A Portable Radio that WORKS
 

Thirty years ago, I remember regularly raising American and even Mexican and other foreign stations on a little handheld portable ladybug radio from this location in Western Canada.

Nowadays I have to rotate, relocate and adjust my portable radio every few minutes just to pick up the main LOCAL signals. The positions I have to hold in order to find distant signals just for a few moments would make you laugh. There is noisy static across the FM and AM bands.

I'm using an oversized Sony. It just doesn't cut the mustard, but most of the common stuff in electronics stores seems to be garbage. Can anyone here recommend a really KICK ASS PORTABLE RADIO that will actually pick up remote signals without crapping out every few minutes?

I am NOT interested in satellite radio.

Thank you in advance for any thoughts!

Re: A Portable Radio that WORKS
 

I have been using a version of this radio for 30+ years while camping. I bought a second one about 5 years ago. I do not think the second one has quite the performance of the 30 year old one. Read the reviews at the bottom of the amazon.com link.

Re: A Portable Radio that WORKS
 

go to amazon and search for eton fr250

Re: A Portable Radio that WORKS
 

I have 2 ge super radios, an old and a new , they are great radios .
But the best by far is the C. Crane radio, go here...........
http://www.ccrane.com/radios/am-fm-r...lus/index.aspx

Re: A Portable Radio that WORKS
 

Nub - If I knew no better.....I'd think we are twin brother - seperated at birth....I also have 2 GE SuperRadios.....and have been looking at the CCRario for many years....

We take a GE Super Radio in our pop-up camper....the other is in the garage.

It is hard to beat the GE for bang/$....you can find them under $50 on the web. They have a very large ferite loop antenna....great for AM.

I would have purchased a CC Radio - but i have a collection of older Grundig Satellits portables that have fantastic AM DX ability as well as I have my ICOM R75 with a big outdoor antenna for AM listening.

There has never been a better AM/FM/Shortwave radio built then the Grundit Satellit series of radios dating from early 1960 - 1985.....My favorites are the 5000, the 3400 Professional, and the 650. There radios cost nearly a months pay when they were made. The 650 sold for $1000 back in 1985.

Yoiu can still find these in near mint condition on Ebay for $500 - $800 .....they would be a $2-3000 radio in todays dollars.

Grundig made the worlds best portable radios in terms of quality, fidelity, capability. The last of the big European Grundigs was the 650. They all had big ferite AM loop antennas. The last big Sattelit was the the Satellite 800 with the Grundig name but made by Eton in China.....but it did have the USA Drake radio electronics inside...a very nice radio for everything but AM....it just had a little AM loop...like a pocket/portable radio. All the big Grundigs are really table top portables....the size of a big "boom box" and weight nearing 15 lbs.

B&O = Bang Olufson made some very nice AM/FM portables - I owned one once....again, big ferite loop antenna in the radio...about 8 inches long....beautiful sound.....but they fetch a lot of $.....a cult following......perhaps too much for a portable that does not do shortwave (the 1000 has shortwave...).

The GE Superradio is a bit large...but still noce for RV camping. Even the CCRadio is too big to back pack ...but a nice radio for camping. Both have legendary AM performance.

Re: A Portable Radio that WORKS
 

First off, there's a lot more electromagnetic noise now than there was 30 years ago. CFL bulbs, cell phones and IBOC transmissions (in the US) make listening to distant AM stations a lot more difficult now.

Second of all, you want a radio with a good AM tuner and a good antenna, and most today don't have either. The GE/RCA Superradio mentioned is one of the better setups around, and doesn't cost much at $50. People argue if the older (now discontinued) GE version or newer RCA is better, but the RCA seems to be built pretty identical to the earlier GE. Plus, both also have external FM and AM antenna connections--and for not much money you can build even better antennas.

The Sangean PR-D5 is another possible candidate. It has a big ferrite antenna, but no external antenna connections.

If you're willing to hunt for a used radio, you can go back 20+ years and there were some very good ones made.... but they are hard to get your mitts on, you either have to do the eBay thing, or go thrift-shop hunting and hope to get lucky.

-end-

Re: A Portable Radio that WORKS
 

Something worth noting that most folks that are not into radio do not know: AM radio...as well as Shortwave (which is just AM at about 5-10X higher frequency)....their propogation is a function of the ionization of the earths upper atmosphere....the radio waves bounce and reflect off the ionisphere.....and the ionisphere is much higher at night ...thus higher bounce and greater reception distance.....that is why at night you can listen to AM radio from perhaps 1000 miles away....while in the day...only a hundred miles.

What ionizes the ionisphere is Sun Spot activity from our sun.....the sun spots follow an 11 year cycle since they have been studied for the past 300 years. Hight sun spot activity = high ionization = good distant AM reception.

As a note we are at the lowest activity for sun spots right now...bottom of the 11 year cycle.....and in fact we are probably at an even larger 500 year cycle of very low sun spot activity......every 500 years there are at times ZERO sun spots......we are there right now.....very bad for AM/Shortwave enthusiasts...but you can still listen with a good radio and reasonable antenna.

Scientists also think this 500 year sun spot low is a cause of "mini-ice-ages"....they had one in Europe 500 years ago...and then 1000 years ago....about the time the Vikings had outposts in North America....they think it was a mini-ice-age that drove the Vikings out and back to Europe.

Perhaps our current global warming from CO2....is being greatly offset by the 500 year sun spot low activity....

Re: A Portable Radio that WORKS
 

While it's no match for energy output, the HAARP also affects the ionosphere.

Re: A Portable Radio that WORKS
 

Thank you all for the fresh perspective! Time to go shopping.

Re: A Portable Radio that WORKS
 

I am looking at purchasing the Kaito Voyager KA500. Does anyone have any positive or negative feedback on it? The only feature it doesn't have that I wanted was a LED alarm clock, but for $60 it seems a pretty versitile emergency radio. Thoughts?

http://www.kaitousa.com/KA500.htm

Re: A Portable Radio that WORKS
 

Grundig Mini World 100 PE - it does FM, AM and SW, very compact, great sound, great quality.

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/3444





Kind of surprised that no one has yet mentioned the Grundig S350. It's a classic, great on batteries, amazing sound and not too expensive.

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/3112

Re: A Portable Radio that WORKS
 

My favorite (until it died) was the Sangean ATS-803A. Mine lasted 10 years. When I went to buy another, I found out they were no longer made. :bawling:

Went with a pair of Kaitos: KA1103 and KA2100. Great selectivity and sensitivity. A longer antennae helps for DX and FM. Controls are a little different...

Re: A Portable Radio that WORKS
 

I've the S350DL and is a great radio for usually under a hundred bucks. My disappointment with it was it had no SSB mode of receive. But otherwise, not the most portable either, I didn't buy it for a walking around radio. Lasts a long time on batteries, antenna is long enough for outside use, and fair inside use. A longwire antenna is a good idea if you plan on using this indoors. Hook the wire to the antenna in terminal, grounding is optional.

I live in Ohio and can pick up stations all over when I use the external antenna. Propagations is a totally different issue and what has been said about the sunspot conditions is very true. Kind of happy hunting to find the far off stations. Time of day is also true as you probably well know.

Re: A Portable Radio that WORKS
 

I'm west coast and pick up Radio Moscow and Radio Coooba....not well, but I do. I have a pair of Grundig/Eton G5/E5 radios. I do not color myself an expert on atmospherics, nor consumer electronics. (where oh where is my manhood?)
The radios take 4x AA's each and are marvellous non-110v alarm clocks. Onboard charging is a bit slow, with a 100maH rate and a 24 hour limit on internal charging time. I run 2000maH Eneloops in both, so 4 days charging each radio unless I wanna swap out batts and (I figure) lose memory.
If ya buy right you can get the radio with a kit including a case and charger...don't remember if an external antenna is included or not.
I also have one of the FR series, IIRC the 250. Adequate and recommended for emergencies.