"WA4118SWL" wrote in message
ups.com...
For years, I've used my Radio Shack DX-360 and my Sangean ATS606A for
SWLing but this changed for the most part after the 2004 hurricane
season. Because I was so annoyed at not having any news sources during
the often 24 plus hours without power here in Florida, after Hurricane
Charley I bought a sand-colored Grundig FR-200 at Radio Shack for $40.
This radio proved to be much more useful than any AC or battery powered
radio that I've ever used. The construction is solid, the sound quality
is excellent and the built-in LED flashlight and hand-crank made the
power outages a little more bearable. Cranking the generator for a
minute provided nearly an hour of good sound and the flashlight came in
handy if the power ever went out at night and I didn't have immediate
access to my regular flashlight or candles. Now after almost two years,
this radio still works perfectly and the hand-crank still powers the
same rechargeable battery pack as well as it did back then. I've
cranked it for a minute almost daily since the summer of 2004 (its
being semi-waterproof makes for a great bathroom radio) and it has yet
to fail or fall apart, while the rechargeable battery pack still holds
a good charge after all this time. More recently, I've started to use
it for SWLing and found that barring the usual disadvantage of an
analog display (not knowing the exact frequency I'm on is strangely
thrilling at times), its quality easily rivals that of my more
expensive Radio Shack DX-360 and my Sangean ATS606A. I highly recommend
this fine little radio because it helped me through those dark days and
nights in the summer of 2004 and has been a pleasure to use for DXing
today.


The FR200 is a nice little package (although I have had similar troubles
with the volume control to what someone else here posted-that is it becoming
noisy when turned up or down. I'm a tech though, and a shot of tuner
cleaner in the right place cleared it right up.) I got one after Hurricane
Alicia came though Houston a few years back, and left thousands without
power for up to two weeks (at which point batteries became an endangered
species.) And the first night I had it, I picked up Voice of Russia clear
as a bell, which is what actually got me into shortwave. I then found a
Radio Shack DX402 (I think, AKA Sangean ATS-505 I think.) for $20.00 and
discovered how nice a digital tuner is. Am now hooked on shortwave, and
recently bought a Sony 7600GR off of eBay for $85.00. It too has a minor
problem with the volume control (which is why it was cheap) but I can live
with it. With it hooked up to my 240' longwire, I can even pick up Voice of
Korea's 1300 (UTC) broadcast. Sooo nice. Currently building a rechargable
battery back, using a small permanent magnet DC motor and some odd
components to make the last two radios also operable off of a hand-crank.
This device will be seperate from the radio however, and will only plug in
to provice the 6 VDC they require. I did have this device working, but with
plastic gears, and these died after a short trial run. Worked perfectly for
a few seconds though... In the meantime I keep a pack of 48 AA
batteries in .50 calliber ammo box along with the DX402. The FR200 lives in
the back of the car, in an "emergency" crate. Oh, and yes, the batteries
that come with the FR200 are really reliable. Once found the switch on the
radio knocked into the "Batt" position, apparently having been there for
some months. Definetly compromised the battery, thought I. Bought a new
one, and tested it against the old one. Identicle performance. So now
there's an extra NiMH battery in with the radio. Currently looking for an
AN-LP1, but in no hurry... If I get savy enough, I'll try to build one.

Lurk mode: ON

Dave