Toadmeister

That’s the way I see it too, Satellite radio killed by smartphones. Same deal in my truck about 4 years back I said, why am I paying for Satellite when I already got my phone connected via Bluetooth? I subscribe to Amazon Prime music too, which is what I normally use when riding locally. In general I can get 3G service or better in most locations in the Midwest but haven’t tried it in the Remote Mountains yet, which is where I plan riding in the next few years on some bikepacking trips.

Thus I circle back to simple radio. Want to conserve the phone battery for mapping and communication. Don’t get me started on a separate mapping device! That’s a subject for its own.

staehpj1

A few thoughts on how that all has worked out for me...

Personally I found the management of all this easier before all the phones went away from swappable batteries. I used to carry multiple phone batteries. I bought them from a third party battery supplier for a fraction of the cost that the phone vendor charged. I had several of those tiny chargers they were cheap and about and ounce a piece. I could charge all the batteries at once and could go a long time between charges. I used the battery sparingly by leaving the phone off when not in use or at least in airplane mode, almost never having in the mode of being a telephone capable of receiving calls. I called home once in a while, but texted more often. Some places I kept it on for navigation others I didn't. I never left it in the mode of searching for cell towers as I rode in and out of service areas. I also never left it in the mode of searching for wifi signals when riding. Either of those kill a battery super fast. Times when I just texted home at night and made a brief call to home once in a while I could go weeks on one battery without charging if I needed to. Texting is quick works well when the signal is poor and uses little battery as a result. Email composed offline requires the phone be on longer, but you only turn on the cellular or wifi long enough to send it off. again much less battery than you'd probably use with voice calls.

Still using a phone with most of the services turned off to listen to downloaded music or a downloaded audiobook drains the battery very slowly.

Tourist in MSN

I did that too. Bought some spare phone batteries, some generic and some with the brand name of my phone. Charged up some of my phone batteries in an external generic Li Ion charger. Put a charged battery in my phone and got a warning that it was an invalid battery. Then, same with another. Somehow, charging up two of my spares without using the phone circuitry to charge it caused the phone to decide it did not like that battery any more. Fortunately, I only charged up two batteries in the external charger. My others are still useable. And it was batteries from the phone manufacturer that are now unusable, not the generic brand batteries.

Just making a warning here, fortunately in my case I was home when I discovered the batteries were now defunct.

I will continue to use the external charger for my camera batteries, but I will only charge my phone batteries in my phone in the future.

staehpj1

They put all kinds of "smart" circuitry in some batteries these days. Maybe that is the case with your batteries. I never had any issues with my phones that had changeable batteries, but and not too surprised that you did. Mine were tiny little things that I don't think had any circuitry other than the lithium cells themselves, but I could be wrong.

I know that for example my battery tool batteries (ryobi) die prematurely all the time showing as bad and unable to take a charge. I found that if I hit the cells directly with the appropriate voltage bypassing the circuitry for as little as 2-3 seconds with another battery they will then take a charge fine. It happens anytime they are drained below a certain level. I got tired taking them apart and drilled little holes in the case to access the cells directly without need to take anything apart. The batteries are very expensive and should should last longer that this premature "failure". I actually find that once jump started again they seem to take a full charge and be fine as long as you don't run them way down to really dead. t makes me want to boycott the brand, but I have a lot invested in a bunch of tools.

Tourist in MSN

In my case, the batteries were charged up that the phone refused to work with. I suspect that there is some circuitry in the battery that if you charge it simply by using a charger with + and - that it will later tell the phone that you did not do what the phone manufacturer wanted you to do.

There is some protection circuitry in some but not all Li Ion batteries to prevent them from being charged if voltage falls below a certain level, it is a safety factor. On this topic I only know what I have read on the internet so I know very little on the topic, but it is my understanding that when a Li Ion battery falls to low voltage levels, pressure can build up that can make the battery unsafe to charge.

A couple weeks ago I had a camera battery that I took from storage, tried to put it in the camera and the battery was bulged out, would not slide into the camera. Checked voltage, it was zero. One more bad battery I need to drop off to recycling. I have had several camera batteries that were bulged out when they failed.

Toadmeister

Cool discussion batteries. Back to radio.....

I tried out the radio antenna to my Bluetooth speaker today, pretty much useless. It improved slightly from mumbling static to me actually just making out the Static words to Kid Rock’s “All Summer Long”.

So dead end with that device.

rmball28

SanDisk Clip Sport Go MP3 player and FM radio.

staehpj1

I had forgotten that a lot of the first little mp3 players included a built in FM radio. My old iRiver had a decent FM radio. Most of them are probably available used on eBay for fairly cheap if they are still around after all these years. I think they use AAA batteries.

Trevtassie

Hah, get yourself one of these https://swling.com/blog/2017/01/the-...er-dx-catches/ and if there is radio to be received, it will receive it. Has every broadcast band in the world, plus a bunch of other bands and is smaller than a packet of cigarettes.
Unfortunately a lot of Short Wave broadcasters are now defunct, when I worked in the jungles of PNG pre satellite internet one of these was how I got my news.
Mostly when I'm touring radio would be of novelty value only, I'd still need google translate to get what the announcers are saying.

havighurst

I use this one.

https://www.amazon.com/Retekess-Port...s%2C236&sr=8-4

It is small and light. I also got it during an Amazon lightning deal for around ten bucks. I use a single ear earphone and it serves my purposes.

TiHabanero

Back in the 70's we checked the weather forecast in advance and took off on tour. Came prepared for what was expected and it was all OK. Today, I do the same thing except I sing while riding. Brings a lot of joy to my heart. Still trying to play the harmonica as well. Mostly noise is made, not music, but after 40 years my ears have become accustomed to it.

djb

I'm a whistler myself

adventurepdx

Alas, that particular Sony radio hasn't been made in 15 years. And used ones are fetching $300-500 on eBay.
If you want something more modern, C. Crane has their "Skywave" radio. It's got AM/FM/SW and also Weather band, which is cool since most Shortwave radios hadn't included that. I've been using one for about four years. REI sells them, so that means you can use your dividend and/or coupon to pick up one:
https://www.rei.com/product/101541/c...e-pocket-radio

I've consistently picked up Radio Havana Cuba and Radio New Zealand on my radio. Sometimes I'll pick up a Chinese broadcast or some other random station.

adventurepdx

I've used a radio on tour for about a decade. I don't listen to it while riding, it's just for at camp or on a break. It's nice to listen to the news while making dinner, especially when I'm going solo. All the radios I've used had Weather Band, which comes in pretty handy, especially if you're touring in an area with no cell service. The one depicted is an Eton Scorpion that I used awhile back, I don't think they make this model anymore.