Small Portable Radio's?

[PhotoJim]

I picked up one of those Kaito KA390s a couple of weeks ago. (See earlier in the thread.) It's a $20-25 US AM-MW/FM/SW/Weather band radio with analog tuning, and runs on 3 D cells. It also has a built-in LED flashlight. I'm happy with this radio. It's monaural but the sound quality is pretty reasonable. The whip antenna telescopes to a nice length. The radio apparently gets 300 hours at a reasonable volume. It won't be a DX champ, but it works well on stronger stations. Like some other inexpensive Kaitos I've used, it has very strange AM tuning where it's tough to get it right on frequency on a weak station, but the strong ones snap in well enough. This will make a great emergency or camping radio and does pretty well for lots of other situations, too. I think this one is going to get an international trip to Idaho to entertain me on eclipse day next week.

 

[schuster]

Since it's been quiet in here lately, I thought I'd mention my latest purchase.

After the episode with a defective Eton Satellit, began looking again at Sangean offerings (had always been interested in the CCRadio table radios but kept getting put off by the price and the tendency of things [LCD, buttons] to fail). Jay Allen and others give consistent high marks to the PR-D4W and so I gave it a try.

First and foremost it performs, and without glitches. Sensitivity, selectivity, and noise floor are excellent on AM (across the entire band)/FM. Few to no birdles or artifacts. Great battery life on alkaline "D" cells - still on my first set. Is it comparable to the higher-priced CCRadio 2e? Can't directly compare, but I must say it's a real treat sitting outside on a summer night and hearing something on every MW channel.

There are quite a few "gotchas" at this price (but as Jay says, no radio is perfect):

• Not enough presets
• Cabinet is a fingerprint magnet
• No carrying handle
• No control over backlight
• No fine tuning beyond assigned channel spacing
• Automatic bandwidth/peaking during tuning causes brief muting, crimps your bandscanning "style" a bit.
• No tuning knob or tone control
• Speaker equalization a bit weird - using the bandwidth control as an AM "tone control" helps quite a bit.
• No keylock to prevent accidental operation

But if you just sit back and listen, it's quite a treat.

 

[mightysparrow]

Since it's been quiet in here lately, I thought I'd mention my latest purchase.

After the episode with a defective Eton Satellit, began looking again at Sangean offerings (had always been interested in the CCRadio table radios but kept getting put off by the price and the tendency of things [LCD, buttons] to fail). Jay Allen and others give consistent high marks to the PR-D4W and so I gave it a try.

First and foremost it performs, and without glitches. Sensitivity, selectivity, and noise floor are excellent on AM (across the entire band)/FM. Few to no birdles or artifacts. Great battery life on alkaline "D" cells - still on my first set. Is it comparable to the higher-priced CCRadio 2e? Can't directly compare, but I must say it's a real treat sitting outside on a summer night and hearing something on every MW channel.

There are quite a few "gotchas" at this price (but as Jay says, no radio is perfect):

• Not enough presets
• Cabinet is a fingerprint magnet
• No carrying handle
• No control over backlight
• No fine tuning beyond assigned channel spacing
• Automatic bandwidth/peaking during tuning causes brief muting, crimps your bandscanning "style" a bit.
• No tuning knob or tone control
• Speaker equalization a bit weird - using the bandwidth control as an AM "tone control" helps quite a bit.
• No keylock to prevent accidental operation

But if you just sit back and listen, it's quite a treat.

Interesting to read your comments about the PR-D4W. I've been wondering about that radio for quite a while, as the reviews seem pretty good. I'm glad you're enjoying it.

 

[degarb]

My head was spinning from this thread. Probably, mostly because I haven't seen any radio that does it all: solar, usb, bt, sw, am, fm, tiny size, waterproof.

Finally, found a waterpoof, usb, bt, fm, size of small first, floats since made for pool/shower. Amazon $30.

Very loud, hit or miss fm tuning. Subpar, but works on a jobsite. Need bt, but not a fan of streaming from phone for battery life and battery heating issues, as well as data slavery to carrier. Never tried recording 300 hours of nonrepeating music ques on SD while on wifi, over night. Really need to record in 48kps opus or aac to get a enough hours per meg, so significant part of sd, not filled with temporary music records. And, this brings up an equally intriguing topic of simply recording streams overnight, streaming them back in day, in highest quality, but smallest possible format that is listenable. Sorry, but mp3 and ogg are dead formats. Aac and opus are the way to go for phone and tablet and streaming. Ogg is fine for archive or desktop.

 

[Lebkuecher]

Since it's been quiet in here lately, I thought I'd mention my latest purchase.

After the episode with a defective Eton Satellit, began looking again at Sangean offerings (had always been interested in the CCRadio table radios but kept getting put off by the price and the tendency of things [LCD, buttons] to fail). Jay Allen and others give consistent high marks to the PR-D4W and so I gave it a try.

First and foremost it performs, and without glitches. Sensitivity, selectivity, and noise floor are excellent on AM (across the entire band)/FM. Few to no birdles or artifacts. Great battery life on alkaline "D" cells - still on my first set. Is it comparable to the higher-priced CCRadio 2e? Can't directly compare, but I must say it's a real treat sitting outside on a summer night and hearing something on every MW channel.

There are quite a few "gotchas" at this price (but as Jay says, no radio is perfect):

• Not enough presets
• Cabinet is a fingerprint magnet
• No carrying handle
• No control over backlight
• No fine tuning beyond assigned channel spacing
• Automatic bandwidth/peaking during tuning causes brief muting, crimps your bandscanning "style" a bit.
• No tuning knob or tone control
• Speaker equalization a bit weird - using the bandwidth control as an AM "tone control" helps quite a bit.
• No keylock to prevent accidental operation

But if you just sit back and listen, it's quite a treat.

Quite a few gotchas but still it appears to be a very nice radio based on reviews and of course your review. For me anyway, the two biggest gotchas are the number of presets and no tuning knob.

Are you still considering the Tecsun S-8800 if it ever becomes available again? I haven't heard anything new about the rerelease.

 

[Lebkuecher]

My head was spinning from this thread. Probably, mostly because I haven't seen any radio that does it all: solar, usb, bt, sw, am, fm, tiny size, waterproof.

Finally, found a waterpoof, usb, bt, fm, size of small first, floats since made for pool/shower. Amazon $30.

Very loud, hit or miss fm tuning. Subpar, but works on a jobsite. Need bt, but not a fan of streaming from phone for battery life and battery heating issues, as well as data slavery to carrier. Never tried recording 300 hours of nonrepeating music ques on SD while on wifi, over night. Really need to record in 48kps opus or aac to get a enough hours per meg, so significant part of sd, not filled with temporary music records. And, this brings up an equally intriguing topic of simply recording streams overnight, streaming them back in day, in highest quality, but smallest possible format that is listenable. Sorry, but mp3 and ogg are dead formats. Aac and opus are the way to go for phone and tablet and streaming. Ogg is fine for archive or desktop.

Which radio did you buy?

 

[StarHalo]

Need bt, but not a fan of streaming from phone for battery life and battery heating issues, as well as data slavery to carrier. Never tried recording 300 hours of nonrepeating music ques on SD while on wifi, over night. Really need to record in 48kps opus or aac to get a enough hours per meg, so significant part of sd, not filled with temporary music records.

- Agreeing with Leb, which radio?

- Passing audio over Bluetooth is very easy on the battery, significantly less so than just having the display on (just don't leave the display on when streaming.)

- SD cards are inexpensive now, if you're just using it for audio/non high-speed data transfer, a 128GB card falls under the $0.50-per-GB line at ~$50.

- You might consider a SiriusXM radio for your application; $10/mo. and a clear view of the sky gets you nonstop, non-repeating music all day, no futzing with cards and files.

 

[degarb]

Which radio did you buy?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NCXS8Z2/?tag=cpf0b6-20

Got mine flash sale, ten off, Prime Not mastered the FM. Could only tune in 88.1. Day 2 getting more, but operation does not seem consistent, and the seller is using a Chinese to English translation program that is butchering his meaning. I only listen to 3 public station near 88.1, seems to get 2 of the 3. Size, loudness, fm, waterpoof, usb plug charge, were all essential.

 

[degarb]

I did pickup this floating yellow duck radio for 3 bucks. https://m.bedbathandbeyond.com/1/1/258298-sharper-image-floating-duckie-am-fm-bath-radio.html

I first thought tge duck was absurd. However, if we forget and leave the radio outside somewhere, it looks like a kid toy and should not disappear. Plus, very high viz. Downside is batteries grew dim after 2 days of play, must unscrew to get to cells. So, will be sticking to the small loud Amazon usb Rechargeable.

... hotlinked image removed ...

 

[StarHalo]

Would you be willing to go ~$100?

 

[schuster]

Quite a few gotchas but still it appears to be a very nice radio based on reviews and of course your review. For me anyway, the two biggest gotchas are the number of presets and no tuning knob.

Are you still considering the Tecsun S-8800 if it ever becomes available again? I haven't heard anything new about the rerelease.

I had the Grundig S-350 long ago so am still a fan of that type of receiver and cabinet design. Was put off by the issues with the original S-8800 but yes, it's still on my radar too. Like you I haven't seen any news about a new production run.

 

[NoNotAgain]

I had the Grundig S-350 long ago so am still a fan of that type of receiver and cabinet design.

I've owned to of the Eton/Grundig S-350 radios over the years. Both had sub-par tuners that required installing a filter kit to make them usable.

They're OK as a multi band radio, but if looking for an AM/FM radio, the older Milwaukee Tool Jobsite Rockford Fosgate kicks butt.

 

[schuster]

I've owned to of the Eton/Grundig S-350 radios over the years. Both had sub-par tuners that required installing a filter kit to make them usable.

They're OK as a multi band radio, but if looking for an AM/FM radio, the older Milwaukee Tool Jobsite Rockford Fosgate kicks butt.

Yep. The original S-350 (Tecsun BCL-2000) was a pretty sloppy mess. Quite unbelievably (because I'd read all the stories of people being shafted with this) Amazon trade-in gave me $59 credit on this radio last year. I was sooo prepared for the S-8800.....

 

[this_is_nascar]

I'm always looking for a portable radio that has the best possible AM reception.

 

[Lebkuecher]

I'm always looking for a portable radio that has the best possible AM reception.

You may already know about Jay Allen's website but if not checkout the link.

https://radiojayallen.com/am-portables-mega-shootout-2016-update/

 

[this_is_nascar]

You may already know about Jay Allen's website but if not checkout the link.

https://radiojayallen.com/am-portables-mega-shootout-2016-update/

Thx. I didn't know about it. I'll check it out.

 

[StarHalo]

I'm always looking for a portable radio that has the best possible AM reception.

Your smartphone or tablet has the best possible AM reception, since the apps that let you stream terrestrial stations are all free. But while that's the best option for casual listening, it's not a realistic option if the power goes out or you're wanting to listen where there's no internet at all; definitely begin with Jay Allen's site if that's the case.

 

[this_is_nascar]

True, but I don't have an unlimited plan. Additionally, there's something magical about receiving an over the air broadcast that only relies of the station making the broadcast, not a phone carrier, app, etc.

Same reason I'll never get rid of my CB radios.

 

[schuster]

Evolving technology has made many hobbies less relevant than when they started. In the right environment you certainly get more from an Internet-connected device than an old-technology hobby. But the same issue of declining relevance can be said of a lot of hobbies, and in the end it depends on what your needs are. Anyway, the title of this thread is ....

 

[StarHalo]

True, but I don't have an unlimited plan. Additionally, there's something magical about receiving an over the air broadcast that only relies of the station making the broadcast, not a phone carrier, app, etc.

Same reason I'll never get rid of my CB radios.

That's fair; any decent AM radio at night will be able to receive well over a hundred AM stations in your neck of the woods, and should you try your hand at world band, nobody gets European/Middle Eastern shortwave broadcasts as well as the East Coast (plus models that reach to 30 MHz can also hear CB broadcasts.)