Emergency AM/FM radio

[Sub_Umbra]

We all have plenty of light for emergencies and blackouts. But what about AM/FM radios. Any use AA batteries that we all have available?

<OT>
Forgive me. IMO it's a mistake to base your emergency radio choice on cell type alone. If things get bad enough your radio(s) may be your only contact with the civilized world. There are only two really serious contenders for emergency AM/FM radios: The GE Superadio III and the CCRadio Plus. It is nearly impossible to buy better DX rigs at any price. ~$60 and $165 respectively. Either one will put you in good stead.

If you wake up one morning and find that you have been hit by something so bad that it knocked out every single local AM and FM station in your area you will be glad you thought about that ahead of time. I was. Just get the best -- it doesn't cost that much. The GE SR III will run +400 hours on one set of batteries -- no big deal. The CCRadio Plus will run +250 hours on one feeding. We're not talking about stocking a whole room full of D cells...

When the going gets weird, the weird DX.
</OT>

[justsomeguy]

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Making any cheap AM radio into a DX (long distance) monster is easy with an easy to build Tuned Loop Antenna. A pocket size one can be made using several ferrite antenna rods and the tuning capacitor from some junk AM radios and a couple of feet of wire. The antenna inductively couples to the small ferrite rod antenna in the radio you are using.

To learn how loop antennas work, read the loop articles at Werner Funkenhausers Whamlog site....

http://www.dobe.com/wts/funk/page6.html#simple

Steve

[Sub_Umbra]

...Making any cheap AM radio into a DX (long distance) monster is easy with an easy to build Tuned Loop Antenna. A pocket size one can be made using several ferrite antenna rods and the tuning capacitor from some junk AM radios and a couple of feet of wire. The antenna inductively couples to the small ferrite rod antenna in the radio you are using.

To learn how loop antennas work, read the loop articles at Werner Funkenhausers Whamlog site....

http://www.dobe.com/wts/funk/page6.html#simple

Just adding an antenna to any old AM radio can only produce limited improvement. The key to DX reception in the Medium Wave band is not more powerful signal but the ablility to null out unwanted signals so you may discern what you actually want to hear. A radio with a built in crappy antenna coupled to a bigger antenna sounds like it should work but the problem is that no matter how good the add-on antenna is, it's always going to be fighting the crap that the radio's own antenna is picking up -- and it won't really work that well. It's not so much that you always need more signal as much as you need to dump the interfering signals. The folks selling add-on antennas won't tell you that.

What is needed is a good ferrite antenna in the neighborhood of 8" in length ( like the GE SR III or CCRadio Plus. These antennas may provide the deep nulls necessary to notch out interfering signals for superior DX reception.

Sad but true.

[justsomeguy]

Well....Sub Umbra, I guess I agree with some of that but not with most. People have been using inductively coupled air core loops like most of the ones at the Werner Funkenhauser site since the beginning of radio.

Many, maybe even most, serious MWBCB (midwave broadcast band = AM radio) radio DX listeners use them regularly. Most are homebrew and cost very little but some are expensive and amplified like the Kiowa and Palomar ones. The commonest commercial one is the Select-a-tenna I guess.

All loop antennas are directional. All loop antennas attenuate (reduce) the signal on the sides of the loop and bring in most signal from the direction the turns of the loop are pointing.

All portable MWBCB radios I know off use an internal ferrite loopstick antenna. That's why the radio will get louder when you turn it so the antenna faces the signal. The longer (and fatter to a lesser extent) the ferrite rod and winding, the more sensitive it will be. I think the maximum practical length for a rod is about 12-15 inches, depending on details of construction.

Since this thread is about small portables, I suggest making a bundle of ferrite rods from junk radios bound together with tape so that the rod is made of enough rods to be 3 rods "thick" and about 6" long. The inductor (coils of wire around the rod) should be spaced to cover the whole rod and the number of turns should be enough to make the required inductance to match the junk tuning capacitor that is being used. That takes some trial an error. The whole thing can be put into some plastic tubing to make a neat job. PVC with end caps works OK. The tuning knob can be on one of the end caps. This will be a much more sensitive antenna than one 1-2" long ones like most small portables have and still be able to fit into a backpack or pocket.

Antennas like I describe have the most benefit during the day because MWBCB signals propigate better at night.

I have a GE Super Radio and it is very good; however, even it can benefit from a larger loopstick or aircore loop. The internal and external antennas can be placed at different angles to one another to achieve improved nulls. Since the loops are inductively coupled they can be placed further apart to decrease coupling in case of overload.

Anyway....just some ideas.

BTW, I was spelling everything out instead of using jargon so that other readers could get it better not specifically for you.

Steve

[Sub_Umbra]

...Many, maybe even most, serious MWBCB (midwave broadcast band = AM radio) radio DX listeners use them regularly. Most are homebrew and cost very little but some are expensive and amplified like the Kiowa and Palomar ones. The commonest commercial one is the Select-a-tenna I guess.

All loop antennas are directional. All loop antennas attenuate (reduce) the signal on the sides of the loop and bring in most signal from the direction the turns of the loop are pointing....

I've bought or built most of the antenna types you mention and used them for years. My all time favorite is the Kiwa Pocket Loop.

Of course they are directional -- I said as much in my post. What makes them work are the deep nulls they provide for blocking signals. The truth is that the cheap antenna on most radios is not very directional. That means that it picks up many things that you don't want to hear. Any add-on antenna will do nothing to reduce the noise brought into the radio by it's own cruddy antenna, no matter how good an add-on antenna it is. The only way to get the most out of an add-on antenna for AM is to use it with something like a car radio that has no antenna of it's own. I've done that with fairly good results, but there are very few AM radios without built in antennas. I know of none in the class you mention.

Another reason that just any cheap AM radio with an antenna added can not perform like a GE SR III is because of the latter's design which incorporates multiple tuned IF stages in both AM and FM. That is nothing to sneeze at.

For the price of a GE SR III (or even quite a few times the price of one) there is no way to equal it's performance with an ordinary AM radio and ANY add-on antenna and there's no reason to except for hobbyists, but this isn't a thread about the hobby. It is about emergency radios and I'll have to stand by my advice in my first post to not choose an emergency radio based on cell type alone. We can disagree on this -- It' OK.

[Icebreak]

I was reading this thread last night and decided to take apart a 40 year old radio I found at my parent's house and see if I could make it work again. I didn't have contact cleaner so I used rubbing alcohol to clean things up.

It works. Panasonic RF - 590. 4 C cells or AC. Been having some fun with it.



Now I want to get one or two that have been discussed here.

[Colinaty]

We all have plenty of light for emergencies and blackouts. But what about AM/FM radios. Any use AA batteries that we all have available?

[LEDAdd1ct]

A great 1x AA radio is the Sony SRF-59 FM/AM Radio Walkman (with headphones) around $16-$18. Battery is supposed to last (I would say, at least) 100-140 hours.


The '59 is a bare bones basic 1x AA analog radio that is very similar to an earlier version that I have used for around 10 years while mowing lawns and working. I have gone through a dozen worn out (and torn out) head phone cords and finally had the headphone socket simply wear out. Radio is sensitive and sounds good. I purchased three more for emergencies.

-Bill

As has been mentioned earlier, if you can use a radio that requires headphones, the Sony srf-59 pocket radio can't be beat. Good AM and FM reception and excellent sound, and it runs a long time on one AA cell. The Sony pocket radios use a proprietary IC and they won't give it to OEMs.
http://www.circuitcity.com/rpsm/oid/...etailReview.do
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...6JQ06?v=glance

I would like to add to this by stating the Sony SRF-59 would be my choice for an emergency AM/FM radio. One of my other hobbies is FM radio, and because of its diminutive size, long battery life, and high sensitivity, the SRF-59 gets my vote as well. Three caveats:

1) Selectivity on this unit is not the best, so in crowded FM markets, you will have trouble separating stations. However, in an emergency, you want to get something, and most likely will not care what or from where.

2) The tuning dial is very, very small, and can be difficult to place precisely where you want it. Patience and a steady hand, though not required, are recommended.

3) Never put an alkaline battery in your SRF-59 for long-term storage! You will return to a leaked cell and potentially ruined receiver. An Energizer AA lithium will work beautifully in this application, protecting your unit from alkaline puke and giving a very long runtime off one single AA battery.

Google "SRF-59" and you will find plenty of places to buy them. Do not pay more than $15, or you are getting ripped off. At this low price, there is every reason to pick one up and keep it handy for work, travel, play, or "you never know..." type situations. The fact it requires just one AA is truly icing on the cake.

Enjoy!


LEDAdd1ct

[PhotonWrangler]

If you're using a smaller analog transistor radio, you can power it with this solar panel from Harbor Freight. It provides just enough current in bright sunlight to power a radio using headphones. Two of these wired in parallel will provide enough current to drive a small loudspeaker with decent volume.

[lunchboxtheman]

I've been considering purchasing a good emergency radio. I had one back in the day that had TV bands on it but I've since misplaced it.

Something I've been thinking about that I can't find any solid information on is emergency radios that can receive the new digital TV stations. The old analog bands no longer work and I can't find an emergency radio that will pick up the new digital signals. Maybe I'm looking for the wrong thing though. Can any of you radio gurus shed some light?

[PhotonWrangler]

That's an interesting question. I haven't seen any DTV-band radios yet. Honestly they're still hammering out issues with portable DTV reception, having gone through many iterations of tuner design as they try to correct for multipath reception issues.

[Lynx_Arc]

I've been considering purchasing a good emergency radio. I had one back in the day that had TV bands on it but I've since misplaced it.

Something I've been thinking about that I can't find any solid information on is emergency radios that can receive the new digital TV stations. The old analog bands no longer work and I can't find an emergency radio that will pick up the new digital signals. Maybe I'm looking for the wrong thing though. Can any of you radio gurus shed some light?

I don't think there is any radios with digital tv tuners yet as that would require an additional circuit to decode the audio track and downmix it to 1-2 channels as DTV is 5.1 I believe. My advice is to skip the DTV type radio and invest in a small digital tv set if you have the funds. I have a 12v powered dtv tuner and can hook it up to my portable dvd player in an outage if needed.
I watch dtv myself, no cable and had to make an antenna to receive stations as rabbit ears and UHF antennas could only get half the channels I was getting before.

[StarHalo]

Something I've been thinking about that I can't find any solid information on is emergency radios that can receive the new digital TV stations.

There aren't any; a digital TV tuner would make the radio much larger/heavier, and would require a notebook PC-style battery pack just to turn it on.

The portable TV option mentioned above is workable as long as digital TV reception is good in your area; bear in mind that if you're not too close to a city, you're going to have to hook up a large or maybe even outdoor antenna to get it to work at all. Battery life will also be unimpressive, most portable TVs give you 3-4 hours tops.

Another option we've discussed elsewhere would be to get one of the converter boxes, build a battery pack for it, and connect portable speakers to it - this would effectively be a digital TV radio for ~$50, though you'd have to know how to navigate through the interface non-visually..

My pick for best emergency radio has remained the same for the last several years:

The Sony ICF-B05W



Standing at just over 7 inches tall, it features an AM/FM/Weather band analog tuner, a hand-crank generator that will power the AM band for one hour for one minute of cranking, an LED light with a high and low setting, a water resistant case, and best of all: it's powered by *two C cells* for a total AM runtime of 355 HOURS.

In my five-day power outage ordeal, I found that I left the radio on pretty much nonstop in the waking hours, not just for news but to provide entertainment and generally keep up morale. This radio, if used for 16 hours a day will last *over 22 days* on a single pair of batteries, and even then you still have the option to crank.

[Lynx_Arc]

There aren't any; a digital TV tuner would make the radio much larger/heavier, and would require a notebook PC-style battery pack just to turn it on.

The portable TV option mentioned above is workable as long as digital TV reception is good in your area; bear in mind that if you're not too close to a city, you're going to have to hook up a large or maybe even outdoor antenna to get it to work at all. Battery life will also be unimpressive, most portable TVs give you 3-4 hours tops.

Another option we've discussed elsewhere would be to get one of the converter boxes, build a battery pack for it, and connect portable speakers to it - this would effectively be a digital TV radio for ~$50, though you'd have to know how to navigate through the interface non-visually..

My pick for best emergency radio has remained the same for the last several years:

The problem with trying to use a DTV tuner without a tv is it may lose all memory after being without power for months in storage and trying to program in or search for the channels would require you to know the menu structure to get to the screen subsection etc to start it. I have a dtv tuner made by Artec that has a standard dc input jack and uses 12v input so it would run off a car battery easily. I believe it takes 500ma. I was reading another forum about people that have modded other DTV boxes to use 6v or so as some have 5vdc inner power supplies. If you were to have a big power outage there would be station(s) that would cover it on AM most likely (talk radio) and possibly even FM a less amount. The 4 day outage we had I listened to a talk radio station and to be honest I am glad I did not listen to a tv station because most of the shows on listening to them is irritating wondering what is going on.

[lunchboxtheman]

My advice is to skip the DTV type radio and invest in a small digital tv set if you have the funds. I have a 12v powered dtv tuner and can hook it up to my portable dvd player in an outage if needed.

That's a really good idea. I've been looking for a small TV for the kitchen, so I could kill two birds with one stone. I've noticed that a lot of them have built-in batteries and take a 12v connection, which my car so conveniently has a jack for if I ever needed it. Building a 12v pack wouldn't be difficult either... god knows I've got enough batteries lying around.

[PhotonWrangler]

There are a number of 7" battery powered DTV sets going for around $80. If they added an AM/FM radio to them you'd have the best of both worlds, sort of. In fact you'd have an AM/FM radio that went through batteries really fast.

[Groundhog]

There aren't any; a digital TV tuner would make the radio much larger/heavier, and would require a notebook PC-style battery pack just to turn it on.

The portable TV option mentioned above is workable as long as digital TV reception is good in your area; bear in mind that if you're not too close to a city, you're going to have to hook up a large or maybe even outdoor antenna to get it to work at all. Battery life will also be unimpressive, most portable TVs give you 3-4 hours tops.

Another option we've discussed elsewhere would be to get one of the converter boxes, build a battery pack for it, and connect portable speakers to it - this would effectively be a digital TV radio for ~$50, though you'd have to know how to navigate through the interface non-visually..

My pick for best emergency radio has remained the same for the last several years:

Cool little radio. Was tempted to buy one but they are tough to find - and when you do find it? Why - it can be yours for the low price of $179.98. Chump change you say? No worries - as you can buy the exact same radio from another seller for a mere $269.99.

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Emergency...G8/ref=lh_ni_t

[mvyrmnd]

I'm sorely tempted by the Eton Raptor, but mostly because I'm a gadget nerd. Someone talk me out of it!

[PhotonWrangler]

I've recently purchased a Grundig Traveler II Digital at RS for around $50 and so far I like it. The radio has AM/FM/SW bands on it. I haven't done a battery runtime test but I do like it's sensitivity. It's able to pull in some distant stations far better than some other handheld radios I've tried.

[StarHalo]

Cool little radio. Was tempted to buy one but they are tough to find - and when you do find it? Why - it can be yours for the low price of $179.98.

It was discontinued, so the Amazon prices are all over the place. If you can find a copy, it shouldn't be more than $40.

I'm sorely tempted by the Eton Raptor, but mostly because I'm a gadget nerd. Someone talk me out of it!

It's fine if you just want it for a toy, but be aware that it has no provision for batteries, so it's definitely not for emergencies.

I've recently purchased a Grundig Traveler II Digital at RS for around $50 and so far I like it. The radio has AM/FM/SW bands on it. I haven't done a battery runtime test but I do like it's sensitivity. It's able to pull in some distant stations far better than some other handheld radios I've tried.

Don't forget the pocket reel antenna, more than double your stations for ten bucks..

[PhotonWrangler]

Don't forget the pocket reel antenna, more than double your stations for ten bucks..

Thanks for the tip, StarHalo. I will look for it.

[lasermax]

I use an ic-730 tranciever for emergency ham radio all you need is a license and a battery 30 amp battery
And a dipole with with a tuner

[Sub_Umbra]

We always have at least two AM/FM radio set up with AAs -- one is an ancient Sony IFC-SW20. We use it somewhere every day. For serious listening I still prefer our bigger radios with D cells -- the CCRadios and the GE SRIIIs

[Napalm]

If you're in North America Sangean CL-100 is and excellent AM/FM radio with weather alert. Works on mains power with 4xAA batteries backup.

As a portable solution I would look into an AA powered scanner that covers FM broadcast band.

If you're willing to go through the trouble of getting a ham radio license, you could have a portable transceiver with GPS and Weather alert. Check Kenwood TH-D72A for an example. With U.S. carpeted with 2 meter band repeaters, it's impossible not to be heard by someone.

Nap.

[Bobby_C]

I'm sorely tempted by the Eton Raptor, but mostly because I'm a gadget nerd. Someone talk me out of it!

It's fine if you just want it for a toy, but be aware that it has no provision for batteries, so it's definitely not for emergencies.

I have an older Eton Microlink FR150. It has a small NiMH battery pack that can be charged by a hand crank, usb, power cord or a solar panel on top. The reason I got one is because it came with weatherbands and is compact for camping and long distance moto trips. It lasts a pretty long time on a full charge. It's not a communications station but it's also not a toy. Reception is pretty good for a small device.

[gearhead1972]

I have a Dewalt work radio, that I have a dozen or so 18v batteries for. At least 3-6 of them are at or close to full charge at any given moment. The radio will last at a moderate volume about 24 hours on one battery. I can also hook my ipod up to it.

[Lynx_Arc]

I have a Dewalt work radio, that I have a dozen or so 18v batteries for. At least 3-6 of them are at or close to full charge at any given moment. The radio will last at a moderate volume about 24 hours on one battery. I can also hook my ipod up to it.

Having a nice boom box for a radio that has a DC input jack using a common voltage like 6v or 12v is nice. I ran my ancient boom box that uses 6D cells off a 6v sla at moderate levels when I wanted to listen to music.

[ncbill]

For non-local stations I have a boombox (8 D-cells or 12V input jack) for the portable satellite radio installed in my car.

In a power failure I just set it on the fireplace mantel and listen to Jack Benny.

[StarHalo]

Although I enjoy a good boombox, be aware that most of the 6-8 D units are lucky to make it ~20 hours on a set of batteries, which is about half as long as most 2xAA pocket radios can manage; big speakers are great for casual listening, but you might want to look elsewhere for an emergency unit.

[Bogie]

Just picked up a CCrane SW Pocket Radio great results so far with about a weeks usage.