1 April, Levittown, PA–The North American Shortwave Association (NASWA) today announced the development, in conjunction with their research arm, the NASWA Research Lab, of the Spring-Driven Thing, an add-on that can retrofit existing radios with spring-wound generators to power the radios.
"Wind-up radios have been a source of great excitement in the hobby since the unveiling of the Baygen FreePlay last year," explains NASWA Technical Topics editor Joe Buch. "The NASWA Research Lab quickly realized that there was an opportunity to bring some long-standing research to market, as the Baygen company was unable to produce enough radios to meet the strong demand here in North America.
The add-on kit can be retrofitted, with certain limitations and caveats, to almost any radio on the market. "Naturally, some radios are better suited for this modification than others," says former NASWA Executive Director and noted Collins enthusiast Chuck Rippel. "The R390A, for example, is an excellent choice for this particular modification, especially as the radio formed the development platform for the product."
NASWA Journal Easy Listening columnist and world traveller Richard Cuff is looking forward to receiving one of the first units. "I take my Sony 2010 around the world, but it eats batteries like anything. It’s a real pain to be sitting on a hotel balcony in Kuching, Malaysia, listening to the dulcet easy listening tones of Radio Pyongyang, and have the batteries die. This peripheral could be a lifesaver for people like me who make their living travelling to places where batteries can sometimes be hard to come by on a busy schedule."
"The Spring-Driven Thing will be available immediately from the NASWA Company Store," says a pleased-looking Kris Field, company store proprietor. "The NASWA factories have been working overtime to make sure we had an adequate stock on hand to meet what we expect will be extremely strong demand from the day of announcement."
NASWA Executive Director Rich D’Angelo notes that, "NASWA is proud to take part in this historic move in radio toward a more environmentally sound hobby. And if we can make a buck off of it, all the better."
Details about the Spring-Driven Thing and about the NASWA Research Lab are available in Joe Buch‘s Technical Topics column in the April edition of the NASWA Journal. The article is also available, with color photographs of the modified radios and of the lab that produced them, from NASWeb, the official web site of the North American Shortwave Association. The article can be found at the following URL:
http://www.anarc.org/naswa/issues/0496/tech0496.html
Press Contact:
Ralph Brandi
ralph@mcs.com
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