Small Portable Radio's?

[StarHalo]

Thanks for the recommendation. I choked a bit upon seeing the price, but it may be a good investment for me at some point. Thankfully, we don't go a couple weeks without power too often!

Too bad about the SRIII. Was hoping the RCA model would at least still be a good AM DX'er as I'd prefer to spend $40 instead of $180.

It's a top shelf unit at the top shelf price, indeed. You can go a lot cheaper if you forego the sound quality criteria; the $40 CCrane Solar Observer runs for a few days on AAs and has a smorgasbord of power options besides, but it's not really a hi-fi unit. When it's not gift-giving season, you can find a used SuperRadio II on eBay for ~$80.

it was either this thread, or some radio forum where I read that car stereos generally make excellent DX rigs because they're designed to deal well with interference, and have an external antenna. I happen to have a GM unit from the late 80's sitting in the basement, and wonder what the current draw would be through a couple small speakers at low-ish volume. If hooked up to a fully charged car battery or something, might such a thing make for a good, long running power outage solution?

Car radios are excellent performers as they tend to be a key selling point of the car, so they're built to specs that aren't found on store shelf receivers. So long as you have the technical know-how to rig one up [and no one else will be operating/maintaining this unit,] you can make an impressive radio from one. Be aware that receiving FM from a whip antenna gets you better results than almost any other configuration, however using the same whip for AM (where the news/info usually is) leaves it vulnerable to RF noise, so you'll have to position the whip far away from any source of electronic bother, probably outdoors.

Also, you can receive CB broadcasts on any shortwave radio that reaches up into the 25-30 MHz range, my Sony 7600GR can hear truckers just fine.

 

[Sub_Umbra]

...Back to AM/FM... it was either this thread, or some radio forum where I read that car stereos generally make excellent DX rigs because they're designed to deal well with interference, and have an external antenna. I happen to have a GM unit from the late 80's sitting in the basement, and wonder what the current draw would be through a couple small speakers at low-ish volume. If hooked up to a fully charged car battery or something, might such a thing make for a good, long running power outage solution?

That could have been one of my posts... Back in the 90s I built a rig with a car radio being fed by a Signal Magnet Antenna Noise Reduction Kit from Ramsey Electronics that responds only to the magnetic field of the desired station and ignores the electrostatic field where most interference is found:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/oh7ldyj

It worked very well but the whole package was big, heavy and the car radio had quite a bit of parasitic drain which really cuts the buzz in an emergency radio. If the memory presets were held in flash I could have done without the clock.

 

[Scooby214]

Tecsun 2P3 Build-Your-Own AM Radio kit; includes outsized double-coil ferrite antenna for DX-level performance, $22.

I just built one of these kits today. The schematic is four color and easy to follow. Assembly was almost trouble-free. The only trouble I ran into was that the kit was short three resistors. A quick trip to Radio Shack solved that problem. Based on Amazon reviews, many of the 2P3 kits are missing some resistors.

Once assembled and aligned, the 2P3 performs quite nicely. It's surprisingly selective, and the double-coil ferrite antenna works well for nulling local signals to pick up DX stations on adjacent frequencies.

 

[StarHalo]

Once assembled and aligned, the 2P3 performs quite nicely. It's surprisingly selective, and the double-coil ferrite antenna works well for nulling local signals to pick up DX stations on adjacent frequencies.

Ha, that's awesome; kind of silly about the resistors, but at least that's an easy fix. Sounds like a fine new toy otherwise, and I bet battery life is awesome since it's just straight analog with a smallish speaker.

 

[StarHalo]

Jay Allen reviews the new Eton Satellit.

Also, if you sign up for Radio Shack emails on their site, they'll send you a $10 coupon, which would bring down the price of the new Eton Field to $89.99.

 

[Lebkuecher]

Jay Allen reviews the new Eton Satellit.

Jay's review is one of the more optimistic reviews regarding the Satellit.

The radio performs well when compared to other currently available radios but the changes Eton made with the tuning knob are leaving a bad taste with a lot of people myself included.

For whatever reason Eton decided to go with a step/counter tuning knob making it a pain in the a** to quickly move through a band searching for stations. Adding to the problem and in my mind the biggest issue with the radio is each time you move the tuning knob forward or backwards a step the radio mutes and then makes a pulsating hissing noise when the muting disengages. If you turn the knob fast you could easily miss a station not to mention the headache you will get from radio sending out a pulsating hissing noise each time you hit a different step. When you put another radio next to the Satellit and turn the tuning knob on the Satellit the other radio will pick up the muting electronic interference the radio creates and you can actually hear popping noise from the speaker of the other radio. You might expect a step or counter in a lower priced radio but in my mind anyway this is simply unacceptable for a radio being sold in this price range. Tom documented the muting problem in his one of several YouTube reviews of the this radios YouTube review.

On the positive side there are improvements over the G3 such as the speaker which sounds similar to the PL-880 but not as good in my opinion and I like the display. The line in works better compared to the G3 and contrary to the manual the volume works with the line in and with the improved speaker makes listening to MP3 from a cell phone or MP3 player a decent listening experience. I do like having more bandwidth options on AM and SW and the sync is a marginal improvement. Battery life is good and I have yet to have to recharge the battery but according to the manual the extremely long charge times is the same as the G3.

 

[Lebkuecher]

I just built one of these kits today. The schematic is four color and easy to follow. Assembly was almost trouble-free. The only trouble I ran into was that the kit was short three resistors. A quick trip to Radio Shack solved that problem. Based on Amazon reviews, many of the 2P3 kits are missing some resistors.

Once assembled and aligned, the 2P3 performs quite nicely. It's surprisingly selective, and the double-coil ferrite antenna works well for nulling local signals to pick up DX stations on adjacent frequencies.

Thomas from SWLing linked a nice YouTube review from a guy named Chris who put one of these kits together, nice overview. Chris also had missing resistors.

 

[Branbolio]

Any other reviews up of the Ccrane Skywave? Any members here get one yet?

 

[Lit Up]

Any other reviews up of the Ccrane Skywave? Any members here get one yet?

I've had one for a few weeks now and currently listening to it. Happy with its performance for its given size. Anything in particular you wanted to know?

 

[StarHalo]

The new Sangean PR-D4W; AM/FM/Weather with Alert, adjustable AM/FM bandwidth, auto AM sensitivity "tracking", humane wake alarm, Li-Ion power, $69.

 

[Lebkuecher]

Another new product from Sangean.

It would be nice if Sangean would consider incorporating S.A.M.E. with these new weather radios. I wonder why they didn't?

Sangean Emergency/Hand Crank Emergency Alert Radio MMR-88

• Public Alert Certified Weather Alert Radio
• DSP Digital AM/FM/WX Tuner
• 19 Pre-sets (mixed AM/FM)
• Charge by Hand Crank, USB or Solar Power
• Bright Backlit LCD Display
• Adjustable LED Flashlight (Hi, Low, Blinking, SOS Morse Code)
• Stereo Headphone output
• Built-in high efficient speaker
• Built-in Clock
• Emergency Buzzer
• 4 Level Battery indication monitor
• 90 Minute Auto Shut-Off Feature
• DC Out (5V/0.3A) USB A Type Socket for Charging Mobile Phone or MP3 Device
• DC In (5V/0.5A) Micro USB B Type Socket for Charging the MMR-88
• USB A to Micro B Cable & Hand strap included

 

[Bimmerboy]

Still lurking. Thanks for the continued info.

 

[5S8Zh5]

Got an email from radiojayallen and his review of the new Eton Mini is coming soon.

Coming Soon: Eton Mini: Priced at a cool $44.99 but available online at $39.99, Eton's new mini offers AM, FM and Shortwave capability…but how does it compare with the slightly pricier CC Pocket and Sangean DT-4ooW? Stay tuned…a full review is on the way!

 

[Monocrom]

Got an email from radiojayallen and his review of the new Eton Mini is coming soon.

No memory feature. That was good enough for me to take the Mini off my buy list.

 

[Lebkuecher]

The Eton Mini is not a bad radio but I can't see the Mini going head to head with CC Pocket unless SW is a must for the user. Even as a SW radio I wouldn't say the Eton Mini is a must have radio, the step tuner and the number of turns needed to cover the range within the two shortwave groupings make the radio a hassle to use for SW. I also think Eton should have put a hinge on the antenna; there is no way to adjust the antenna to stand straight up if the radio is lying at an angle. The sound using earphones is good but the speaker is just OK, a little better then what you might expect from a radio that size. I'm just guessing here but I think Jay will give the radio decent marks on sensitivity for a radio that size but will be quick to point out there is no way to fine tune a station once you find one.

 

[Flying Turtle]

My bedside and travel favorite, a Sony ICF 7600D, given to me by my uncle about twenty years ago, suddenly died the other day. Something in it must have shorted out and leaked its vital juices. I thought at first it was battery leakage, but unfortunately it seems to be something else. Now I'm looking for something new. I've always said to myself that if this happened a new ICF 7600GR would be the choice, but I'm intrigued by the SkyWave. Its size would be nice for travel, and the aircraft band would be something different. Price is better, too, but that's not a big factor. After years with the Sony I kind of think another is in order, but will it be noticeably better? Probably not for my uses. Most of the time I listen to FM, with just a bit of AM and SW dxing.

Thanks for any opinions. Maybe like lights I should just buy both.

Geoff

 

[StarHalo]

Thanks for any opinions. Maybe like lights I should just buy both.

Still happy with my 7600GR nearly a decade into its bedside duty. The caveat with the GR is that its selling point is really the sync, which is not of much help if you're mostly listening to FM. For that kind of casual listening I would look for something with more focus on the speaker, like the CCRadio2E..

 

[5S8Zh5]

I used to listen to my CCRadioplus every day. It's hooked up to a C. Crane FM Reflect Antenna ($34.25) to receive the FM station I listen to. I haven't used it since I got my countycomm GP5DSP. This thing has exceptional reception. The display shows signal strength in db micro volts, received signal to noise ratio. You know how radio reception gets better when you are holding the radio? Or move your hand close to it? I can see the signal increase with the digital display - very cool. Great spoken word sound. I've got 3 eneloop AAs in there.

 

[more_vampires]

You know how radio reception gets better when you are holding the radio? Or move your hand close to it?

I used to touch a wedding ring to a telescoping antenna in a pocket size. Worked wonders. In any kind of high power circuit you're really not supposed to do that, wear one, or anything like that.

Back when I was married, I found it to work for small pocket shortwave.

 

[timbo114]

Hey timbo114

How's your A6 holding up and did you see a noticeable difference with the batteries your ordered?

*update
A6 running strong, still on my 1st charge of the Nokia BL 5C !

I've added Led Zeppelin I II III 2014 Deluxe remasters to the micro SD.
I gotta tell ya, I've been missing out for many years on the passive radiator speaker set ups!

This thing amazes me each time I listen to it.