Wind up/ solar digital radio?

[mrsmiggins]

Does anyone know of a good wind up/ solar, etc radio (anything that doesn't need mains or batteries), all set for digital that isn't too expensive?

[snapdragon]

I have a camping one - no idea if it's digital as I haven't tuned it in at all, they do have batteries though - they get topped up by the winding action/solar panel

[snapdragon]

it's not digital - 'cos it's in sinc with the old plugged in radio

[Big Al]

Does anyone know of a good wind up/ solar, etc radio (anything that doesn't need mains or batteries), all set for digital that isn't too expensive?

here is the main digital site for those that are interested. http://www.ukdigitalradio.com/ but to answer your original question Roberts radios are the rolls royce of radios. If you look at the products tab on the site linked you will see a range of radios. From there you can see what you want.

I've had two wind up torches and one wind up radio all be it not digital but all three had the freeplay mechanism and all three mechs have bust.
There are a vast range of different means to power the radios so a lot of research is needed by you to be safe. For instance if you see a solar panel on a radio it doesn't mean that it charges fully by the solar panel but mearly the solar panel "keeps" the current charge in the batteries. Therefore it has to be fully charged to work before ther solar panel keeps topping up the radio etc.

Also what other attributes do you need / want ? Some have an aux in so you can plug an external player such as an ipod into the digital radio to listen to your music if you find nothing on the 50 ish digital chanels.

some are more portable than others if this is an issue and some need mains charging only....

hth but I guess it will only muddy your request...

BA

[ina]

Digital radios need a lot more energy than analogue - which is why I hate the idea of being forced to go digital in future! The only digital wind up one I've seen so far needed about 1 minute winding up for each 5 minutes play... Not a sensible option.

[mrsmiggins]

Digital radios need a lot more energy than analogue - which is why I hate the idea of being forced to go digital in future! The only digital wind up one I've seen so far needed about 1 minute winding up for each 5 minutes play... Not a sensible option.

Hmm, this doesn't sound good! I thought I'd better get a digital one to save waste later, but not if they're rubbish!

[ina]

The radios aren't rubbish - the digital technology is. How can they force a technology on us that increases our use of energy, and at the same time preaching that we must all use less energy in future!?

[Annpan]

JohnM (my OH) says.... and he thinks he knows about these things... and I am inclined to agree....
...
anyway he reckons that they will never switch OFF the analogue radio signal. The consequences would just be to big to imagine, the public don't want it to happen and it would cut off people from the rest of the world... so they quite simply will never do it. Plus the fact that the technology just isn't ready, and won't be for a long time, a long, long time.

[ina]

Ann - did you mean "off" in your post? That way it would make more sense - and very welcome sense, too! I'm not going to go digital; if they really ever do the deed, I'll just live without radio.

[Annpan]

I did mean 'off' duly edited, sorry about that