Sony Pocket AM/FM Radio - $13 and no service contract!

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Turns on AM radio: click…Religious Broadcasting…Click Conservative talkshow…Click…Gospel Music…Click…Baseball game…Click…Religious Broadcasting…Click Conservative Talkshow. click…

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Heads-up: “stuff doesn’t have to fancy”

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I suppose having easily-replacable AA batteries does have its advantages, but I’ve grown rather fond of chargers.

And digital tuning is pretty great.

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I had heard from a friend of mine who grew up in the Bronx that there was a low power pirate AM Death Metal station in the area. Probably gone now.

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What crazy expensive sandwiches are you buying?

I’m sure it’s lovely though.

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Sixth one down on the right is the sandwich I buy and eat on a regular basis. $14 with a tip.

http://www.brunchboxpdx.com/restaurant.html

That does look good, and I’m a vegetarian

I totally dig this reminder that we have radio freely available everywhere we go.Thank you!

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Back in 1999, as I was prepping to go to Burning Man, I picked up a little Sony shortwave radio – the ICF-SW7600G. It wasn’t quite as inexpensive as yours – you can get a very similar model now for about $130 – but 15 years later, I’m still using it all the time.

It does get AM and FM, but the killer feature is, of course, shortwave. I can’t tell you how many nights I’ve spent scanning the planet and hearing an incredible variety of the strangest stuff you can imagine coming out of a radio.

It’s also great when there’s a serious story breaking somewhere in the world, and you can hear the whole globe buzzing with different reactions; different, if it’s a political event, or united, in the case of a natural disaster or an event like Fukushima.

I’m sure there are less expensive shortwave radios out there, but mine has paid for itself many times over. If you’ve never explored shortwave, I guarantee that pretty much any shortwave radio will blow you away.

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I wish we had something like this directory when I was a kid. A lot easier than writing the frequency down in a notebook every time you heard an English broadcast.

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I was trying to source a bunch of these for earthquake/volcano emergency kits. The absolute hilarity of talking to the employees of various electronics departments and trying to explain what a transistor radio is, what it looks like, what it does. Poor dears were just stumped. Were trying to sell me huge boomboxes or bluetooth headsets…
Of course they all defaulted to sending me to Radio Shack. Where they had no clue either!

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We have one of those…except it’s a bit older and has little rectangular buttons for the keypad. It’s a tank.

I dunno man, any sandwich place that thinks a Reuben in any way involves a hamburger patty and a Kaiser roll…

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prisoners often use a similar model: http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/the-ipod-of-prison

Thanks for the shortwave reminder! I think I’ll dig that Grundig hand-crank AM/FM/SW out of the earthquake kit and give it a try tonight… Free entertainment, yay!

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I admit, I don’t eat that sandwich. The Thai burger, however, makes up for it.

i think i have to try a redonkadonk before i die. and it may be the cause of my death.

Non digital tuning can be awesome - we use a similar cheap AA battery powered radio as a “white noise” machine for our daughter who doesn’t fall asleep well.

I’ve owned this radio for almost two years now and I think it is pretty nifty. It’s small, powerful and gets great reception. I bought it to listen to Cubs games while I’m painting in the studio. Pat Hughes is awesome.