRider doesn't do short wave, but it's a solid, easily
cranked, fairly respectible MW and FM broadcast radio, although the
bandwidth filter is too wide to let you DX with it.

Sony still sells a small AM/FM-only dynamo-cranked radio with an obnoxiously
loud emergency alarm, a light, and a small crank that's easy to turn once
you get a good hold on its small crank. It's about half the size and weight
of the Coleman model, and at its list price of $99.99, it's priced very much
out of line with the competition. Get used to its crowded dial, and its
signal reception is actually quite good for the class.

The Optimus Self-Powered multiband emergency radio is a real emergency unit,
since it has the NOAA weather band coverage. It also has a loud emergency
alarm and a light. Its coverage is fair to good on the 49, 31, 25, and 19
meter bands; FM is about average, and MW reception is quite good. It
receives NOAA reather radio signals better than many purpose-built dedicated
weather radio receivers, being matched in receiving ability only by the
weather-radio band of that CC Radio, original model among the radios I have.

The Kaito KA-007 would really be nice if its FM and VHF bands did not
receive every strong signal on all of its FM and VHF bands indiscriminately.
The AM section is actually fairly good, with the MW reception being the
best feature of the radio. It is small and light, but its odd shape and
size, combined with the long and flimsy crank handle makes it less
comfortable to crank the dynamo very long, and it needs quite a bit of
cranking to build up much playing time. You might find yourself using
regular batteries, AC power, or maybe a strong light source for its
back-mounted solar collector, more often than the cynamo crank.

The FreePlay Summit is a cheap Chinese direct-entry "digitally tuned"
single-conversion receiver mated to the FreePlay dynamo drive mechanism. If
you like a digital display, push-buton frequency entry, some station
memories, and push-button up/down scanning capabilities and want the
alternative power, the Summit might be what you want to get. I have not
seen or used it, so I can speak to the convenience and comfort of its crank
operation, or how well it actually receives signals in the spectrum claimed
on the display scales.

I saw quality-control problems and sample-specific flaws in two different
FreePlay Plus units I bought a couple of years ago and returned each radio
in turn because of them. Otherwise, I liked the radio. Now that production
of even this last of the South African-made FreePlay radios has now moved to
China, I'm hoping the quality control may have actually improved. I may
acquire another one to find out.

Reply to:
Brent Reynolds, Atlanta, GA USA