I am after a portable radio that will run off mains & 18650”s or an internal lithium battery that I can charge up from a power bank.
I would like it to have DAB/FM/AM & being BLF not to expensive.
I do not like the “world band” type radios like the Tecsun, Sangean etc.
Any recommendations please ?
Digging on Aliexpress or Ebay not so many portables can do DAB. And they are ugly 
Personally I would like PL880 to have DAB too. Great little receiver.
Mike
This
This will be used for outside my camper van on trips away & at the beach whilst away & possibly whilst I am working outside.
I want to use either 18650”s or a built in lithium battery, rather than say eneloops, as I have a stack of cells & several 4 x 18650 power banks.
My mobile phone only has FM radio (& I would need to buy a speaker to go with it).
A radio would be a much neater solution I think.
Some of the out of the way places I go with the camper van DAB would be useful.
At work I like to listen to a sports station that broadcasts on AM.
There isn’t an app for that?
I’m sorry, I find myself using the phone for more things but my Doogee Titan2 is waterproof, sturdy and well just d@mn sexy (not my words but a Lady friend when she saw it) so a little more versatile then most phones and a lo nicer so finding excuses to use it are abundant 
(I would not trade mine for the newest iPhone Samsung or rot their all so boring and that reminds me, I should contact Doogee since they now only make horing phones, I hate those boring designs and if they are not not planning anything new I buy a new one and have a friend who is really great at electronics replace the memory chips with larger ones so it can be used later)
No idea if there is an app or not but would still mean getting a speaker & I don”t really want to use the phone.
I could do without DAB which improves the selection.
Well I hope others will kick in and help you since I can’t.
The DAB might be a problem, but for the rest you could use any suitable radio which takes common LiIon-sized cells (like the 10440 for AAA and 14500 for AA) then adjust the battery voltage to approximately equal what it originally took using cell spacers. Most radios are not terribly voltage sensitive so you probably have a +/- 1V range you can work with. Running the cells in series would mean more careful cell-matching and monitoring of the charge level, but given that it should be an excellent idea.
If you can find an early version, the Sangean ATS909/ Radio Shack DX 398 is a great compact AM-FM-LW-SW portable but the quality went off the cliff in later production. I love mine except that it eats AA cells like nothing I’ve ever seen. I had to top off the charges to test, but this radio works fine on 2*14500 Efest cells giving 8.2 V instead of the original 6V required. Now just to play with the runtime to see if that is improved.
Phil
Also to add- if you have the money and the luck to find one, the old General Electric 2880x “Super-Radios” are excellent AM/FM receivers and with them taking 6 D cells you’d have plenty of room to make use of larger sized LiIons.
Phil
Ive also been looking for something like this. I keep coming back to software defined radio and will probably end in probably a raspberry pi and some sort of screen and a sdr dongle
Don’t laugh, I bought the Tesco own brand DAB, it’s great! It take C cells so I run it from Eneloops in sleeves, it last hours and sound pretty good for its form. The other great thing that suits your needs is that it can run from a android type connection so wall wart or your power bank will be fine.
Doesn’t take 18650 as standard but it does run tho Eneloops right down so I think it would run off of one or two in parallel if you can bodge up the compartment to hold them.
into modding?
get this
and dremel out the area under the battery door and install a 18650 holder.then add a tp4056 board.
everything you want other than DAB.
i got mine new in box cheap at a rummage sale.its the same radio but with no name.the mod was easy.
next up is boring a hole for a 9led flashlight board loaded up with high cri leds……
Looks like SDR wins again SDR-J Decoding DAB Radio in Software using RTL-SDR
It is not the answer for op question.
sdr systems need a computer.does not fit my definition of portable.
There are sdr apps for android, and sdr setups that work with a raspberry pi, and arduino.
I use a Makita that takes the same lion battery packs as my Cordless tools. It has auxiliary inputs which I added a Bluetooth unit so I can keep my phone with me.
Available at home depot and other tool retailers.
all the sdr tricks will work but the power demands are unreasonable for emergency or outdoors use.like situations where you have to generate power yourself to charge batteries.
last thing i want in such a situation is to rely on a smartphone for anything.the aforementioned radio draws approx 40 ma at moderate volume.very easy to run it practically forever on a small solar panel.a laptop pull 2000 mah cell should run it for 50 hours.
mine is still going on a similar cell 45 hours later and the low light just came on.battery at 3.3v.thats on a fm station.
Go with a DAB/DAB+ compatible radio. On mainland Europe DAB is being replaced by DAB +.
Have a look at the Pure One. Main or battery pack. Looks like a 18650 could fit.
One Mi Series 2
http://www.pure.com/digital-radio/products/one-mi-series-2/black
ChargePAK A1
http://www.pure.com/accessories/chargepak-a1#Specifications-content
Rechargeable Lithium-Ion
Nominal Voltage: 3.7V
Capacity: Type: 2200mAh (from 4.20V to 2.40V cut-off at 440mAh)
I got myself a Pure One Classic, not as compact but fits C cells and has some nice features. Runs on Eneloop with AA/D cell adapter.
It doesn’t do DAB, but the current radio CountyCom sells is a nice portable AM/FM/FM Stereo/LW/SW radio. The FM really sounds great, which usually isn’t the case in radios like this. It takes three AA cells, so a single 14500 and two dummies should work great. It also has a micro USB input to run off of or recharge NiMH cells. I don’t know what it would do to a 14500 as far as recharging goes, but it will run off of a power bank. It comes with an external AM antenna and a long wire antenna for SW. At around $80 shipped it might be more than your budget, but it is a really nice radio, and to me, worth the money, especially for my BOB.