Freeplay F360 Wind-Up Radio

These splendid little feats of engineering were first conjured up by Trevor Bayliss, and were given to remote areas of Africa and the rest of the third world so that the people could be kept informed of world events. Often it was hard to find out what was happening in their own country. The beauty of them is that once given to people there were absolutely no hidden costs. No batteries or mains electricity needed. Just the sun ( which I hear is about a bit in Africa) or human effort to wind it up. Whilst the poverty stricken of the world had thgis product for the bargain price of £0.00, it generally retails for us rich capitalists at around £40.00. My mother ...  Read the complete review

The Freeplay F360, is a solarpowered and windup FM/AM radio. We use ours in the bathroom - great for listening to the Radio in the bath, without the frustration of the batteries dying whilst you are soaking. In the summer it works fine on a sunny windowledge, charging up during the day and giving you hours of listening pleasure. In the winter it needs a good deal of winding. FM seems to use more charge than AM, so a full winding only lasts about 25 minutes on FM (although I do like it quite loud in the bath!). It is great for gardening - just leave it to itself and it plays away for hours... but don't get dirt in it - it makes it really grind away. ...  Read the complete review

This radio was designed for use in remote parts of Africa and third world countries. It has two means of power, the first being clockwork and the other, solar. You can wind the radio and each rotation equals approximately one minute of play time. If you have a sunny day, place the radio in full sun and the solar panel drives it. It's a superb concept and costs absolutely nothing in running costs but it is quite a large item to carry around. The winding mechanism is a little noisy, especially if your neighbours are sitting the other side of your garden fence and it has a maximum of roughly fifty winds (fifty minutes play). One thing ...  Read the complete review