 "Great Value for the Money" | 2009-02-27 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2F9ALG61H1N5W |
| Excellent reception on AM & FM Bands. Shortwave band reception is mostly limited to the strongest stations. Small and compact with decent sound for a portable. Good overall emergency radio and a great value for the money. |
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| "Best Radio for the Price" | 2008-12-16 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2IH27DJZ2DG0 |
Grundig Radios are exceptionally good portable radios. I have two or three around the house each tuned to a different station, because they're so inexpensive. They're also light weight and small enough to fit anywhere. The batteries seem to last forever. The sound quality is very good for such small speakers.
In emergencies a battery pack inside can be charged with a hand crank if the AA batteries quit.
I recommend Grundigs very highly and since electronic stores often don't carry them, Amazon is the best place to buy them. |
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 "FR200 is a good radio" | 2008-09-30 |
| - Reviewed By User: A25O0GQKPNIJXD |
| Smaller then I had imagined but good sound. Need a power supply (adapter) if you are going to listen to it regularly. One model comes with an adapter if you can find it. Sturdy radio, sound is good, battery life seems good also. |
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| "Grundig is a good radio, but I wanted weather channels also." | 2008-09-30 |
| - Reviewed By User: AYS1E8VNCJELT |
| This is a very handy, size, radio with great reception. The only drawback is that it does not have weather channels as I thought it did when ordering. Very good for price but I would opt for an all in one, which would include SAMI weather channels, if doing again. |
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 "Has Several Significant Flaws" | 2008-04-27 |
| - Reviewed By User: APAIWCJHGX629 |
While I am a fan of Etón portables -- not least because they frequently turn up at tiny fractions of their MSRPs -- I found the FR200 pretty disappointing for several significant reasons that are overlooked by most reviewers here.
First, it is not a true dynamo radio like the Baygen, but a battery-powered radio recharged by a dynamo. This would not be as significant an issue if there were not potential problems with battery longevity. There is no AC adapter included and the use of a generic adapter of the appropriate voltage but higher amperage apparently will result in over-charging and damaging the battery, according to the supplied documentation. The Etón AC adapter (only optionally available) is very low-current unit. The life of the battery pack is also limited by the number of charging cycles, so one may not use this unit routinely as a daily radio with the crank without reducing the life of the batteries for subsequent emergency use. The FR200 FAQ on the EtonCorp site somewhat evasively addresses this:
"The rechargeable battery/dynamo-crank system is best used purely for emergency use, but it's not explained well in the owner's manual...When the emergency use factor is understood, this product is excellent for that purpose."
So, as supplied, the only way this product should be routinely used is with the normal AA battery option.
The shortwave analog tuner is adequate at best, but will get strong signals if they are available, which they generally are not in most daytime hours in some seasons. Users who are not experienced with shortwave listening are usually shocked by the difficulty with which audible signals are typically obtained. Shortwave, usually dismissed as an obsolete technology, is often critical in disasters -- I was in a major earthquake in the US years ago and for many hours the only accurate information locally available was from the BBC on shortwave. More expensive Etón SW portables come with a retractable longwire antenna, something that can be approximated with the FR200 simply by clipping a very long wire to the telescoping antenna.
The emergency crank seems relatively sturdy, but was broken on the display model where I purchased mine, so caution is advised.
Etón portables are coated with a thin, rubbery goo for non-slip handling, but this tends to wear off fairly quickly, giving a somewhat mangy appearance.
The mechanical analog tuning is, as always on a small portable, imprecise and approximate -- especially with shortwave. The fine-tuning knob helps this situation a bit.
The AM/FM sound quality is quite pleasant and much richer than one would expect from a unit of this type.
Assembly, fit and alignment are crude compared to other Etón products, but are adequate.
An additional oddity is that the included cloth case has magnetic snaps, so be cautious in placing these next to credit cards or other critical magnetic media.
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| "Perfect Backup Radio" | 2008-02-19 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1ONW8ZCRD2OZU |
| Hopefully we never will need to depend on this radio, but in case we do it will be ready and works well in all our testing. |
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