Been there done that with Eton….aka ‘Grundig’ aka ‘Tecsun’. I got a PR-D4W Sangean and have never looked back, fantastic reception. Best WB capable portable I have ever used and heard.

I wish there was one out there with everything built in, including a Micro SD or MP3 player for playing music from when there is no radio signals in the far back country. (with AM/FM Weather/SW, and rechargeable LiIon or external USB power.

I bought a SAST N520 a while back.
It has AM/FM/SW / TF a LED light and it uses a 18650 battery and a USB charger.
For 12.68 it might be worth a try.
Mine works OK but not great, SW is pretty weak but I might just need a better antenna.
https://www.tmart.com/SAST-N520-FM-Radio-Mini-TF-USB-MP3-Speaker-with-LED-Flashlight-Red_p363126.html
(The elder has the right to chase after fashion!)

bikenber73 wrote:

I am digging this one quite a bit. Over my budget but I am thinking it might be worth it. It can run off any 18350! Any 18350 so that’s good to know.

2 DOGS wrote:

I bought a SAST N520 a while back.
It has AM/FM/SW / TF a LED light and it uses a 18650 battery and a USB charger.
For 12.68 it might be worth a try.
Mine works OK but not great, SW is pretty weak but I might just need a better antenna.
https://www.tmart.com/SAST-N520-FM-Radio-Mini-TF-USB-MP3-Speaker-with-LED-Flashlight-Red_p363126.html
(The elder has the right to chase after fashion!)

I’m not enough of a radio guy to tell you.
It goes from 700 to 1900 meters.
I don’t know how that converts to megahertz.
Sorry.

2 DOGS wrote:

I’m not enough of a radio guy to tell you.
It goes from 700 to 1900 meters.
I don’t know how that converts to megahertz.
Sorry.

WX1 162.550 MHz 39B 7
WX2 162.400 MHz 36B 1
WX3 162.475 MHz 97B 4
WX4 162.425 MHz 96B 2
WX5 162.450 MHz 37B 3
WX6 162.500 MHz 38B 5
WX7 162.525 MHz 98B 6

The Google says that 162.400 + is VHF and doesn’t come in standard SW radios.

No – most SW receivers (or any other receivers unless specifically mentioned) do not cover NOAA WX/Weatherband.

bikenber73 wrote:

I ordered this one found one that’s refurbished and guaranteed for 90 days . I’ll just use it a bit to be sure it’s working. Maybe I’ll but an new JB 18350 light to go along withe it next month.

 Sadly the new stuff is just junk . Grundig as well as other sold out and are now made poorly in china, Their name was bought  or they just don't care any more . I have good old radios and wish for some added new technology added but who wants bad receive/poor sound quality and cheaply made junk that breaks after a few years . radio has followed in the Chinese footsteps of ( we can make it cheaper / work worse / break faster and you can sell your reputation, your good name and customer base down the river) .  Short wave reception on these radios is a joke . They add endless needless worthless items to these radios to try to add value .( Where's the seat belt cutter or the compass ) ?

 I'd like to modify a few older radios to run off of 18650's and add a charging circuit to the ones that take D size batteries .Plenty  of room to work with. Generally I opt for radios that run on AA's  since I have so many eneloop/rechargeables.

 the internet  killed radio 

bikenber73 wrote:

I ordered this one found one that’s refurbished and guaranteed for 90 days . I’ll just use it a bit to be sure it’s working. Maybe I’ll but an new JB 18350 light to go along withe it next month.

Need a few more 18350’s now!

Let us know how you like it – I’d be willing to bet you did well for the price.

I just bought the Kaito ka500L. It’s unbelievably cheaply built and I wouldn’t get another. It looks great on paper. The L suffix is for “Long Lasting”. Basically it’s a ka500 with a 18650 battery for “longer lasting” LOL. They beefed up the solar panel as well which means instead of some marginal POS that doesn’t tread water, it will very slowly charge. I left mine in the window and it charged up from 3.702 volts to 3.76 volts in a couple of cloudy days. Which, by way of reference, is less than if you turn the crank handle 20 times. Regardless, at $50 it’s a very cheaply build product, the knob to select AM/FM/SW is poorly designed in that the choices are so close together that the cheap little POS plastic knob they use makes choosing channels a chore. The first one I got didn’t have the AM working, Kaito customer service was supurb and they quickly traded that one for one that was working. The builtin light is also a piece of crap even when compared to the Midland ER200.

My thought is if you need a cheap radio, buy a cheap one, the Kaito KA500L isn’t “cheap” although it straddles the line on price between cheap and not cheap. The Tecsun PL880 (expensive) also has a 18650 battery (but no crank or no solar etc etc) and is in my view is worth the extra money ($100 more so $59 vs $159) if you want a solid SHTF radio. At least you know it will work when you pull it out at a critical moment when it’s most needed.

The portables I have run on AA’s in the radio or a 6 volt wall wart. Well they run just fine on 5 volts so I took one of those Folomov A1 chargers I think, the one with the magnetic doohicky’s that stick to the battery, cut a USB cord off an old mouse, cut a plug off an old wall wart, little solder and heat shrink later, custom cable that will run my radios off any Li-Ion cell. I use high cap 26650’s for lots of runtime.

Side note, SW bands normally start at 1.8mhz and continue to 30mhz.

i have a decent one by lacrosse (though some of their other stuff is junk)
it probably isn;t available now
runs on 3 AA batteries

wle

I purchased this Midland ER200 NOAA Weather radio several years ago. It’s a very nice little “do all” portable radio.

Runs on a replicable 18650 battery

https://midlandusa.com/product/er200-compact-emergency-crank-weather-radio/

I paid $27.69 for the ER200 a couple years back. It’s worth that and it’s a nice little radio. Not worth $60. You can’t simply drop a regular 18650 battery into it, there is a special connector which must be on the battery, and that connector is difficult to insert into the mating part on the radio without needlenose pliers. I think that detracts a lot, if you pull the radio out when you need it most (say the power is out) and the battery isn’t connected or needs to be traded out, you need one with a connector soldered on already and even then you’ll be monkeyf**ing around in the dark with it for a bit. I wish they had just left the battery as a 18650 (no connector). Buying a spare battery for it is expensive.

To their credit, Midland makes that process look easy (bottom link below), but trust me, even a small child’s fingers won’t fit in there. Old arthritic fingers even less so. Midlands list price for that battery is and insane $25. If you had the connector fitting I suppose you would make it yourself.

https://midlandusa.com/product/batt26l-rechargeable-battery/

https://midlandusa.staging.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/ER200-Battery-Installation-Instructions.pdf

bikenber73 wrote:

toddcshoe wrote:

The portables I have run on AA’s in the radio or a 6 volt wall wart. Well they run just fine on 5 volts so I took one of those Folomov A1 chargers I think, the one with the magnetic doohicky’s that stick to the battery, cut a USB cord off an old mouse, cut a plug off an old wall wart, little solder and heat shrink later, custom cable that will run my radios off any Li-Ion cell. I use high cap 26650’s for lots of runtime.

Side note, SW bands normally start at 1.8mhz and continue to 30mhz.

If you have time could I get a picture of this invention?

Thanks

Nothing fancy. This is the second one I made, kinda crude but functional. The other one is buried in my bag. I tried to use the Xtar PB2 charger/power bank but the radio doesn’t pull enough current to keep the PB2 on. It also works with one of those Li-100 chargers/power banks but it is a bit bulkier. The Folomov charging cable just fits in my bag better. Just had to make sure I had the polarity right on the plug for the radio. This radio requires center negative, but I can change the polarity of the plug by swapping the magnetic connections on the battery.

bikenber73 wrote:

That one was on my list I seems nice . If the Sangean MMR-88 is a dud I might get it.

Thanks

Boaz wrote:

They add endless needless worthless items to these radios to try to add value .( Where’s the seat belt cutter or the compass ) ?

This. ↗

When I see a simple radio that includes a flashlight, powerbank function, bluetoof connectivity to play t00nz from your phone, other idiotic crap, that screams to me that the radio in general is garbage, and they add all that other garbage to “add value”.

What’s sad is that people buy into it… and buy it.

If anyone cares, my “weather radio” is my scanner tuned with the NOAA freqs.

Miss the actual voice recordings, as the robots just sound creepy. “Uncanny valley”, and all…

If you don’t care about AM radio I’d probably recommend a Baofeng UV-5R for ~$25. You can specifically enter any frequency, including all of the weather channels, plus the standard FM radio frequencies. Even comes with a (poor) flashlight. Just program it to prevent it from transmitting if it’s not legal in your area.