Which of these two radios is the better performer? I'd really like to
know. Of these two radios, which one is the one to have? Is anyone here
in a position to know, having compared them? I was thinking of being a
good consumer, and casting about a little more of my cash. Which of
these two radios wins the contest?

Darren

http://hometown.aol.com/darren1965co...e/profile.html

Can't tell you much about the Freeplay, but I've had a Grundig for
about 4 months now.

The hand crank generator builds a charge quickly. The radio does a
capable job on AM and FM and finding stations is simple on those bands.
As with many analog receivers that compress shortwave bands into SW1
and SW2, the dial resolution is tight and tuning takes a safecrackers
touch.

It performs well as a backup-emergency radio and music sounds
surprisingly good on FM.

Well, I thank you for that. That pretty much confirms other online
reviews. I'm still at a loss as to how it stacks up to the latest
version of the Baygen. Darren

I haven't seen a Baygen since they first come out on the market...15
years ago maybe? At the time the crank was used to wind a very long
coiled spring which in turn spun a geared up generator.

My instinct is to stay with the familiar Grundig. They are, or were,
always reliable, producers of quality. The thing that makes me wary of
the FR200, is the implication that it wants to drift off frequency. I
hate that. If I'm always retuning it, it will not make me very happy.
Darren

I don't think you will notice any drift on AM or FM. On shortwave you
might have some, but no more than with any other simple analog
receiver. When the rechargable batteries are close to drained the
receiver will drift off because the voltage is low - but you would get
that effect with alkalines too.

In article .com,
John S. wrote:
I don't think you will notice any drift on AM or FM. On shortwave you
might have some, but no more than with any other simple analog
receiver. When the rechargable batteries are close to drained the
receiver will drift off because the voltage is low - but you would get
that effect with alkalines too.

It's not electrical drift, it's mechanical. There's a bunch of plastic
gears and stuff and it uses plastic dielectric tuning capacitors with
a lot of drag, and tuning it builds up strain that gradually relaxes.
Tuning it is like pulling a wagon with a bungee cord.

But for US$40 it's a lot of fun, (even if I've managed to kill off
the rechargable batteries).

Mark Zenier Washington State resident

Well, thank you again, John. That boosts my confidence somewhat. Darren

I've had both (actually, I've collected every Baygen Freeplay model )
and after fairly extensive comparison, I think the Grundig has
generally better SW and AM reception, better dial resolution (though
that's not saying much) and is much more portable. I do like the
Freeplay Plus's clockwork spring better.

Much as I like to play with these radios, they really aren't any good
as emergency radios. You would be far better off with a Grundig
G4000A, Kaito KA-1102, Sony SW7600GR or similar portable. Add a box of
alkaline batteries from Costco, Home Depot, etc. and you'll have all
the SW reception ability you'll need in an emergency. I keep a KA-1105
and a box of 40 alkaline AA batteries (refreshed every two years) in my
emergency kit.

Right, that's occured to me. But in the same breath, the idea of a
device not dependant on any outside power source is appealing. Darren