Baygen radio any good?

[ZaaX]

I am considering buying one of the Baygen Freeplay radios and was wondering how
good it is. Is the receiver any good? How loud is the audio? Is it a good
value? If you own one, which do you have? Would you buy one again? Any problems
with it? Any info on the above would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Zack

[Tim McCann]

I just bought one at Radio Shack and I must say that they sound good.
The
receiver seems to pick up all the local AM/FM, haven't tryed picking up
long
distance AM yet. I've also seen them for sale at Sports Authority.
Basic
price is $80.

Tim

[Philip E. Siepert]

I don't have a Baygen, but mine has the same "crank" charging system, and
it only cost about $26. I believe the Baygen is priced much higher.
There isn't any way to compare the quality without running both through a
test. Mine was from an earthquake safety day at work, and plays fine.

Not sure where you heard about the Baygen, but the distributor that
advertises on Art Bell's show seems to always be on the verge of
running out (but on the other hand, they're ADVERTISING) of everything, but
have a FEW left at a pretty steep price. I have my doubts about the value,
at least from that source.

******************************************

For e-mail, edit the " zzz " from my address
(added to discourage e-junk)

:::: siepert ::::
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[Joseph Grant]

I have the second generation baygen and can tell you it is a great
radio. I have been able to date pick up philadelphia, charolette, and DC
from Baltimore, MD. IOW It has a great receiver...

Idea on what to do after radio is no longer broadcast though, use the
internal generator to run small appliances...

Tim McCann wrote:
>
> I just bought one at Radio Shack and I must say that they sound good.
> The
> receiver seems to pick up all the local AM/FM, haven't tryed picking up
> long
> distance AM yet. I've also seen them for sale at Sports Authority.
> Basic
> price is $80.
>
> Tim
>
> ZaaX wrote:
> >

> > I am considering buying one of the Baygen Freeplay radios and was wondering how
> > good it is. Is the receiver any good? How loud is the audio? Is it a good
> > value? If you own one, which do you have? Would you buy one again? Any problems
> > with it? Any info on the above would be greatly appreciated.
> >
> > Thanks
> > Zack

--
The SnatchSoft font Foundry:
http://www.geocities.com/eureka/park/3960/index.html

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel mediocre...

Title 47, the only good thing to come out of Washington DC since Bob
Dole.....
Remove "P" before replying

[D. P. Roberts]

I work at a store that sells the BayGen flashlight for $69.95, the
AM/FM with solar panel for $79.95 and the AM/FM/SW for $99.95. I am
just amazed -- we can't keep them on the shelves. The AM/FM is a very
nice little unit. I think the solar panel charges an internal battery
as well as running the radio. It does not have a brake on the crank
as does the flashlight, so if you turn off the unit, it winds down.
There's an advantage in that I guess it reduces tension on the spring
system. I haven't had much of a chance to play with the shortwave,
but the customers who were lucky enough to get them are very pleased.
And we've sold a TON of flashlights. They work from the crank or you
can charge the internal battery either with an AC adaptor or repeated
crankings, or it will shine directly from the crank. We're getting 48
of the shortwave radios in this week. I'll play with it and let you
know how it compares to something like a DX-440 or DX-390 in terms of
sensitivity.

[DeJaMooooo]

Hello Big World,

I'm look'n for some feed-back on the solar radio/flashlight called the
"SunBurst". Having just posted an internet web store featuring this product
I'm anxious to hear what others think about the product... as well as how it
stacks up against the Baygen?

4-way power option: Solar Energy Cell, Dynamo Crank that charges internal
battery, 3AA Batteries, or optional a AC/DC adapter.
Fold-Away Dynomo Crank, Built in FM Antenna, Durable Yellow Acrylic Case,
Blinking Strobe Light Feature, Has a Small Audible "Siren" Feature, AM & FM,
Ear Plug Jack.

I've listened to the radio at half volume and it played for over 6 hours.
Roughly 1-3 minutes of dynomo cranking will give 20 min. of radio time. I've
yet to test the flash light and how long it will shine... I'll post the info
tomorrow on my soon (if I can get some sunshine around her:) Full sun charge
takes 4 hours. One year guarantee from SunBurst.

Humorus Product Tutorial: http://www.wowabunga.com/sm_timer.html

Thanks in Advance,
Buck
****
"When wisemen see storm clouds... they reach for their cloaks"

[ZaaX]

Thanks for the reply Philip. I was wondering what you used for the crank power
storeage system? Would prefer to make something to run all of my portable
radios but have not found a product that will do this short of buying a Baygen
and removing the guts.

Thanks
Zack

[D. P. Roberts]

The BayGen units contain a high-tension spring system for power. The
wind up lantern has provision for getting three volts out so you can
power something that operates on three volts -- say a low-volume
radio. The spring system won't produce a lot of power.

If you want to power more things and do it more efficiently using a
small system, look at www.rain.org/~philfear/solar_power.html and
http://www.rain.org/~philfear/how2solar.html.

[Jeffrey Quick]

In article <199808072125...@ladder01.news.aol.com>, za...@aol.com
(ZaaX) wrote:

> I am considering buying one of the Baygen Freeplay radios and was
wondering how
> good it is. Is the receiver any good?

I tried the AM/FM out at Lehmans on Saturday and wasn't at all impressed
with reception compared with my car radio in the same area. But others
here have reported differently, so maybe it wasn't all wound or it was
just in a bad place (radio waves bouncing off of cast iron stoves??)

How loud is the audio?

Loud enough to be heard clearly in a very crowded store. You won't be
competing with boom boxes spewing rap when TSHTF.

Is it a good value?

If the reception is decent, I'd think so, but I've stated my reservations.

As for the flashlight...it's big and bulky for doing what a flashlight
should do, and only runs 3 minutes on a wind (though you can use winding
to recharge the battery). It would be easier to carry a small flashlight
with some spare batteries, and rely on lanterns for main light needs.

[para...@value.net]

The BayGen Wind Up Radio:

- Has no batteries.
- Crank it 30 seconds, plays 30 minutes.
- Has AM, FM and shortwave bands.
- Has a telescopic antenna for FM and shortwave.
- Excellent shortwave reception with optional retractable antenna.
- Internal antenna for AM reception.
- Optional "Select-A-Tenna" extends AM reception up to several
hundred miles.
- Keeps playing after other radios have gone dead.
- Four-inch speaker for excellent volume.
- Heavy-duty construction.
- Only $99.95
- Will soon be available with a white LED light.

- A small solar panel is available to operate
the radio during the day and will charge
"AAA", "AA", "C", and "D" batteries.

- Can also be powered with a 9 volt AC/DC adapter.

The BayGen radio is also available without shortwave ($69.95).

More information is available at
Pioneer Preparedness Products
http://www.kempe.com/prepare.html

On 7 Aug 1998 21:25:55 GMT, za...@aol.com (ZaaX) wrote:

>I am considering buying one of the Baygen Freeplay radios and was wondering how

[D. P. Roberts]

>I tried the AM/FM out at Lehmans on Saturday and wasn't at all impressed
>with reception compared with my car radio in the same area. But others
>here have reported differently, so maybe it wasn't all wound or it was
>just in a bad place (radio waves bouncing off of cast iron stoves??)

The very worst place to sell a radio is in a store. Every store I've
ever seen with any type of radio has them in the electronics
department where they usually have 5 to 100 televisions running, too.
There are cash registers, aquariums, bar code readers, and probably
dozens of other noise generating equipment as well as having the
radios surrounded by big metal shelves and an even bigger metal
building.

Ask the manager if you can step outside with an employee to test the
radio. Make sure you understand what time of day it is and what
shortwave bands will be active, if that's what you're checking. I
show my customers the AM/FM solar BayGen, and the reception is really
good. We're in a steel-frame building, about 20 feet back from a
large plate glass window. The shortwave radios should be in today or
tomorrow, so I will check on them.

[D. P. Roberts]

I tested out a BayGen shortwave radio this evening. Sitting inside
the store, surrounded by fluorescent lights and a steel frame, but
with a large plate glass window in front, I was able to get a tone of
stations on 31 meters -- Cuba, BBC and many others. I was getting
armchair quality, too. Being too used to digital readouts, I had some
difficulty readjusting, but WWCR was right around 7.3 on the BayGen's
dial, so calibration is pretty accurate. WWV at 10 MHz came in
clearly, as did a whole bunch of 25 meter stations. As it was around
2000 UTC (5 in the evening here), it was a bit too early for a good
test of 60 and 49 meters, but there were a few stations.

I compared the AM section to the BayGen AM/FM solar radio, and found
that the FPR-1 has a slightly noisy AM reception compared to the
FPR-2, the solar unit. The FPR-2 also had somewhat better audio
quality. FM seemed about the same on both units.

So if anyone is concerned about getting the BayGen for emergency
shortwave, go ahead. The coverage on the unit I tested was about 3300
kHz to about 12200 kHz. There is another model which covers something
like 5800 to 15000 kHz or something like that.

Inside the building, the BayGen was comparable to my DX440 with
perhaps a bit better sensitivity. I hear background noise and static
on the BayGen and nothing on the 440 in some spots, but the same
stations generally show up on both radios.

I will probably buy one and keep it back for emergency use down the
road. I'm too spoiled with instant power from batteries and digital
readout down to .00 kHz to really develop a love for the BayGen. But
if I'm ever out camping or something where I can't take my main radio,
or in the dark where my main radio won't work, the BayGen is a winner.

[the....@gmail.com]

Okay these posts were a about seven years ago shortly before baylis radio or freeplay stopped making the spring powered clockwork radios. They are no longer available new but feature heavily on ebay as used products. The original all black model fpr1 was very loud and needed approx 45-50 turns on the crank to wind up the spring. This would give you about twenty or twenty five mins of uninterrupted listening. Am noisy but radio exceptionally robust. The crank could however be turned the wrong way and the device over wound. Otherwise the most robust model they ever made.

The fpr2 without solar backup doubled the play of the fpr1 by slowing the spring release for a few seconds allowing a big capacitor to run down n recharge. Am band perfect can't over wind up or turn crank wrong way. FPR2 with solar would stop spring un winding whilst good light could provide power. If the light dropped the spring generator would auto kick in.

The s360 model was very robust but not as loud. Clear am signal. Most compact but still heavy. An internal battery charged by mains or crank or solar with all the advantages of fpr2 solar model in compact form

I believe they carried on the clockwork generator with mains battery crank n solar charging as well as instant power up to fpr5 with only differences being frequency bands like sw 1 and 2 being on offer.

Thereafter they dropped clockwork generators in favour of lighter cheaper dynamo crank or solar charge battery. No playing time advantages was gained unless charged off mains.

These new breeds are cloned by everyone in varying quality and price ranges.

[Don]

I admit to being a retro, and new radios I get will be with analog
dialing, or at least closely calibrated digital dials. Radio bought
last has the electronic tuning, which recognizes only every other
digit, and believe it or not, some stations broadcast a little off
digit sometimes. Also, you can get a different tone by moving the
dial.

[the....@gmail.com]

the new freeplay breeds don't have spring in power houses sounds like a freeplay tuf that you have. sounds good. i like retro myself as you guessed. the tuf freeplay radio is the most rugged one they have now. is that the one you have?? or is it a freeplay ranger not sure if that olde one was spring powered... but both ideal for power outages disasters camping anywhere off grid and where batteries would be difficult to obtain etc.

out if interest freeplay made one digital radio very retro looking called the devo whilst they were still on spring power. some on ebay once in a while. sadly most went to landfill. why? cos they were under developed for marketing. Nearly a minutes winding got you a naff 2-3 mins play time. eh? so high powered and power hungry dab radio circuits.

okay to make it more marketable it had a backup mains charger. plug in for 8 hours for a lousy 1 hour play. never accepted as a main radio. more if an expensive pain at over a hundred new. battery built in could be replaced but had a stupidly short 6month life.in regular use. I bet a lot of batteries were changed under warranty or the battery would gave perhaps been excluded warranty.

Analogue radio albeit with digital radio station panel uses very little power. same was true of analogue radio transmission. Unless a dab is part of a hifi or really good car stereo. Fm is not that far off sound quality wise for everyday listening. So dab radio not very environmentally friendly all things considered. with analogue radio a distant station mat have gadgets lots of noise but you could still listen to it. with dab if station is a bit off it breaks up into digital oblivion or can't be tuned to at all. In my
opinion if it ain't broken don't fix it!!

[misanthrope]

Just as a more modern comparison, I have an eton dynamo radio that I
listen to on a regular basis. I run it on rechargable AAA energizer
batteries, it takes 3 and I get 8 hrs of listening time out of one
recharge cycle on those batteries.

[the....@gmail.com]

How long do you get out of a 30 second wind of dynamo crank?? Using rechatgable batteries sort of defeats the object of having a battery free radio that is self powered. Okay, I know an internal battery is charged by the crank but its ment to have at least a years self life. So no need to use batteries really. Or shouldn't be. Rechatgable batteries could be used in any radio takes batteries. That begs the question do you get a lousy play time from the crank?

Comments on solar radios traditional clockwork spring wound radios and the best of the dynamo crank radios welcome....

[the....@gmail.com]

As a misanthrope you are presumably a survivalist . I have heard some solar radios recharge standard aaa or aa energizer batteries from the sun. So in a survival situation you would have 8 hours stored energy n instant energy from sunlight. These are more modern no moving parts to go wrong.

Some of the old freeplay radios recharge internal batteries from sunlight and select energy source to save most energy. Well ahead of its time. But solar radios seem the best alternative that's available in current times new.

What was the attraction that made you buy your radio if I may ask?