Re-Wind Solar Radio

My husband is notoriously difficult to buy presents for and every time his birthday or Christmas comes around it is a hit and miss affair. He isn't very good at hiding his thoughts either, which can make for a very depressing present opening session. It is doubly frustrating because, every year, at least two months before the big day, I start asking for some ideas in order to avoid the disappointed puppy look on the day! To date, he hasn't given me a single, sensible idea.

Last year I bought him a solar-powered, wind-up radio as a little extra. It cost me just under £15.00 and, to be honest, I didn't have great expectations of it.

I'll explain why I bought it. In 1997 we were camping in the southern Dordogne in late August. Early one morning, I toddled off to the little shop on site to buy our morning baguette. As I was paying, the owner said, in very hesitant English, something about Princess Diana and hospitals. I wasn't sure what he was saying so I wandered back to our tent pondering on why he would mention Princess Diana at 7.30am. I mentioned it to 'he who is rarely obeyed' and we decided that something pretty big must have happened. Little did we know that we would spend most of that day sitting in the car trying to tune the radio into the BBC World Service to listen to one of the biggest news stories ever while worrying about flattening the car battery. We even had lunch in the car, listening as the full, sad story broke.

Move forward to 2014 and my present-buying dilemma. I remembered our frustration at having to sit in the car just to listen to the radio and decided that a nice little portable radio might be a nice thing to have next to us as we sit in our recliners watching the world go by. My husband never has a day without a newspaper if he can avoid it but it is not always easy hundreds of miles from home. Listening to the news on the radio is one solution.

I bought the Re-Wind radio after reading reviews on Amazon. There are several makes of solar-powered, wind-up radios on the market so, if you are tempted, have a look around. Some also have a built in torch and alarm clock settings but I wasn't too bothered by these features. The model I bought is a simple FM/AM radio that can be powered by solar energy, by cranking the wind-up handle or via a USB port before you leave home. We leave it on the dashboard of the campervan when we are not driving and have found that it charges continuously, even on a fairly grey day. The manufacturers claim that 1 minute of winding will give 20 minutes of listening, and with 5 hours of charging under sunlight you will get 30 minutes of radio time. Fully charged they claim 7 hours of radio use. We haven't tested these claims out but we can say that it hasn't died on us yet in the middle of listening! We bought ours for camping but I can see it would be just as useful in the garden, at the allotment, on the riverbank or at work.

What do we like about it then?:-

• it is really compact (130x73x41mm plus 33mm antenna)
• it's lightweight (203g)
• it is very portable
• it doesn't require batteries
• it charges up well in all levels of sunshine (or lack of..!)
• it has a soft, non-slip rubberised casing
• it feels well made
• it is good value for money at £14.95
• the sound quality is pretty good
• it is straightforward to use and to tune
• even someone with restricted mobility would probably be able to use this radio because there are no tiny, fiddly buttons or knobs to turn

Any negatives? We can't think of any really. It you are as blind as a bat you may need to put your glasses on when you are tuning it because it is a small radio. My husband wears glasses for up-close stuff and he manages it with no problems though.