Domestic Radio For Boat

bobholiday · Post by **bobholiday** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 9:25 am

Looking for a radio for my boat for entertainment and weather updates on LW. I'm really keen for it to not use any battery power from the boat's engines so I'm thinking it's either got to be one of these clockwork ones, or take some standard (AA?) batteries I can easily carry a load of onboard. I've narrowed it down to a couple of choices.

Clockwork radios used to have issues with the mechanism being noisy, but this new one apparently directly charges the batteries as you wind instead of having a clockwork mechanism:

FREEPLAY SUMMIT (Around £40 if you shop about)

It's got clockwork, mains and solar charging. FM/AM/LW and SW bands. Sounds good!

Battery operated radios offering all those four bands are few and far between these days for some reason. But this one from Sony looks good (but is hard to source despite lots of companies online claiming to have "in stock" supply (they lie!!)):

Sony ICFSW11 (About £30 if you can find one that really IS "in stock")

Anyone any thoughts on the above options? I'm thinking that the windup one might be generally crap and a bit of a gimmick, but the non-reliance on battery power is a real draw.

Someone suggested I look at older car radios, and wire one in to the battery on my yacht... but as I say, I'm really keen to avoid anything that takes current from the boat's batteries.

Thanks for your thoughts,

cpedw · Post by **cpedw** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 4:09 pm

For Christmas, I got an Eton E5 from Maplin http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=98012 . Annoyingly, they have reduced the price since.
I chose it (uses 4 AAs or mains) because it covers everything I should ever need, including HF with SSB to get weather fax (about once every summer cruise, I actually get the radio, aerial and computer all connected together to find that it's going to rain...).
Derek

bobholiday · Post by **bobholiday** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 5:39 pm

Ooh I'm liking the look of that. Unfortunately I've JUST (yesterday) received my Sony (as per pic in the first post) model.

Mine's TEENY! It's about the size of a thick paperback!

What's the HF and SSB.... and how do you use it with the computer to get weather fax? That's completely new to me.

I know what you mean about it being annoying when the price drops. Sods law really hey.

bobholiday · Post by **bobholiday** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 5:41 pm

Interesting to read the Q&A on the Maplin site for yours:

Q) What is the exact frequency range? - Carl
A) 1711-29999 KHz

Q) will this radio recieve radio 4, talk sport and world service on the continent, mainly all France - keith compton
A) No sorry.

Q) Can you attach an external aerial ? -
A) Yes, you can attach an external aerial.

Q) Will I be able to receive French stations when in the UK? - Linda
A) No sorry.

Q) Analogue or Digital? - martin pinner
A) This recieves analogue signals but has a digital tuner.

Q) will this receive normal FM radio channels like radio 2. - martin
A) yes it will

Some of those answers surprised be. I can pick up stations from all over the world on the SW band... wonder why Maplin are saying no to the question about picking up French stations.

And they ask if it will pick up radio 4... of course it will! But Maplin say no! Weird.

cpedw · Post by **cpedw** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 11:38 am

HF is short wave (high frequency as opposed to Very high frequency ...) and SSB is Single Side Band (I can't give a clear explanation of that but it's what they use to transmit weather faxes). To get the weather fax, you connect the radio's audio output to the computer's audio in then load some software, e.g. Mscan Meteo http://www.mscan.com/ There's a free demo version. Read all the details on Frank Singleton's website http://www.franksingleton.clara.net/rad ... asked.html

You might find it more useful to read about GRIB which I believe is a more modern way to receive weather info without hpone or internet connection, but I haven't looked into that yet.

It takes a bit of fiddling with; you are uncertain which frequency to tune to - using Northwood, you have a choice of up to 4 - then they only transmit intermittently (see the Schedule - each page takes 5-10 mins but there's 20 mins between pages) and you have to fine tune the receiver as well as persuading yourself the connections and software are working.

But occasionally, it works to give you a quite detailed and longish term view of what's happening to the weather - easier to interpret than the shipping forecast i think.
Regards,
Derek

bobholiday · Post by **bobholiday** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:31 pm

That's ingenius! Thanks for that, I've never heard of it before.

So you can't do this with a standard radio then? You have to have this sideband thing? With GRIB too?

I'll go read up on this when I get a bit more time. Supposed to be working now...

cpedw · Post by **cpedw** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 1:16 pm

Yes you need SSB to receive the weather fax. I don't know what's needed for GRIB - a possible future project.

Derek

Post by **admin** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 10:32 am

Hi Derek, how are you finding the Eton E5? Thinking I might get one myself but struggling to choose between that, the Sony 7600GR and the Roberts R861.

cpedw · Post by **cpedw** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 12:26 pm

It's fine; easy to use but I haven't tested it on weather faxes. So far it has been used as a portable round the house, mainly on FM.
Derek

Post by **admin** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 2:01 pm

Thanks for the quick reply!

DaveA · Post by **DaveA** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 2:04 pm

Any updates here ? also looking for a radio and wondering how this has performed
As for gribs, didn't know you could get info from them other than online ?

bobholiday · Post by **bobholiday** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 4:26 pm

My little Sony is great. Batteries last for absolutely ages. Reception is really good for what I want from it (mostly radio 4). It's much smaller than you'd think from the picture. I'm very happy with it.

Have been tempted by the alternatives on occasion though. Roberts do one for about £150 which has SO many features. I'm a bit of a gadget freak at heart.

DaveA · Post by **DaveA** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 5:05 pm

We definately have plenty in common then

First thought for me was to use an old cd player/radio that I have already, and mount it in the bulkhead between the anchor chain locker and the cabin. Daft idea. That would end up soaking

Another reason for looking out for an alternative really

bobholiday · Post by **bobholiday** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 5:07 pm

It's very handy to have it mobile so you can move it round with you. I take mine to the bow sometimes to sit there and watch the sunset with a song

Also - very very nice knowing it's not depleting my boat batts at all.

DaveA · Post by **DaveA** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 5:10 pm

Boat battery has to be a main consideration for me too. Using an on loan outboard with only a small charging coil so need to keep the battery use closely monitored.