Freeplay Summit Wind-up Radio
A couple of days ago I mentioned how my Baygen Freeplay radio had passed on to the great gadget graveyard and how I had been eyeing the more modern Freeplay Summit Radio recently. I’ve been mulling over which model to replace my original Freeplay with. I profiled the Eton FR300 here last week, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to profile the Summit as well as I battle with my indecision.
The Summit is of course made by Freeplay, who were the originators of the hand cranked radio as far as I’m aware. I’ve got to admit that I’m really impressed with the features that the Summit has got. Here are some of the details…
Measuring just 3.8″ W by 3.5″ H and 3′ D, the Summit weighs in at 1.6 lbs. The bi-directional hand crank features an LED light that indicates optimum winding speed. Running power and recharging can also be done via either the built-in solar panel or AC/DC adaptor. 30 seconds of crank provides 30 minutes of normal volume operation and when fully charged, the radio will run for 20 hours.
The Summit features AM, FM, LW and SW reception. A digital tuner features station scan and 30 presets as wellas a clock with alarm, sleep and snooze functions.
In the US, the Summit is available through many retailers. In terms of online, the C.Crane company has it currently for $69.95 USD (reg $99.95) with their product page here. Elsewhere on the planet, here’s a link to Freeplay’s list of distributors page for info for your corner of it and finally, here’s Freeplay’s product page for the Summit.
If any of my trusty readers have any experience with either the Eton FR300 or the Freeplay Summit, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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POSTED IN: Eco Gadgets, Human-Powered, Solar
2 opinions for Freeplay Summit Wind-up Radio
mARK
Jun 21, 2006 at 8:02 pm
I own an Eton FR-300, and recently compared it to a Grundig FR-200. They have very similar styling (Eton is a Grundig licensee), but not so similar electronics. The Eton gets poor reception up north, worse than the Grundig, and even worse than my no-name car radio. The Eton’s AM reception is very noisy while cranking, while the Grundig is quiet. Eton’s FM tuning is more difficult, since they folded a large part of the TV spectrum into that band.
The Eton seems like a cheap knockoff of the Grundig.
MK
Nov 12, 2006 at 3:03 am
Actually, Eton OWNS the rights to use the Grundig name, so both radios are made by the same company(Tecsun).
The FR-200 is only available under the Grundig name, but apparently, the FR-300 is also available under the Eton name(I’ve seen it with the Grundig name).
I’ve not owned the 300, but I HAVE looked/handled it(and a friend tried using one as well)we both came to the conclusion that the 300 is just plain LOUSY.
BUT, remember that all of the lower-end Tecsun radios have lousy quality control, so prehaps some units work better.
Even the FR-200, which I say more about below, varies from unit to unit(I got fairly lucky on my personal unit), but I’ve seen some that worked poorly.
The 200, on the other hand performs quite well for what it is.
Anyway, I really feel that short wave is more useful than weather band(TV band, which the 300 has as well, IS somewhat useful, but again, if you have AM/FM/SW, TV audio is not really THAT important)(at least in my opinion).
The newer 200’s have a LED instead of a bulb, which was a good idea-lower battery drain, and better reliability.
The problems some users have reported with the plsy time per charge are mostly due to the fact that NiMH batteries need to be cycled a few cycles to attain full capacitity-since the users rarely cycle them(it would take lots of cranking, with at least 3 cycles)the charge life seems WAY too short.
Properly cycled, the stated use time is generally attained(and if not, try a new pack).
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