Inexpensive Peace of Mind and a Friendly Voices to keep you Company

The best $49.99 (cdn) I have ever spent. For some time now, my wife and I had been meaning to get a Disaster kit built and stocked for those events in Life that are truly un-forseen. We finally took a weekend off together and did the running around and gathered all the necessary items to stock up the kit. The last thing to find was a little portable battery powered radio. We were thinking of picking up just a little cheap"o" transistor radio, then it donned on me that if something big happened, I would quickly run out of battery power to feed the little radio. Then I remembered that back at the Firehall we have this wind-up short-wave/fm radio in the Dept. Survival kit(s). A quick trip to the hall and I found out they were made by ETON Radio and sold under the "GRUNDIG" brand name. a Quick websearch told me that here in CANADA, the grundig brand is carried by "Radio Shack". I quick drive found me starring at a shelf of various brands of wind up radios. It was a good thing I had a huge breakfast, I was winding a whole whack of radios to check out all the features and quality. I eventually decided upon the FR200 by Grundig for several reason.

1.) The Dynamo Crank is built very very sturdily, and the resistance is mid range of all the radios I tried and broke. Two other brands had the cranks come apart as I wound them. From a dead charge of the Nickel Metal Hydride battery, it only took about 10 seconds of turning the handle to get enough charge to get the L.E.D. flashlight nice and bright, and the Radio Screaming out the Music.

2.) The FR200 Comes with a Bright White L.E.D flashlight built into the radio that truly does light up a dark room. Don't let the small size fool you. After Getting the radio home and cranking it up in my dark garage that night, it managed to light up the the tools on the far end wall some 30 feet away, not granted, it isn't a spot light, it does give enough light to guide you safely around in total darkness and it does give enough close in light to accomplish most tasks during a power outage or worse .

3.) The sound quality of of the little 2 1/2" speaker is Excellent. Very good high and low tone reproduction.

4.) The Radio, accepts 3 "AA" batteries, AC Adapter (sold separately), the rechargeable battery pack onboard, or the Dynamo Crank. You will never be without light and sound no matter how long your power is out. The Radio and the light can be run at the same time with little extra draw. The best part is the Dynamo feature. Your Radio and light will still work if the rechargable battery ever packs it in with the an easy slow but constant crank of the the handle.

5.) Crank Vs. Light&Listen Time. For about 1 minute of crank time, you get upwards of an hour of Light and Listen time, with only about 30 seconds of cranking required to top up again for about another hours worth. Even more if the Radio is used without the light on.

6.) The Radio body is comprised of a tough but lightweight plastic housing, with a superb nylon webbing handle covered in a non slip rubber like material. The radio even has a recessed back non-slip grab feature to allow you to carry without the top Strap. The Dynamo Crank is a solid Glass re-enforced plastic flip down and out of the way handle that can and will take some abuse with little of no wear. The Function switches are very clearly , layed out and marked. Light ON/OFF, Power Selector: OFF/Battery/AC/Dynamo Crank. Radio Type: FM/SW1/SW2/AM. The Tuning knob has fast tuning and a smaller fine tuning knob built in. The Volume knob below the tuning knob is simple up and down for volume.

7.) The Physical size is perfect at 6 1/2" wide X 6" high X 2" deep and weighs 1lb (500 grams). It also comes with a carry and storage case that has several outside pockets to carry and hold various items.

8.) Color Selection is varied from , Grey,Black,Blue,Red & Yellow. (I decided on Yellow for High Visibility.

9.) The Pull out antenna is a good 36" length. It pivots and swings in a myriad of arcs to accommodate almost any position.

10.) The Radio reception if stellar. I picked up a dozen local FM stations I did not know even existed in my local area and a few Pirate radio stations to boot. The FM and AM quality is magnificent. The FR200 also picks up Short Wave Radio signals 1 & 2 in 12 bands. I picked up free radio CUBA, China, Russia, Australia and many many more during many late nights when I could not sleep. The sound quality is terrific and the fine tuning capability of the tuner is great to tune in the ShortWave bands.

I could not be any more happy than to have this little Radio in my Disaster Kit, and in my home. It truly is a nice little peace of mind knowing you will be able to get some type of information in the even of something big happening.

---as a side note, while I was out of town last month, our area was hammered with 4 severe winter storms back to back resulting in power loss for about a week. My wife was able to dig out the radio light the living room up when she needed and had a voice to keep her company during the cold and long nights without power. It truly has already paid for itself, and has stood up to a few heavy weeks of use and still is going strong.

*** A side note-- We just went through another winter storm with power outage, I learned found that if you crank for a minute, rest, crank for another minute, for a total of 6 crank sessions, you get about 4 hours of uninterupted use of the light and radio.