todderbert
The idea of going green and off grid works well with the Solar Observer Portable AM FM NOAA WX Band radio by C.Crane.
▶ The C.Crane CC Solar Observer at eBay: http://bit.ly/CCSolarObserver
▶ The C.Crane CC Solar Observer at Amazon USA: http://amzn.to/2ItN8h4
▶ The C.Crane CC Solar Observer at Amazon CA: https://amzn.to/2LsP8rZ
▶ The CC Solar Observer w/ adapter at Amazon USA: http://amzn.to/2Cxpufx
▶ The CC Solar Observer adapter at Amazon USA: http://amzn.to/2EHIXA6
▶ Todd’s Shop: https://www.amazon.com/shop/todderbert
Looking for an emergency radio that is well made, easy to use, and gets great reception? The CC Solar Observer should be on your short list of emergency radios. It surprised me with all the features it had to offer.
Yes, it has a premium price tag, but you can see, feel and hear that difference when using this radio in person.
Features I like about this radio:
FM Reception..wow was it excellent.
Audio is great with its 2 1/2″ speaker.
AM Reception was good, with the ability to pull in many distant stations.
Weather Band Reception may rival my other emergency radios.
Build quality, fit and finish of materials is the best I’ve seen.
The ability to use standard alkaline AA batteries. All emergency radios should have this option.
The dynamo is easy to use, likely the best I have used on an emergency radio.
The back lit analog dial looks fantastic, what a nice touch.
Flashlight.
Carrying handle is well made and nice to use.
Features I wish it had or were improved on:
The solar panel seems a bit small, a larger one would be nice.
A lithium Ion battery like an 18650.
A built in charging circuit that uses a micro USB cable.
A dedicated USB port for charging devices, instead of a small adapter that can get lost easily.
Overall this is a great emergency radio to own and give as a gift to anyone who needs one. It is so intuitive to use that there is virtually no learning curve at all to use it effectively. A solid buy in my book, and if they added those few extra features this radio will continue to sell well into the years ahead.
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Hey man, I got a question. When you said power generator, did you mean it can generate power to a power outage, or did you mean that it can charge the battery? I really don't get it.
Just got mine. anyone have any idea 'how charged'…the Dynamo-Internal Batt's…come charged? would it be Full…or "near empty'…and the idea is, the Owner needs to Charge?
Other deficit is, 'no way' ( light/indicator) to assure 'how much charge'…is on Internals?
Anyway…Unit seems pretty cool. I got mine for the express purpose of being able to get 'news/talk, and some WX…if needed. ( Not…for music, at all) Even 'Travel or Road Condition' updates…for the SHTF. ha ha! ( if…that happens) Thanks for any Info on that!
I am leaning towards getting this radio, mainly because it harkens back to my younger days, plus the simple design. I wish the battery was bigger, though. Would you say this is as good or better than the Kaito 500? This would be for the house and I'm going to get the Midland ER310 for the car.
Commenting very late to ask: anyone know how I can get one of those phone charger/USB adapters? I have an older version of this, which has adapters for the old iPods and 1st Gen iPads, but not the USB adapter. It's about 20 bucks shipped from C Crane – seems a bit steep! Anyone know of an alternative?
At least on FM it sounds like a DSP radio? It seems to "step" through the frequencies. I don't mind that but its something I noticed.
One thing you missed is the fact that the plastic has a low melting point…194 F I believe.
For an outdoor radio that could be used in Arizona in the summer as well as somewhere in Canada and is supposed to be out in the sun it could be a light color as not to be black and fry in the sun where it gets hot to touch putting you at risk for damaging the plastic case and inside parts. A lighter color would greatly protect the plastic from burning in the sun or use better plastic that has a higher melting point like materials used in a car.
I’ve had an original CCrane Observer since 2004, it’s a little worse for wear but it still works!
Can you pick up police on that??
I bought a old Bay-Gen wind-up , solar, radio from C.Crane in the 1990s and it still works as long I don't let kids fight over it/ break it! Brats……I wind it up almost all the way but not quite.. don't want to break the coil inside. Let it unwind and the radio plays for over 2 hours and it dies out, wind up again!
Not available on Amazon now, and eBay had only one used I guess they aren’t making anymore curious
This radio looks pretty good, they should make an upgraded model with a bigger battery
Does it operate while being charged ?
Reminds me of the Grundig FR-200
I’m super stoked about this radio, but I have a silly question.
Does it come in other colors besides Black?
I’d prefer yellow, but I’d even consider a red one.
They say that there's better audio than original, is the audio mellow sounding or harsh to listen to?
Also, have seen reviews about the plastic case having a rubberized coating that gets gooy after awhile and comes off. Is the case plain plastic on the newer models or does this have the rubberized coating?
This helped me decide to purchase this radio. Now I am off to researching packable first aid kit!
Am reception is excellent but it’s even better with their External AM Terk Antenna which is tunable.
a funny little story, was given one of the earliest iterations of this exact model CC Observer radio some years back by my cousin as a gift …it was the Non-Solar model with a black "rubberized" coating (other than those 2 things, everything else is exactly the same as this current Solar model you reviewed here Todd) and i kept it boxed in a bottom desk drawer in the orig box in orig factory bubble-wrap sleeve ..taking out only once in a while to test it. well, recently i took it out removing it from the bubble-wrap sleeve …and the "rubberized" coating had actually begun "melting" …and was now as slimy sticky as maple syrup. so …i spent what seemed like an entire afternoon cleaning it with: first a bit of lacquer cleaner on a clean dry rag …which took off most of the "rubber" …and then finished up with many many wipe-downs (using good paper towels & q-tips) of 70% isopropyl alcohol. finally was able to remove 95% of all that "rubberized" crap coating, thankfully. let it dry out a few days …and it still works great. no wonder that C Crane stopped putting on that "rubberized" coating …im quite sure that many less patient people simply threw away many of these 1st gen models …not wanting to deal with that issue, which frankly (sadly) almost made this very good radio almost UN-usable. thought i'd share (steer clear of the original 1st gen models).
Nice review! I already pulled the trigger on this unit the other day and await its arrival. I ordered directly from C.Crane as they had a 15% off sale on the radio/charger combo package, PLUS I got an extra 15% off using the discount code they offer if you sign up for emails. Radio cost: $36.73, plus $10.01 for the charger and $9.99 shipping. That's how they broke it down on my on-line receipt. $56.73 total out the door. Your review made me happy that I decided on this radio. I have been a fan of portable radios since I was a kid in the early sixties looking at the new transistor radios at the local drug store. I remember once waking up early one morning to be first in line at a dept store having a doorbuster sale. I snagged a sweet little Panasonic AM/FM unit that was clad in red leatherette. It was about 6x3x1 with the external antennae and headphone jack. It was my companion for many years and I have no idea where it ended up. I have had many radios over the years, but that was my favorite. I rocked the sixties with that one before I started into the stereo craze. So when I decided to look for another portable radio for emergency usage I only shopped for retro looking units like the Solar Observer. I wish I had kept my transistor radio collection. Same with my records and comics.
Subscribing to your channel..
I love all the features however I wish it had weather alert.
How would this stack up reception wise against your CC EP?
I love C.Crane radios! The designs, the build quality, the sensitivity and selectivity, the sound, all top notch. They're not cheap but they're worth it. My Skywave SSB and CCRadio 2E Enhanced are two of my favourite and most capable radios. In fact, if I could only keep two physical radios, those would be them.
Looks like a nice radio. What do you think of the tuning knob on the front of the radio? I like the dial light and it's nice that it doesn't make any noise on the AM band. Nice review as always man. 🙂
This is an amazing radio! I've had mine for two years
I'm loving these videos. Thank you for them.
The "classical" station is Milwaukee's religious station WVCY 107.7. the play hymns late at night.
I have a suggestion where to store this radio's little 'dongle' and, like your suggestion, it also uses this radio's web handle. Is there room to push the dongle into the small spaces in the web handle, out near either end of the handle? If so, a short length of tape could be wrapped in a perpendicular direction, to keep the dongle from falling out of the web handle. (Of course, if you don't regularly use the standard AA batteries in this radio, you could use the enclosed space that they normally occupy.)
Going Green & Off the Grid is a Good idea
Love the AM part, To bad you can't get San Francisco AM's like KGO or KNBR