Freeplay Summit Radio
A vital piece of emergency kit is a portable radio receiver. Arguably any decent radio is fine in an emergency providing you have the batteries to power it but I was attracted to the Freeplay wind-up radio because it offers alternative energy sources. It can run from the supplied mains adapter and has an internal 3.6v Ni-Mh battery with a capacity of 1,300 mAh which can be recharged from the mains. When mains electrical power is available the battery recharges from fully discharged in 24 hours, and the fully charged battery provides about 20 hours of listening. When mains power isn’t available there is a solar panel on the top rated at 4.2v and 34mA which recharges the battery (although I gather leaving it exposed to average British sunlight on a windowsill only gives enough power for 30 minutes of listening per day).
The real reason for buying this radio though is its wind-up capability. It has a handle on the back that flips out and can be wound by hand (either clockwise or anticlockwise so it’s suitable for left and right handed people) to recharge the battery. There’s a green LED which indicates the optimum winding speed for recharging. It is stiff and a few minutes of winding do leave one’s wrists and arms feeling tired but the manufacturers claim that 30 seconds of winding provides 30 minutes of listening. I can’t complain at that. The top and bottom of the case have a rubber insert to ensure you have a good grip while winding.
In use the control buttons are poorly laid out. Since they’re all the same size one has to read the legend beside them. The radio offers four wavebands (FM, LW, MW, and SW). For shortwave reception the radio comes with a 7 metre reel of aerial cable that clips onto the telescopic antenna. The radio does offer 30 preset stations (10 FM, 10 MW, 5 LW and 5 SW) as well as a clock, alarm and snooze capability. There is a press-button backlight for the LCD time/frequency display. Apparently the radio stops working while there is still enough power remaining in the battery to sustain the clock and memory presets for a while. The radio is fairly small, being 90mm high, 171mm wide, and 80mm deep, but at 700g in weight it’s not the lightest for backpackers, and the telescopic antenna is a weedy 29cm long. Nevertheless the sound quality from the 66mm speaker is superb and better than any other small radio I’ve owned. Its sound can comfortably fill a room in a family house so that several people can listen.
I keep mine permanently connected to the mains adapter, which itself is plugged into a mains timer that comes on for 15 minutes every day, ensuring that the battery is kept topped up and always ready for use. The overall solid feel of this receiver gives one confidence, and given the excellent mono sound quality from the little speaker I recommend this unit for everyday use as well as for emergencies.