Random experience buying a wind up radio

[Twoshoesnewshoes]

Just been on Amazon to buy a wind d up radio, prompted by the article on BBC news website today.
so has the rest of the UK, quite weird experience of adding to my basket and it selling out before checkout- three times!
like buying Kate Bush tickets!

anyway, just thought I’d share…
also, my DS said they are all made in China and will have a chip in (presumably a micro chip not a potato chip) that will deactivate it in a crisis anyway.

idk 🤷‍♀️

Wondering if I should have put this in the preppers chat…

I bought one a couple of weeks ago online and it’s only just turned up. It’s a Philips one.

I wound it up briefly last night and was thrilled to listen to the radio and turn the torch on!

I have to say, I had never heard of a wind-up radio until last month.

Don't have one. Won't be getting one.

I do have a battery powered one. It's had the current batteries in since mid 2024. (And we have it on 1-2 hours a day, 3 days a week or so....) I think we'll be OK with it.

The one I ordered is solar powered too, and chargeable via usb
apparently FM uses a lot of power?
I am quite enjoying the prepping stuff now that campervan season is over

I didn’t check on the size and was amazed how tiny it was.

Kindly, I think your son was pulling your leg OP.

@iPreferBooks yes I think so!
though he does work in military security

The radio isn't connected to the internet; how can they hack the chip? It would have to include a receiver and be activated by a radio signal, which would make it bigger and more expensive. It would also be easily discovered by the first radio nerd taking it apart. The chip could include a timer with a countdown instead, which could shut the radio off or cause it to malfunction after x amount of use, but again, it would have been discovered by now as people are using the radios.

I've never had a wind up radio but I did once have a solar powered one and it was absolutely useless.
Having said that it was in the days when DAB radio was relatively new and the poor ( or perhaps non existent? ) signal in my area may have had something to do with it being a dud. It was a Roberts radio so a well known brand. It put me off their radios for years and years although this year I relented and bought one of their mains operated radios and it's brilliant.
I listen to the radio a lot on a daily basis. I don't watch much tv. I have a radio in every room bar the bathroons but I have no intention of buying a wind up radio.

@BaronessBomburst oh I didn’t take it seriously!
but I guess the pagers that all exploded (in Israel?) years after being implanted had some technology that enabled it?

I'd forgotten about those!

A little tip from me. Think about putting an alert in Siri/Calendar to charge up all these things once a month or so. I will never forget going to my very organised box with power banks etc. (when the electric failed in a power cut last year) to discover that they had drained out.

The wind up radio I have can be charged up aswell as wound up, and it can power a phone (like a battery pack), but I'd say it's minimal, enough to make contact with someone though!

Torches are chargeable too, but I have battery operated ones, and a head torch has been invaluable when looking for another torch ha ha.

we have a few old short wave radios, battery, not buying into the panic for these wind up things...prices have tripled on amazon etc and even the local over priced yuppy gift shop now has them at £55..same radio on ali express etc for £8..!!

Our radio is a Majority little Shelford, we have had it for years. It is really good, it's an alarm, etc. It runs on the mains or a battery. It is a proper DAB radio giving great sounds . FM is going out and here gets very scratchy signal. We have a battery charger and a, £5 wind up lamp/charger from Aldi last summer. Personally I don't believe what they say about stocking up, sounds like my mum.

Yes, I really don't get this either. Trevor Baylis did an amazing thing in inventing the wind-up radio, thus bringing a valuable resource for information and entertainment to people in very poor countries, where electricity/batteries are unaffordable for the ordinary person (and/or just really hard to come by)... but a couple of packs of batteries that would keep your standard radio going for well over a year are hardly a difficult thing for most people in the UK to find in the supermarket and buy, are they?

Some people are just enjoying the panic, aren't they?!