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Emergency Preparedness - 3 Important Needs, One Small Radio
Though upon arrival, I had expected a larger Emergency Radio The Grundig FR200 did not disappoint for it's relatively moderate price the little lightweight radio contains some great features: A tiny built-in flashlight that sheds a fairly decent illumnation to find the kids; the pets a fuse or breaker box and find your shoes. 4 billion radio stations (Imagine, I could even listen to my AM news station with great clarity); a manual power crank to use alone or to charge an Ni-MH rechargable battery. Purchase the 4.5 V AC adapter, for this model or use 3 AA batteries. ((eton) Grundig has many models to suit your needs). FR 200 has an earphone jack, carrying case, instructions and limited warranty. Buy a few, or many for family, friends, keep in car basement, bedrooms, garage, bathroom, anywhere you may need a little extra security. Grundig FR200 Emergency Radio Great radio. I listen to AM at night and it brings in more channels than any other radio I have ever owned. Cranking is for emergencies only. Battery power is much easier. Only Problem is You Won't want to Relegate it to the Emergency Box We got this as a public radio premium two years ago and I have been happily using it as a radio in non-emergency situations. I really just enjoy it as a portable radio, but we really need to get one for the Big One, because the radio is always inside, and will end up under a pile of rubble because I can't bear to part with it as an emergency supply. The sound has nice clarity and it gets decent reception. I use it with rechargable batteries (NiMH) and it takes 3 AA batteries and runs forever on them. When I have used the crank, it worked OK, but I would guess that newer versions of hand crank radios might have more power per crank. I counted about 100 turns ran it for 5 minutes or so. I have plenty of AA batteries set aside for the Big One, so I don't think this will be a problem. But if it were, I think my arm would get pretty tired. Also, I really need to buy another one so I am not fishing this one out of the rubble!! I'll tell you, if I did, I would give you even odds it would still work! BTW, we have the original brown one, but I believe the guts are all the same. looks like a toy Really, I was amazed how little this radio is, but it seems to work. My boyfriend cranked it for perhaps 45 seconds, and he got a short wave station or two, and some am stations. We have yet to give it a real test, but so far it looks promising. The light went on, and we had reception. Living on the coast of Maine, we seem to lose power a couple of times a month, every time the wind blows hard. So it's a comfort to have this little but apparently nicely functional crank radio. Good for emergency; watch out for crank I bought this radio intended only for emergency use, and it served its purpose well in a recent wind storm, in which our power was out for 72 hours. Without TV and the web, our only news info from outside world came from the radio, and we used the Grundig almost continuously during our waking hours. With a bit of cranking during commercial breaks, we were able to have the radio on at a fair volume. We tried FM, which is always problematic in my location, and it handled it fine. It really shined on AM however, and as we were looking for news and information more so than entertainment, the AM news radio station was on most of the time. The only drawback was that the crank came off half way through our 72 hours, with its axle-like pin coming out of the plastic socket. We were able to hobble along by pinning it back down and cranking gently, but I would like to see stronger reinforcement at the crank. I should point out that we were never able to achieve the listening time per 90 sec crank that they advertised, but my radio was old and have been left unused for a few years, unsure whether that made the difference. | |
