Customer Reviews

Mini size solar powered AM/ FM radio, DP936

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Great little radio for the price..and it NEVER needs batteries. Just sit it under a lamp or in the sun and it's good to go for many hours. If you're outside during the day on even an overcast day it will run directly off of the solar cell. It doesn't take much light to power and/or charge it.

Reception is about average on both AM and FM...and yes it does have FM stereo. It's sensitivity and selectivity are adequate for urban and suburban locations...all but the most demanding of situations. It's no DX rig, but it gets the job done.A FM stereo/mono switch helps aid in fringe reception.

The sound quality is much better than you would expect...not bad at all. Highs are clean and there is a reasonable amount of bass response (with good headphones of course). It's not the loudest radio in the world, but it's output power is respectable...a bit more powerful than your average modern Walkman or MP3 player...strong enough to drive less then efficient headphones.

As per usual with just about everything that comes with headphones..you'll want a better pair as the ones that come with it are awful. But that's business as usual and to be expected.

This is novelty radio rather than one that would be for regular use. When the rechargeable cells inside are fully discharged, when placed in a window that doesn't get direct sunlight, or on an overcast day, it can take up to 2 days to fully charge with the solar cell, with the radio off. Under those conditions the solar cell will not have enough power to run the radio, as the drained rechargeables are using all the power to recharge.

So if the rechargeables are drained, the radio will not play unless you have the power of direct sunlight.

Direct sunlight will fully recharge the batteries in about 5-6 hours with the radio off.

Runtime on a full charge is about 4 hours.

Amazingly for this low price, the radio does come with an AC adapter that will run the radio, & recarge it in about 3-4 hours.

Sound quality is absolutely horrid on AM & FM no matter what headphones I used. The headphone that did come with it sounded pretty good when plugged into something else. The sound was distorted & scratchy, sorta like an over compressed mp3... like 36kbs mp3.

Reception is poor on both bands. No DXing with this little runt.

Amazingly, it had the power to power a pair effcient external un-powered, un-amplified mini-speakers to a listenable level, but not loud of course.

Tuning knob is stiff & difficult to turn without accidentally jumping like about 1/2 the band past your station. Tuning is done with an old fashioned ordinary variable capacitor found in older radios. It shorts out during tuning in certain ranges of the dial. Turning the dial back & forth may un-short it good enough to get the desired station.

I suspect the insulating spacers in the tuning capacitor can't take the heat of being in direct sun. It seemed the more I charged it in the sun, the worse it got. As of yesterday the tuning was stuck & would not turn at all, after with great force getting it to turn, it would not tune any stations. It was just the same garble of several distorted AM stations overlapping, even when the band was switch to FM. FM stopped functioning month ago. Switching to FM did nothing, it would still stay on AM.

I only had the radio for about 6 months, & it was hardly used. It never was never outside the house, & was never abused. Recharging was done mostly in a window that doesn't get much direct sunlight except around the cool early morning hours. Air conditioning used all summer, so the radio shouldn't have got unusually hot. All my other portables have been outside in the sun, in over 90F heat & still work fine for years.

Great concept. I really hoped it would work. It needs a better tuning capacitor, one that could take the heat of the sun or varactor tuning. Clean up the distortion too.

Why 3 stars then? I got a fair 3 volt AC adapter. Good stereo earbuds. A decent solar cell, & the mini rechargeables in it.

I'm gonna glue the solar cell to the back of my Grundig mini 300 radio, to charge the batteries in it. The AC adapter seems to power any radio running on a pair or AA or AAA cells just fine, & spare earbuds are always handy. The cats keep running off with them thinking they're cat toys.

Update: They're so incredibly cheap, I decided try another after the last one died. So far it's working much better than the first one. Had it in direct sunlight a bit too, without the analog tuning cap warping & going bad from the heat of the sun.

These use old Ni-cads, not modern NiMh, & are not user replaceable. But you can if you know where to find the replacement cells & are handy with a soldering iron, it's not hard to do. Still, it may last many years before you need to. sound quality is just as crappy as my first one though. AC adapter/charger (for when there's not enough light) & earbuds are included.

Adapter will power other small 2-cell radios, as long as you make sure the adapter's polarity is compatible with the radio. the adapter & earbuds alone are worth the money. If the radio dies, the solar cell can be removed for other projects.

I'll stick by my original claim that this is mostly a novelty radio, rather than being very useful.