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.

On 9 Apr 2006 14:36:24 -0700, "WA4118SWL" wrote:

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


From the weather forecasters, I get the idea that you might be using
it quite a bit this year!! (Good luck, if they come through your
area.)

Bob

Thanks for your concern. According to Colorado State's William Gray,
the 2006 hurricane season will consist of 17 named tropical storms (an
average season has 9.6), 9 hurricanes (average is 5.9) and 5 major
hurricanes with winds exceeding 110mph (average is 2.3). In addition to
all this good news, he calculates that there's an 81% chance that at
least one major hurricane will hit the U.S. coast. So goes the easy
living here in the Sunshine State!

On Sun, 9 Apr 2006 21:36:24 UTC, "WA4118SWL"
wrote:

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.
Where are you located? I am in Martin County, Hobe Sound and I am
also hearing this hurricane season will be just a bad or worse. I
have two portables with batteries, an RF-2200 and a DX-440. I use my
old S-38 a lot for BCB DX and am getting a Lafayette HE-10, love the
old boatanchors.


--
"What do you mean there's no movie?"

I'm in Clearwater, Pinellas County.

On Mon, 10 Apr 2006 00:36:53 UTC, "WA4118SWL"
wrote:

I'm in Clearwater, Pinellas County.
My wife and I will be over there next weekend to pick up an old radio
and eat at Berne's! We are going to an old MOPAR meet in
Williamsburg, VA during July with our 1940 Royal Coupe and are going
to put up the panels before we go. I am getting tired of these
hurricanes, but don't mind the week or two out of school! I teach in
Palm Beach County Public schools.


--
"What do you mean there's no movie?"

I have owned two of these radios and both ended up being returned because
the sound volume knob started to get noisy after only a few months of daily
use. I used the radio at my office and it was never exposed to dusty or
damp conditions. To repair the radio would have cost me more for shipping
to Toronto Canada and back than I thought the radio was worth. It's too
bad, because I agree with everything else you said about this radio. It's a
great little portable with a convenient handle on top plus it's very good on
batteries. I'll bet there a lot more of these radios suffering the same
problem I experienced, but because they are usually kept in a closet for
limited emergency use, users will rarely discover the defect.

It's too bad this simple little radio couldn't be made with slightly better
components. At one time I was tempted to get an Eton FR300, but this
experience has soured my taste for this radio model family. I hope someone
at Grundig/Eton will come across this post!

I also own a Tecsun BCL3000 (who manufactures for Grundig) and it works as
well as I expected it to. It gets used daily and the sound volume knob
operation is smooth and quiet. I would recommend this radio as a very good
emergency radio. Easy on batteries and very sensitive.





"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.

"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

"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... "

Got links to pictures?

Has anyone else built a hand powered generator that is portable for
bugout use?

Thanks

TMT

"Too_Many_Tools" wrote in message
oups.com...
"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... "

Got links to pictures?

Has anyone else built a hand powered generator that is portable for
bugout use?

Thanks

TMT


Sorry, no pictures. (No digital camera.) When I get it working and
perfected I'll upload schematics etc. if anyone wants them. Right now it's
just an odd bunch of parts, looking for metal gears.

Dave