My Baygen Shuffles Off This Mortal Coil
In my last post, celebrating the return of pro-hockey, I joked that I should probably be listening to the game on my wind-up. Well, after clicking the publish button on that, I went off on a hunt to find my beloved Baygen Freeplay radio to see if the antenna was strong enough to pull in the weak radio signal that carries the Leaf games in my neck of the woods.
Lo and behold, I’m sad to report that my long radio companion has given up the ghost, shuffled off this mortal coil and kicked the proverbial bucket. I’m actually a little shocked to tell you the truth. I’ve had this unit for almost ten years and it’s always been there when the power’s been out to satisify my radio addiction.
I did a quick Google search to see if I could find anything online about other folks who’s Baygen Freeplays had died in a similar manner and if it was fixable. Nothing readily apparent, but I did come across this old page at WaltonFeed.com which has a comprehensive listing of my old friend’s features.
Perhaps it’s for the best though, as I was actually drooling over the Freeplay Summit Radio just a few days ago. The Freeplay Summit is a much more modern cousin of the original Freeplay, with lots of goodies like solar charging in addition to the hand-crank, digital tuning, station scan and more. If there are any retailers out there who may be interested in ‘lending’ me one for a review, please drop me an email here.
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POSTED IN: Eco Gadgets, Human-Powered
2 opinions for My Baygen Shuffles Off This Mortal Coil
» Freeplay’s Jonta Flashlight Unplugged Living
Nov 7, 2005 at 12:54 pm
[…] The first thing I realized is that I have yet to replace my Baygen Freeplay wind-up radio that I discovered was dead about a month ago. Luckily I’ve got an old battery-op’d Realistic shortwave, so no worries there. […]
Ted
Aug 22, 2008 at 7:24 am
The biggest problem with the first generation Baygen radios was the internal windup coil that was cranked and runs the internal generator would corrode fracture and break after a few years time of use. There are replacement springs available in the form of a kit but they are hard to come by and expensive. The Baygen can still be run however off of a common 5 -6 volt wall wart rated for about 400MA or better power adapter as it does have good sound.
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