I am looking for a mini FM radio and weather band.
I plan on hiking mid February, and I noticed that most hostels lack weather information and to be ignorant about weather conditions, -is basically irresponsible.
rico suave"
Radio - Appalachian Trail
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#1
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#3
Sony has a good,light radio for about $50.00.You can get it a Walmart or any of the discount stores. Good hiking.
mr magoo
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#4
I carry a cheap light( ebay) Rio S30 MP3 Player( one AA Battery) see ebay item 270175593314 it has built in FM tuner and head phone wires act as antenna, can always get wx report plus with a added 2GB memory card you can carry several talking books and music…
Another option is cell phone and text google for weather report zip code and more.
rocky65
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#5
Hey Rocky65,
How do you keep your Mp3 palyer powered up day after day? Mine is a Creative Nano Plus, only 500 songs, but goes thru a battery almost every day!
And you can forget about an IPOD!
Different Socks
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#6
If you’re concerned about size and weight and are really only interested in the weather reporting capability, then the NOAA receiver from Bass Pro Shops at $11.99 might be worth looking into:
NOAA Receiver
If you want to avoid the battery life issue and want AM-FM capability also, you might look into the $29.93 Eton (Grundig) FR300 at REI-Outlet… it’s a factory refurb and it weighs 19 ounces, but it does have a hand crank generator and a built-in LED light:
<a href="http://www.rei.com/product/762826?cm_sp=proddesc_rel_itemelement"Eton FR300
With NOAA weather channel capability, you have local weather info at your fingertips no matter where you are (or pretty much so!).
TBott
TBott
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#8
My hiking partner carried a Sony radio with a weather band. It was extremely useful in helping us plan our hike, such as getting into town a day early to avoid a storm or choosing a shelter over camping if it was going to rain that night.
One of the important features that my partners radio didn’t have was a scan & pre-set capability. Most radios will auto scan for stations and can also manually save a station to a pre-set button. The best radios could scan and then save the 10 strongest stations to the pre-set buttons. This is a big help when you are walking from one side of the mountain to the other and don’t want to manually scan for a new station.
30-30
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#9
Thanks for all the great ideas and thank you Mr. “old and in the way” for pointing out that I needed a comma after the word “information”
Do you need a hobby?
or you just like aggravating people on this web site? lol
That crank radio is quite lite, but it is just not lite enough, does it have a ear jack, I wonder?
rico suave"
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#10
i use the sony fm/am/weather band/tv. very small and almost always, i can tune to tv at noon or 6 p.m. and pick up the local weather. added attraction of using it as a sleep aid when up high enough to get tv stations at night - cost is about $50 at wallmart.
frogcaller
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#11
my vote is with the sony with a lithium battery more than 20 hrs. on 1 AAA SRF-M37V 27-37$ google it or shopping.com
george
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#12
Yes, the Eton FR300 has a 1/8" (3.5mm) headphone jack.
If you’ll be carrying a cell phone, the FR300 also will charge several manufacturers’ units… but you’d want to check and make sure yours is one of them!
One other thing… the FR300 has an “alert” feature… it will monitor the NOAA channel(s) for weather alerts, and make sure you’re aware of rapidly developing weather conditions. Note that MOST NOAA receivers provide an “alert” function… not something you’ll find on a radio with a “weather band”, and better than the 6:00/11:00 news.
At 19 or 20 ounces, the thing is a BRICK… but it offers a lot of functionality and will never “go dead” when the batteries run out. Winter hiking generally means “carry more weight” (how MUCH is a matter of choice, of course!). Good luck!
TBott
TBott
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#13
Rocky65 and Different Socks,
I use a fairly old and long-lived mp3 player (a Sanyo M240) that only takes one AA for about 30 hours of play time, but even then it’s not enough. I found the answer a little while back though, because I hate carrying a lot of disposable batteries: the < a href=“http://www.siliconsolar.com/Flexible-Solar-Battery-Charger-SolLite-4AAE-p-16200.html”>SolLite series flexible battery chargers from Silicon Solar. The 4AAE model only weighs .8 ounce and will give you full charge in about 4-5 hours. The panel itself is weatherproofed and very durable, essentially made for outdoor applications. I have mine rigged with velcro tabs to stick it on the back of my pack, with the battery holder inside the back pocket, so it charges while I hike. Since I use AA’s in my camera too, this pretty much keeps me in power with only one set of spares no matter how long I’m out.
Strategic
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#14
Sorry about the poor linking there, here it is the right way:
SolLite 4AAE
I have no idea why it failed to post properly before. I also should have addressed that to Rico too, apologies.
I’ll also note while I’m at it that Silicon Solar also has similar chargers for other applications, including cell phone, PDA and iPod chargers.
Strategic
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#15
Hey Strategic, that solar charger looks pretty slick… much better than the 6 ounce (??) Brunton unit I have! I thought you’d made a typo with “.8 ounce”, but that’s the weight! I can see this being useful for camera batteries AND for headlamp batteries if it will take AAA batteries, too.
BTW, I “fixed” your link fix… this should go right to the 4AAE page:
SolLite 4AAE
Thanks for the heads up on this!
TBott
TBott
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#16
Strategic,
Great idea, I just purchased the Flexible Solar Battery Charger SolLite-2AA which can charge my head light AAAs as well as my camera batteries AAs.
John D
John D
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#17
Wait a sec… Did ‘Old and in the Way’ correct someone’s punctuation and then say " Your responsible for yourself" when he should have said “You’re”? Nice.
GSmurf
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#18
The grammar issue is a red herring. Since ‘old&in the way’ (wisely!) did not respond to the (lol!) comment made by ‘rico suave"’, and since the “dead horse”’ has been dredged up, I’ll (unwisely!) jump in.
It appears to me that the post by ‘old&in the way’ was NOT an attempt to correct punctuation, but rather, an opinion based upon his interpretation of the statement that ‘rico suave"’ seemed to have made in his original post. MY original understanding of that post was the same as 'old&in the way’s… that it was an attack on hostels as “ignorant”. Given 'rico suave"'s comment about punctuation, though, it’s apparent that he meant to say that it would be irresponsible for him to be uninformed about weather conditions.
BTW - if you look at any of the posts made by ‘old&in the way’, you’ll see that his post in this thread is representative of his writing style.
TBott
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#19
I agree with TBott. I understood the first post the way it was intended, that Rico feels that a hiker would be irresponsible for not checking the weather. But I went back and re-read it when I saw the post by ‘Old and in the Way’. I really think he interpreted it that Rico was blaming the Hostels, and he was trying to remind everyone about an important concept.
But, if he is otherwise a Spelling Nazi, then screw him. I hate those folks. They should use their diploma as their avatar.
Hoopdedoo