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Recycle your energy: Shortwave radios & flashlights

I was out this weekend and stumbled upon a cool gadget made by Eton (www.etoncorp.com). It was a shortwave radio with built in LED flashlight and cellphone charger.  All you have to do is turn the crank for about 90 seconds or so to listen to radio & charge the light. It also comes with a siren in case of emergency (say you’re stranded on the side of the road).  You can also purchase a separate AC adapter and some AA batteries in case you don’t want to keep cranking it. It’s a very light unit, much lighter than I would have expected a radio like that to be, that is definitely another bonus.

This is the radio here: http://www.etoncorp.com/product_card/?p_ProductDbId=6173  It also came with a separate flashlight as a bonus which I can’t find on their website. It is strictly a crank flashlight so no batteries needed! I just cranked it a few times and voila…lovely LED light.

No power, no batteries…this is perfect. I’d say it’d be great for camping, picnics, days at the beach or when the power is out of course.  The only drawback is that if you want to listen to it for hours, you will have to keep cranking it. I noticed that a 90 second crank might last about 20-30mins in radio time.  I’m going to crank it for 5 minutes and see how long that goes for. It’s a bit of work but would be a great toy for anyone who loves gadgets. It also comes with its own case which is handy for travelling.

ETON FR250

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