I pulled out my old Eton FR 300 and 400 after a few years of storage and found them covered in some sort of sticky film. It turns out that the plastic is breaking down. Its a common problem and Eton has a solution. Clean it with a decreasing product. Here
In doing this I broke a knob off :person_facepalming: So now I am looking for a new radio!
Anyone have one they recommend in the $25 - $30 range. My only real requirement is that it has WB and will pull in an AM/FM station. My Etons didn’t exactly have the best reception.
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 found at least one that runs off an 18650 but the old wire and special plug treatment was done to the battery so I cant simply pull one out and pop another in. I would have to attach the positive and negative wires to the 18650 if I wanted to change it.
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.
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.
Yea me to. I watched a review of this one and the only battery it operate off of is an 18350. I wonder why they choose the 18350, from the video it looks like there is plenty of room for an 18650 maybe 2.
I would have one in the mail it it ran off an 18650. I have a ton of those.
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 buy an new JB 18350 light to go along with 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.
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.
Thanks for the heads up I backed away from that Kaito brand. The good reviews seemed to be fake or from people who reviewed it by what it’s supposed to do not what it does.
