I was getting all ready to place an order for either a Sangean MMR-88 or 99, until I carefully looked through Ray Jay Allen's reviews and user comments on Amazon. This would replace my terrible Sangean U1 which I have removed from service and the purpose is use as an outdoor radio for listening in the yard. Only the AM performance matters in this scenario, but both the 88 and 99 have shortcomings. The MMR-88 suffers from spurious DSP artifacts that appear on random frequencies and are different from one sample of the radio to another. The 99 also has 'het' interference on some frequencies. The AM audio quality of the MMR-99 lacks good highs and is described as 'mellow'. The 88 only has .4 Watt audio power, the 99 better at 1.5 Watts. The U1 gives 4.5 Watts which definitely gets heard. One thing about the MMR-99 that would be good to have is the onboard siren, which could be used whenever someone breaks into the building.
The MMR-99 yes has a mellower sound and on AM only has some "het" on one place...930, nowhere else. I like the MMR-88 as it's small and uses a smaller replaceable battery 18350 and I have 4 of them that I charge in a separate charger and just switch out in rotation. Putting it in a zip lock clear plastic food storage bag weather proofs it nicely.
All the other ones I named as good for us reception wise aren't good for outside as they can't get wet and dust and dirt and small bugs can get inside. They are good for outside if a nice day and a clean area. If you want a radio with decent output and great for outside and can be out in a snowstorm or downpour, winter and summer, dust and bug proof and balanced audio look at these two....Sangean H205 and Sangean H201. No they won't have the audio power the U1 or newer U4 but do you have to be heard over an acre of space? Those two also are easy to carry around and have with you anywhere and are white so won't fry in the sun. Take a look at those.
Thanks to your suggestions, Mark, I looked around for more information about the Sangean H201 and 205 and here is where we are so far...
Radio Jay Allen didn't review either of these, so I looked on Amazon and see that they both use D-cell batteries, which is something I want to avoid. The U1 and U4 also use D-cells. They are way over-priced and don't last very long.
For now I am lost in a haze of confusion.
You can get an AA to D cell battery converter where the AA fits inside a plastic spacer and you can still use rechargable AA NiMh high capacity 2800 mAh and that will play for a couple of days and just have charged extras and rotate. Those two radios are the best for outside and don't care about rain snow or dirt. The U4 also has a much higher power amp and that is what uses the batteries more. These will last way longer. But think of what I suggested with the AAs! You should contact Jay Allen and have him review those two as they are also very good receivers.
The MMR-88/99 I should mention have what you were mentioning.."hets", but not really that, on AM when the sun shines on the solar panel....it causes some squeeling interference noise. Simply turn it away or set it down upside down and that solves that. That solar panel is useless anyways as it takes a whole day to charge a battery from that. Most of the time the sun doesn't shine long enough in a day anyways. Those solar panels are useless and just a gimmic.
For outside nothing better than the H205 or H201. I have an H205. I use two AAs(only takes two) with the D adaptor. Been outside in snow cold sun rain.
Mark, your experiences and the way you share them is what makes part15.org the best forum for learning how to get things done in low power radio. That other so-called forum only claims to be a source of information, but they conceal what they have and make it hard to see. The secret of using AAs in place of Ds is perfect for me because I have an assembly line for recharging AAs and use a lot of them. Earlier the only H205 radio on Amazon was used/re-conditioned, but somewhere I'll look for a new one. Maybe I will reach out to Radio Jay Allen to ask him to review these two Sangean models. It's 5:30 PM again and time for an undisturbed nap even with your Procaster in with the cups.
Thanks for the compliment, although I may have been a little over rated but nice for you to say!
If you are interested they are there with Amazon USA and you can always return paid for by Amazon....for some reason it wouldn't post the link so I took a screenshot of the two
Based on all the first hand knowledge presented by Mark about these outdoor radios I'm going over everything from the beginning before making a final decision. Since my interest is centered on AM band reception, this linked review is of special interest.
Still having hesitations. Three Sangean models still have my interest based on Mark's reviews and my checking some other reviews and specs, but the MMR-88, and H201 or H205 have only .5W and .4W output powers which I think would be good for close listening under quiet conditions, but I need clear speech at up to 20-feet with two adverse situations... the vegetation tends to absorb sound and noise levels sometimes go up with people's power lawn equipment. I try to use my TECSUN PL-310 out there but it only reaches about 5-feet before it becomes unhearable.
There are a bunch of 'worksite radios' by Dewalt, Milwaukee, and Craftsman but they all look like duds. This link is a curiosity because of the low price $29.99.
What about the LB-100...Sangean? Heavy though. But will have the power you want. But the Sangeans are the best for reception. There's always something though. More power = batteries will not last as long on a charge.
Looked into it per the suggestion. There are a few YouTube reviews of the LB-100, but one word got me shaking my head left-to-right-to-left-to-right signifying "No thank you." That word was : "BASS-HEAVY".
Sangean did the same thing with the U1. It has a deep THUMP sound that cannot be rolled off. If only there was a switch or a bass control.
ALL of the radios assume people want thumpy music and none of them consider 'talk' as something anyone will want to hear.
There is a RYOBI Worksite Radio I spent hours researching, and although a lot has been posted in review of it there is no place where the wattage of the loudspeaker is given. Model P742. It claims to be intended for medium sized listening spaces, but has no tone controls. It's $50 but requires a battery charger for another $50.
I don't have these but it's made for long range AM and audio is for speech with bass and treble control and 1 watt output power. Just a little costly and not weather resistant.
https://ccrane.com/products/ccradio-2e-enhanced-am-fm-noaa-weather-2-meter-ham-band-portable-radio
This one also for long range AM and speech tuned audio and 2 watts audio output! Bass and treble adjustments could be just what you want, less money but again can't be out in the rain and not sealed from dust and dirt.
https://ccrane.com/ccradio-ep-pro-am-fm-portable-analog-dsp-twin-coil-antenna-inside/
I like the fact that the 2Watt CCRadio EP Pro has analog tuning. It would do the job, except for the rugged outdoor exposure which would seem like abuse.
The other one, the CCRadio 2E Enhanced is the same form factor as the CCRadio Plus that I already have, but which is out of service because all the buttons across the top stopped working, especially the ON button, which I can get to work if I keep pressing it over and over and over and over and over, forever. Eventually I'll open it up to see about repairing it. Maybe that's the one for outdoor use! A radio I already have!
I kept watching RYOBI P742 videos all day and now I'm a wreck. Some of the reviewers said it was the worst worksite radio in the world and others said it was ideal and they loved it.
Out of curiosity I looked for the audio output power of the TECSUN PL-310 for comparison with the other radios we've been discussing. It is 350mW!
Here's where I'm going to leave it for today. As I mentioned, I've been sniffing around the RYOBI P742 Worksite Radio, and after watching probably 100 videos by YouTube contributors, this one is the most intelligent of all of them because the fellow knows something about the radio.
Two messages for right now...
1.) Because we are still gathering information about outdoor radios I am reverting to the system we have until something new gets decided. We have a Sangean U1, and will spend the $$ for six D batteries which might last for the summer. But we probably won't use AA- converters, because it would take 12 AA batteries and our charger only recharges 4 AAs at a time, so things would be awkward. To solve the 'thump' problem of bass heaviness we use the Equalizer on the VLC Media Player to roll-off the bass, making the speech quality much better. The radio's chronic drift problem will have to be tolerated. It never stays tuned to a station and always drifts off and needs to be physically re-tuned. We'll deal with that by uttering curse words out of range of people passing by on the sidewalk;
2.) We've spotted another 'worksite' radio which might be similar or better than the RYOBI model we've been touting. This is the
Oh, the last character in the model no. of the RIDGID Radio is not 8. it's a 'B'.