Small portable radios?

paulr

Flashaholic
Joined
Mar 29, 2003
Messages
10,832
I'm thinking of adding a battery powered radio to my EDC travel kit in case of future power outages, earthquakes, etc.

Desired characteristics:

- It should be very small and light, though I'm willing to pay a moderate size/weight penalty if the radio has a speaker (as opposed to earphone-only).

- It should NOT have any dangling wires or cords to snag on things. I don't want a headphone radio where you plug headphones into it. I'm ok with a earphone radio where the radio is BUILT INTO the earphone (one solid piece, no wires)

- it would be nice if it can receive both AM and FM. However, single band is ok, with AM preferable.

- Preferably it should run on one or two AAA cells, since I'm leaning towards AAA's for all my gear (Arc AAA and PT Rage flashlights, Garmin Geko GPS, etc).

- A built-in LED flashlight would also be nice (I've seen radios with these a few times)

- It shouldn't be expensive, let's try to keep it under $20, preferably way under. I don't need digital scanning with 100 memories or anything like that.

- None of the above (except the "small size" thing which is a relative term) is a hard requirement, they're just things that are desirable.

Thanks for any suggestions.
 

avusblue

Enlightened
Joined
Nov 26, 2002
Messages
699
Location
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Hi Paul,

I think you're unlikely to find all you want at less than $20. I'd recommend the Sony SRF-M37V which is a very small Walkman radio. I use mine every day. It does require headphones, but the unit is VERY small and lightweight, has a good belt clip, easy to use AM/FM digital tuning, great reception, and can also receive weather band and TV audio as well (which may be a good thing for an emergency radio.) It sounds great, and uses 1 AAA which runs for 35 (!) hours -- pretty good!
B00008W7LS.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Best Buy and Target sell it for $30 (so you can go look at it) and Amazon sells it for 26 bucks with no tax and free shipping.

IMO, the small handheld "non-walkman-type" radios that have a built in speaker sound so bad, and cannot project enough volume, and consume batteries so much faster, that I say why bother with a speaker.

Good luck,

Dave
 

ikendu

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jun 30, 2001
Messages
1,853
Location
Iowa
paulr said: ...very small..speaker...AM and FM...AAA's

I have just such a radio that I carry whenever I travel. I got it from Radio Shack probably 10 years ago. It's about as big as a large fig newton or a little smaller than a small box of raisens. I later found the company that made it for Radio Shack...Sangean.

Here is a current Sangean AmFm AAA radio w/speaker

It works great for the small EDC radio role!
 

raggie33

*the raggedier*
Joined
Aug 11, 2003
Messages
13,453
i get my emergeny radios from discount stores for like 3 bucks or so. a course they sound awefull but serve there purpose to me for news and stuff or a football game
 

paulr

Flashaholic
Joined
Mar 29, 2003
Messages
10,832
Thanks, that Sangean SR-1 looks very nice but more expensive than I want to spend for something that I'd use so rarely.

I might check discount stores for something like this:

http://store.yahoo.com/americanesuperstore/cx-5-silver.html

but it's a little bit on the big side (even though I think those measurements are in cm and not inches).

I was pretty sure I'd once seen an earphone (one ear, not headphone) radio where the whole radio was built into the earplug, so it was tiny. That's the kind of thing I had in mind by earphone radio. I also remember seeing a radio built into a wristwatch (you had to plug in a normal earphone) though I wouldn't want to wear such a thing.

The purpose of a speaker is so more than one person can listen. Earphones don't really substitute. However, it does make the radio bigger, and earphone-only is better than nothing.
 

ikendu

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jun 30, 2001
Messages
1,853
Location
Iowa
paulr said: ...more expensive than I want

Radios built around AAAs are likely to be of the "tiny but pricey" type. I also own a very nice Jensen that uses 2 AAs that is larger (it's my power failure radio for the house) but still pretty compact and about $10.

Jensen Am/Fm/TV - AA - w/speaker

Got mine at Target.
 

brightnorm

Flashaholic
Joined
Oct 13, 2001
Messages
7,160
I EDC a tiny RShack radio that I've carried for years. It's 3" x 1.5" x .5", operates on one AAA. It sits on my belt next to my cellphone and I literally never leave home without it. I removed the wire and one earbud from a stereo pair and only use one ear so I'm fully aware of my surroundings. I walk around with it in my ear much of the time so I'm always current with news and my favorite talk shows. It came in especially handy once at the Denver airport when a tornado was bearing down, the tower was evacuated and we were all hunkered down on the floor of the UA VIP lounge and the customer rep and I were the only ones who knew what was going on.

I tried a small radio with speaker but soon realized that the sacrifice in size, weight, runtime and convenience wasn't worth the inadequte distorted sound. For convenient and constant access EDC a non-speaker type radio is best, though a larger one might be appropriate for your pack.

Unfortunately the model I EDC is no longer available.

Brightnorm.
 

paulr

Flashaholic
Joined
Mar 29, 2003
Messages
10,832
I guess the small earbud radio is the way to go. There are a number of those that are pretty cheap. I was afraid of the wire snagging on something in my pack, but I the solution is to just wrap a fabric or tyvek pouch around everything when not in use. Thanks.
 

tsg68

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Mar 1, 2003
Messages
1,248
Location
Breukelen, NY established 1646
I recently bought two of the Sangean SR-1's from this site for $29.95 and I must say they are extremely compact and of very good quality for the size. The site is Canadian but sells them for about $10 less than American dealers the shipping is very quick too, DHL got here in two days.

The radios are AM/FM with a FM stereo setting (for the earbuds) and come with very good quality earbuds (the right one on a longer wire than the left, for use as a single earbud like Brightnorm uses) the speaker is pretty nice with great sound quality for such a tiny radio. I'd have to say they are worth the money. My dad told me that Sangean is a very reputable manufacturer and he has a shortwave radio by them that he loves. They have quite a few models of radios and portables that also have shortwave and UHF/VHF reception.

Just thought I would give a quick little review.

TSG /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 

Double_A

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jul 15, 2003
Messages
2,042
tsg68-

A question for you, do you know how long it last on a fresh battery using the speaker? How about when using the earbuds?


GregR
 

Kristofg

Enlightened
Joined
Apr 7, 2003
Messages
355
Location
Belgium
Have you thought about one of those freeplay models? They don't need batteries at all and thus provide unlimited playing time.

I combined a sony walkman with one of those solar charging garden lights to skip the battery problem.
 

avusblue

Enlightened
Joined
Nov 26, 2002
Messages
699
Location
Saint Paul, Minnesota
In addition to your EDC / go-bag "very small" radio need that started this thread, I think that every household oughta have a portable radio powered by D cells that provides long runtime and decent audio.

For this need, I can highly recommend the GE Superadio III. Outstanding AM (and FM) performance and a good sounding speaker. Not very expensive either. I have one on my desk that is always left on, and another at home that I use in the bathroom and around the house on 6-D batteries which seem to last forever (like more than a YEAR of daily intermittent use). It's model number 7-2887A. They are very well liked by radio enthusiasts -- it must be special when it has its own fansites! You can find out more about them here: The GE Superadio III FAQ Page Also, there are many user reviews of this radio at Amazon. And finally, here's a place to buy one for $39.50

B00000J061.01.LZZZZZZZ.gif


Be prepared . . . .

Dave
 

paulr

Flashaholic
Joined
Mar 29, 2003
Messages
10,832
Thanks for the Superadio link. I hadn't thought about buying a big radio like that since I already have a random am/fm/cassette boom box that works pretty well. But it occurs to me the Superadio might be a good candidate for modding to take an aux input to plug in a cd/mp3 player. I don't know of any inexpensive boom boxes with that feature.

The Sangean receiver does look good but is way too expensive for the purpose I had in mind for it (it would get very infrequent use). There are some slightly bigger radios around in the $5 range and I'll probably pick one up even though it won't be as nice.
 

paulr

Flashaholic
Joined
Mar 29, 2003
Messages
10,832
Crosspost from a newer thread:

I just bought a couple of cheap FM-only earphone radios, 1 for $2.99 or 2/$5.00 at Walgreens. They run on two AAA's and are the size of a pager and have a belt clip. They're not as small as they could be, but they're very lightweight. The guts are on a 1"x2" PC board with a lot of analog through-hole components. These guys didn't use a ten-cent part if they could use nine one-cent parts instead. But about half the space is used by the 2aaa battery compartment. Overall, it's about 2.5" squareish and 1/2" thick. I bet you could repackage the PC board in about third of the total space, by using a coin cell instead of the two AAA's and ditching the plastic shell (just wrap some tape around it or something). A less drastic mod would be to just cut off the AAA compartment and take off the belt clip, use the existing plastic shell and knobs around the rest of the board, and power it with a coin cell taped on the back. A CR2450 coin cell should last maybe 2/3 as long as a pair of alkaline AAA's, which is probably tens of hours in a tiny thing like this. Further space savings can be had (as someone in the other thread mentioned) by separating the two stereo earbuds and throwing away one of them with its accompanying wire. In the more drastic mod, you'd also dump the plug and socket for the earphone, and just direct solder the wire. This is all for a $2.50 radio so you're not exactly destroying an expensive piece of equipment with such a mod.

Back when I was a little kid there were all kinds of ultra-miniature radios available, that fit in pens, wristwatches, and whatever. I can't seem to find those any more. I don't know why. With surface-mount parts and a coin cell instead of that through-hole stuff and AAA's, the little Walgreen's radio could be the size of a matchbook.

FWIW, the radios I got look like same as the one in this package: http://store.yahoo.com/tressasvillage1/waraw.html

Also, it looks like Brightnorm's 1AAA radio is this one. It's much nicer than the cheapies I just got, but about the same total size.

Edit: oh my, this looks like the same radio I got but with the addition of a built in (LED?) flashlight, $2.39 in quantity with your logo printed on:
http://www.logoinc.com/Specials/LogoRadioSpecialPam.htm
 

DaveT

Enlightened
Joined
Jul 17, 2003
Messages
475
Location
NE Ohio
I'll second avusblue on the little Sony radio - I replaced the headphones with earbuds, and it fits very compactly in a pocket, I carry it every day, and it's how (while stuck in the subway during the blackout) I found out the blackout was more widespread, and not likely to be fixed soon. 1010 WINS, the giant news station, was off the air, but WNYC (local public radio) was still broadcasting and able to clear up a lot of the confusion. Some people were still waiting on the platform for the next train - I had to convince them there wasn't going to be one.
A good EDC choice.
Dave
 

avusblue

Enlightened
Joined
Nov 26, 2002
Messages
699
Location
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Dave, I agree. I've been using the Sony as an EDC for over six months now and am AMAZED by how long the battery lasts. When I'm traveling and not sure of what stations to listen to, I like that I can receive weatherband and TV audio with this radio. I also appreciate the little "hold" switch to lockout button pushes or accidental turn-ons.

Again, it earns my highest recommendation, especially considering its very reasonable price.

Cheers,

Dave
 

Harrkev

Enlightened
Joined
Aug 30, 2001
Messages
443
Location
Colorado Springs, CO
If you don't mind going "ultra deluxe," you might want to try one of these:

http://www.yaesu.com/indexVS.cfm?cmd=DisplayProducts&ProdCatID=103&encProdID=rHqQH%2FVccfo%3D&DivisionID=65&isArchived=0

It is a LOT more than $20, but worh it. And it DOES have digital scanning with hundreds of memories. Picks up AM, FM, weather, TV, shorwave, police/fire/EMS, corless phones, Throw in a long-wire antenna, and you are set for anything...

But this is an item for a the descriminating customer. It is the "surefulre" of hand-held radios.

Here is what I carry every day (it also transmits):
http://www.kenwood.net/indexKenwood.cfm?do=ProductDetails&ProdID=5019&Group=5
 

paulr

Flashaholic
Joined
Mar 29, 2003
Messages
10,832
The Sony does look nice. It's a little larger than the $2.50 thing I just got, but it has AM, digital display, presets, and I'm sure it's built a lot better. I'd buy it if I wanted a general purpose radio walkman but I already have a cd/mp3/am/fm walkman that I use when I want to bring music along (say on a long bus trip).

The Yaesu as you mention is the Surefire of hand-held radios, super quality and capability but way too big for this purpose. I'm looking for something more like the Photon II of radios, or maybe the Arc AAA of radios at most.

I put a partly-drained pair of AAA NiMH cells from my PT Blast into the $2.50 radio last night and it's been running all night and still going fine into my big Sony headphones. So a pair of alkalines should last at least 12 hours, maybe several times that. I guess that's plenty for this kind of thing.

On the other hand, the headphone connectors (1/8" stereo plug and jack) in this thing are extremely flaky, both the internal jack and the plug on the earbuds. Jiggle the wire slightly and the sound cuts out. I haven't opened the second unit to see if it's better. Right now I have my big Sony headphones plugged into the first unit and that's a bit more reliable, and the radio does drive those headphones at reasonable levels. Spraying in some contact cleaner might help, or I may just take the thing back to the store.

Humorous note: these things are sold under the "Lifelong (r)" brand and the package says something like "Lifelong (r) warranty included, details inside". Of course the warranty card inside is for one year. I just chuckle at this.
 
Top