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C. Crane CC Observer Wind Up Radio

Colors:

Black

Brand: C. Crane
Category: Sports

Buy New: $39.00 - $44.95
as of 7/29/2010 22:48 CDT details

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Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

17 reviews
Sales Rank: 1,063

Media: Misc.

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Yup it looks familiar. The CC Observer is a wind-up emergency radio that makes no bones about outperforming a distant cousin. You might notice that we did a few things differently. For one thing, we tinkered with the AM for better reception, and then we put the LED flashlight on the side of the radio instead of the front. That way, when you turn it on the light doesnגt shine in your face, and when you carry it, you can use the flashlight to light your way while holding it in a more natural position. You can run the CC Observer off the built-in rechargeable batteries or you can go with 3 "AA" alkaline batteries (not included) if you prefer. Of course, if you don't have alkaline batteries around, just wind-up the radio and keep it running as long as you need. You can even use it to charge a cell phone. In case you're wondering, along with good AM reception, you also get FM and the Weather band which comes in really handy if you're using the radio during a power failure. There's also a stereo headphone jack for private listening. Weight: 1 lb. Size: 7.25" W x 5.5" H x 2" D. We have included cell phone adapters for the most popular, recent model, cell phones so you can charge them with the CC Observer. We are unable to supply adapters for any other models at this time. Certain models, like a Blackberry, can be charged but doing so requires vigorous cranking for a second or two to initialize the charge circuit on the phone. After that initial effort, you can crank it a

Customer Reviews:

Showing reviews 1-5 of 17

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Strong AM/FM performance but falls short in other areas June 30, 2010
Aaron702 (Central Illinois, USA)
We purchased this to have a backup weather radio and to be able to have a flashlight and cell phone charger available. AM and FM performance was not as important, but we knew we'd use it a lot for getting local radio stations. Any reasonable reception would have been fine on just FM alone, as we live in a city. Amazingly, the CC Observer was able to pull in AM stations in the day from over 250 miles away, in perfect clarity. It had bad interference from a computer it initially sat next to, but upon moving it away, the reception was perfect. FM also works very well.

The speaker is not the best, starting to distort at a bit over half loudness and sounding pretty tinny when not distorting. However, it was capable of being truly loud for its size. I wouldn't think many people would listen to this at work through the speaker, but fortunately, the headphone jack is useful for that.

A minute and a half of fast turning provided more than enough power to play with the flashlight and the radio for many minutes.

The light is weak, but if a room was dark, you could definitely read by it. However, for a walk outside at night, it is not what you'd want to use for long, but then this is a small device for emergencies. The switch that turns on the LED light also has a spot that turns on the backlight for the radio display--this is a great addition and it does a great job.

A knob with seven distinct positions governs the weather radio. For my area, my station is at position seven. It is a strong signal, as I live about five miles from the transmitter for this county. Unfortunately, the tuning for position seven is fixed, and the radio was not properly tuned, causing the broadcast to be solid, but heavily distorted. There's no static during pauses in the transmission, but you have to listen much more carefully than with a normal weather radio to sort through the garbled words. It's way too much effort. I contacted C. Crane about this and they assured me there was no easy way to fine tune it, even though I was willing to open it up to use a screwdriver on a rheostat.

The unit comes with five phone adapters for charging. I did not try its cell phone charging ability simply because of the weather station problem--I knew I had to return the unit at that point.

In reading other reviews on Amazon, I wonder if the problems some have with the weather radio were actually this slight misadjustment issue rather than with reception.

Aside from this issue, the radio seems quite nice and useful. I would still encourage people to buy the CC Observer, especially if radio reception is important. Just be sure to check the functions out adequately when you get it.

5 out of 5 stars

High Quality Emergency Radio, could use a few more features April 19, 2010
Marc Axelrod (Potter, Wi USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

I love this radio because unlike so many emergency hand cranked radios, this one has great reception. You get seven weather bands, and band number seven comes through crystal clear. The AM band is unusually strong for a radio of this type.

The radio is built with a protective layer of plastic, it has a handle, and it is lightweight. It has a flashlight along the left side so that when you hold it by the handle, the light shines before you.

It can run with either C cell batteries, but I just use the built in rechargeable one. I turn the crank for about 90 seconds, and it gives me between 45 minutes and an hour of power.

The FM band comes in clearly, but don't expect high fidelity stereo sound.

I like it that there is a DC outlet and a headphone jack.

At night, the AM band can pick up stations hundreds of miles away. Its reception is not quite as good as the AM reception on my Sangean PR-D5P, but it runs rings around all the other emergency radios I've tried under 80 bucks.

There are some features that I wish this radio had. I wish it had a local emergency report band, short wave radio, and a television station band.

But I can't complain because this radio does what it does better than the radios that have these additional features.

3 out of 5 stars

weather channel reception is poor April 1, 2010
Merlin (Houston)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

I had already bought 2 of the Midland crank radios and was happy with them, except the rechargeable battery is small and one failed already after a month. (probably should not have left the adapter plugged in? anyway I wanted another similar radio and gave this one a try. In my house the Crane radio would not pick up any of the weather channels no matter which way I oriented the radio, while the Midland radios pick up several weather stations. So I returned the Crane unit. Also, the Crane radio does not come with an AC adapter charger. For just an AM/FM radio I guess it would be fine and the crank charger seemed to work well (battery arrived flat, but after a minute of winding the radio played.) Anyway, the weatherband is very important to me, so back it went. Thanks again Amazon for an excellent return policy.

5 out of 5 stars

grank radio March 29, 2010
M. James Norris (Asheville, N.C.)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Good sound for a small radio. Station reception is good. Great to have on hand during the winter power outages.

5 out of 5 stars

good product March 23, 2010
Timothy P. Sullivan
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Great radio, no issues. Easy to operate and fun to look at. It does take quite a bit of winding to get a long charge, but what else do yo have to do when all the lights are out. Quality product at a reasonable price. I like it.

Showing reviews 1-5 of 17

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