On May 2, 12:00 pm, wrote:
Thing about those cheap wind up radios (and similar gadgets) is the
cheap wind up springs might fail when you need to use the radio in
emergency situations.A set of quality Alkaline batterieswww.rayovac.com should hold their charge while sitting in storage for
about a year.Then you can use those batteries in storage in something
else and put another fresh set of batteries in storage.
cuhulin

I really like the "Freeplay" brand of wind-up radios; their spring
design seems sturdier than any of the others. The original models
ran on spring power driving a generator only, so there were no
NiMH batteries to charge/discharge and eventually wear out like
the later ones have (& I think all the competitors). The very first
one marketed here had an SW band, but there were also AM/FM
only models; I have some and have given some as presents, in
addition to later-generation Freeplay models. Some of those have
solar cells and can operate in bright light without winding.

There is one digital-readout wind-up AM/FM/SW model that I bought
a sample of to try and want to caution people against -- the Kaito
KA-008. It just doesn't work worth diddly. The digital display eats
up too much power for that usage -- it has a clock, which of course
constantly loses the time. The AM (MW) band performance is
pathetic -- absolutely no selectivity and strong stations cover many
many kHz swaths, making the advantages of digital readout
worthless. Even installing alkaline batteries, they're drained
quickly even if the radio is off. I was able to get a few strong SW
stations but no better than one of the little "toy" cheapies.

It has an analog readout twin, the Kaito KA-009 -- I was wondering
if anyone has one of these and can offer comments on it.

73, Will