Ultralight AM/FM radios

[Jerry Adams]

"Crime and Punishment" is good

[Dale Wambaugh]

In the Olympics you can pick up global roots music on Village 900 radio CKMO AM 900 from Camosun College in Victoria, BC, as well as CBC broadcasts sprinkled with BBC news and with the right exposures, the local NPR FM stations. Fiddling around with the dial at night you might get anything. With a shortwave, you can get anything on the planet it seems.

Even in our current Internet and smartphone culture, broadcast radio is still magic to me. You buy a little box for a few dollars, pop a battery in it and get connected to the rest of the world.

For reading, there is nothing like mini pocket classics like this copy of Walden in my library:

267 pages of wisdom from a fellow walker and 3.4oz.

What we ***should*** do is write. My head is always clearer from the natural surroundings and exercise. A small Moleskin notebook and a Space Pen are perfect. My base weigh can always afford them.

[jscott]

Those Shambhalla pocket classics are perfect for backpacking. They don't publish any novels in that format however.

It's weird and I can't explain why the classic Russian novelists work for me in the wilderness. Maybe it's just because they usually write long novels so I don't have to worry about running out of something to read on my trips.

Dale, what's the brand of that last radio with the long antennae? It's all about getting reception–esp. fm as I'm an NPR freak too.

[Lapsley Hope]

16 gb iPod nano with FM radio.

[Bob Gross]

Mine is almost identical to Dale's, except that mine is JWIN JX-M6.

The problem is FM radio. In most places, the effective range for FM transmission is only 30 miles, or 100 miles tops. In many wilderness areas, you are outside that range. That is why it is nice to have AM as well, because it can come booming in from 1000 miles. The problem there is selectivity, which is the ability to listen to one station on one frequency and completely ignore another station just slightly off in frequency. Tiny radios tend to be weak on selectivity.

–B.G.–

[Jerry Adams]

I now listen to NPR after I lost me beloved KPOJ

Actually, I like NPR better because it's more varied

I think a digital tuner is better than analog when it comes to receiving weak signals in the wilderness. Like the Countrycomm and Grundig are not nearly as good as the Sony SRF-M37W or that new CC Crane Pocket Radio, in my experience.

[Bob Gross]

"I think a digital tuner is better than analog when it comes to receiving weak signals in the wilderness."

Agreed. Unfortunately, a digital tuner adds expense and sometimes weight.

You can also improve reception with the use of a long wire antenna to supplement the built-in antenna.

–B.G.–

[Jerry Adams]

Is there anyway to extend AM antenae?

FM is easy like someone (you?) showed

[Dale Wambaugh]

Some light wire works fine. Many shortwave antennas are just a long piece of wire and that way since Marconi. BUT, most AM antennas are a ferrite bar with windings inside the radio. Google "am loop antenna" for a good alternative. The telescoping antennas on these small radios are for FM. AM reception is improved by turning the whole radio. FM ntennas that work through the ground wire on your headphones are effected by position. Simply moving the wire can change reception dramatically.

I don't agree with the digital tuning for weak stations. Analog will split hairs. The coarseness of the gearing of the tuning mechanism is the issue. Be aware that some radios have analog tuning with digital readout, as with the County Comm.

I thought the mini boombox was interesting, but it has nowhere near the integrity of the Sangean and Sony mini radios at the beginning of this thread. The Sangean DT400W or County Comm radios would be my choice if a speaker is preferred. I'd rather use earbuds and have a smaller lighter radio. Battery life is better with earbuds.

[Bob Gross]

Yes, a "long wire" AM antenna can be helpful sometimes. Tie a piece of fine copper wire to some critical point on the radio, such as the end of the telescoping FM antenna, although there might be a better spot for AM. String the wire up perpendicular to where you think the AM transmitter is.

–B.G.–

[Jerry Adams]

Yeah, that's weird about FM, you can move slightly and change reception. Or hang the radio in the air a little rather than setting on the ground.

Have you tried analog and digital tuners, like the Sony and Countycomm, side by side out in the wilderness where they just barely worked?

When I have tried this, the Countycomm was no where near as good. Maybe I need to try it again – maybe I didn't give it a fair test. And I tested AM more than FM.

[Jerry Adams]

Okay, I'll have to try antenae extension wire for AM. I just assumed that it wouldn't work because the AM antenae is a ferrite bar inside the radio. But, with radio waves, the antenae extension might not have to actually touch the real antenae.

I used to have this box that was about a foot diameter with a dial that you could crudely set to a particular AM frequency. Set it next to your AM radio and the radio gets much better reception.

[Bob Gross]

Yes, there is a whole bunch of tricks for improving either AM or FM performance. However, most are impractical or heavy. Often you can improve reception simply by providing a better ground to the radio, and that might mean another piece of wire to Earth, or it might mean cupping your hand around the right part of the radio case.

In the UL sense, if you can't do it with five feet of fine wire, you won't ever do it.

What you won't do is to improve your GPS antenna reception much except by replacing the antenna. That, as they say, is a totally different ball of wax.

–B.G.–

[Dale Wambaugh]

If the local stations are weak, it's time to play with the shortwave bands.

Loop antennas are the way to supplement the AM ferrite bar. Maybe metal hiking poles would have some use.

[Jerry Adams]

But, where I go, for example the beach on the Olympic Peninsula I can get 690 AM CBC, with the Sony or C. Crane, but not with the Countycomm. And the Grundig analog that I don't think they make any more is maybe even worse.

Extrapolating from this limited test, I suspect other analog radios are the same, but at least those two digital radios do work.

This is during the day – at night analog radios will pick up stations.

[Dale Wambaugh]

Try the County Comm with some wire clipped to the antenna and see what happens. Using the ferrite bar, simply turning the radio will make a difference. That is counter-intuitive as we want the speaker pointed toward us.

The passive am loop antennas are a coil of wire that sits next to the radio and feeds signal to the ferrite bar in your AM radio via inductance. I've played with commercial versions, but they are much too large and heavy for hiking. I have one on the AM antennas that come with a home stereo. I'll try putting more windings on that light plastic frame and see how it does. The commercial versions have a variable capacitor to tune to various frequencies. I'm not going there, but even a simple loop should help.

[robert van putten]

I’ve almost never bothered with a radio or music but I remember one five day backpacking trip back around 1981 when one of my friends brought along a tape deck and a few Beatles cassettes. It was the old kind of flat tape deck with one speaker that took six D batteries!

We didn’t use it much but one night I camped in a cave while my friends hiked a few miles away to sleep beside a lake. They had found a pine grove beside the lake with a very deep carpet of pine needles and wanted to try sleeping on a soft surface for once ( of course, back in those days we knew nothing of sleeping pads. I didn’t even have a sleeping bag on that trip! ).

It poured rain that night – My friends didn’t have so much as a ground cloth to pull over them and spent a miserable night lying under dripping trees in sodden sleeping bags. I was snug in the cave and sat for long hours listening to the rain hammer down while making a pot of tea over a candle and listening to my favorite Beatles tape over and over.

I think the next time I had music on a trip was in 2010.
Just before I went on a cycle tour of Iceland my wife gave me an inexpensive RCA MP3 player from Walmart, the type with a flip out USB connector on the side, loaded with my favorite music.
It ran on a single AAA battery which was also what my bike lights ran on.

It had a radio built in that worked surprisingly well and the tiny light of the display was bright enough to find things in the tent at night ( what little night there is up in Iceland!).
It could also delete songs with the press of a button instead of having to hook it up to a computer, which I quite liked.
I used up two AAA batteries in two weeks, and used it every night to fall asleep as I was having allot of trouble sleeping because the sun just wouldn’t go down, and I also used it a good bit during the day when riding.

Probably not the safest thing to do when riding along a road but I find the tiny thing has become a standard bit of kit for bike riding! Very lightweight and not a bad idea for music on the go, if you don’t mind ear plugs anyway.

[Steven McAllister]

The Kaito KA200 is about the lightest decent sounding radio with a speaker that I have seen reviewed. I'm sure the reception and quality can't compare to the 4oz or heavier radios, or the headphone only models, but if your radio must have a speaker and be UL, it weighs 2.2oz.

It would not be that often that I would use a radio, but I do remember not seeing a human for several days on one trip and really wished I had one for news, weather and some talk.

[Steven McAllister]

For those that need mp3 player, digital recording, rechargeable, AM, FM, SW, speaker, …
Only 3 oz:
Kaito Electronics Inc. KA801

[scree ride]

Find me a radio that will pick up the mighty met and I'll buy it.

[Dale Wambaugh]

Nice! Not cheap, but lots of bells and whistles. It takes swappable rechargeable batteries too. I like that.

[Martin RJ Carpenter]

Rather an English thing this of course. I nearly always carry a long wave radio around with me, because that's what I can get the cricket on. The tempo suits long days walking in fog!

They don't come very small though.

[Dale Wambaugh]

You want a Tecsun PL-360 and now I do too! Looks like a cool little radio and it has a speaker. 128g/4.5oz.

http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/portable/3681.html

PL-360 Specifications

GENERAL
Speaker 40 mm
Audio Output 350 mW
Earphone Jack 3.5 mm stereo
Antenna System AM Ferrite bar and FM/SW telescopic whip
RECEIVER
LW Band 150 – 512 kHz
AM Band 520 – 1710 kHz
SW Band 1 2.3 – 21.95 MHz
FM Band 87 – 108 MHz
Memories 450 (FM 100, MW 100, SW 250)
PERFORMANCE
Sensitivity MW 1mV/m (S/N=26dB)
Sensitivity SW <30uV (S/N=26dB)
Sensitivity FM <3uV (S/N=30dB)
Selectivity MW >60 dB (BW=3 kHz, ± 9 kHz)
Selectivity SW >60 dB (BW=3 kHz, ± 5 kHz)
Selectivity FM >60 dB (± 150 kHz)
POWER SOURCE
External USB 5V DC
Battery AA x 3 (not included)
PHYSICAL
Size 2.1 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches (53x159x26mm)
Weight 128 g.

[Steven McAllister]

Re: The Tecsun pl-360,
Wow and the size of a TV remote control.

It's a bit much for me, but I could see this for many situations.
A review:
http://n9ewo.angelfire.com/pl360.html

[Troy Hawkins]

I really hate that the phone market is killing/has killed the mp3 player market…

I want an MP3 player that runs on a single AAA battery, has a microSDHC slot, plays AM/FM, has no speaker, and has a simple grey and black LCD display

I wish I knew more about electronics because I'd try to make my own.

I think that it would be a perfect solution for hikers and people who want music outdoors without wanting the reliance of electricity for a recharge.

It would be small, extremely light, have decent battery life (in the realm of 15 hours play time), it would be easy to find replacement batteries wherever you were, and you could put a ton of music on a 32GB microSDHC card.

[Author]

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