In search of a good little radio for bicycle touring.

I found the best radio for my bicycling. Thinking I would have to buy from Amazon as radios are a rare item, web searching also directed me to REI, a local retail outlet where I could pick it up here in Bellingham.

People often say, "why not use the smartphone for everything?" Then they run down the battery trying to do everything.

For long trips, I find just an old fashioned radio is useful. It can play for hours preserving my phone battery for other things. I just put the earphone into one ear as it's always good to use the other ear for traffic. This sometimes means cutting off one side of stereo earbuds.

REI is an outdoors and camping store so a durable simple radio fits their inventory. It's also on Amazon and other places, but most local retailing doesn't do much for obscure products like radios anymore.

Speaking of new technology, I also have an HD radio. I use that more at home. It gets special HD signals that old fashioned radios don't get. We have a few HD stations in this area. It's portable also, but I found out it's picky on what type of rechargeable batteries it takes.

The batteries it likes are digital themselves. They have electronics to stabilize their voltage output. The battery electronics creates so much static that my fancy new radio doesn't work on the AM band. It works okay on house current, however.

We live in a complex technological time, but I do find technology interesting; at least if one has some patience. Patience is in short supply in modern times.

Rechargeable batteries are better for the environment than throwaway batteries. I recently learned that rechargeable batteries put out less voltage than the throwaways. That's why my HD radio kept turning itself off with regular rechargeable batteries. I got some special batteries for it from Amazon (good luck finding them locally). Then I discovered the static problem.

I can use those rechargeable batteries in bike lights so all is not lost. My new radio just takes the regular old rechareable AA batteries, but it doesn't get the special HD signals. That's not a big loss.

First world problems, but not really. I hear that there are more smartphones than toilets in Africa. Technology can be complex, but people keep wanting it, or at least the prosperity it implies. AI helped me navigate the complexity of this situation.

Glad I at least have some patience and interest in this kind of stuff. The Prosperity, that people seek, provides these things. I still don't wish to open the Pandora's box of automobiles, however.