Call it dumb luck, but my beach vacation timing this year couldn't have been better! I vacationed last week at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; NORTH Myrtle Beach to be exact. In the weeks leading up to my vacation, temperatures were at or over 100 degrees----uncomfortable even by ocean front standards.
During my vacation week, we enjoyed temps in the mid to high 80s, beautiful, comfortable water and only one day and one night of rain. This week? Hurricane Irene has them clearing the beach and sending tourists packing.
Of course, I was thinking of Herculodge while I was away. Pictured here, my essential beach/Summer vacation gear----radio and watch. I went with my "custom" Nixon El Dorado black watch face fitted with a Modena orange silicon band. Orange goes well with beach wear and accentuates a tan! I also packed my well worn Sangean ATS-808 AM-FM-SW radio and enjoyed some fine listening. I found that the shortwave signals were more numerous and stronger at Myrtle Beach than at my home near Washington, DC. But I have to admit, my radio was tuned to AM 900 WNMB (W North Myrtle Beach) for most of the vacation. It's a great oldies station that is also available on the web. Yes, they played a few of the tired, overplayed oldies we're all sick of. But they also played a large catalog of great late 60s/early 70s hit music that has been in mothballs all these years----more obscure music that was a hit at one time but largely forgotten since. The memories came flooding back (no pun intended considering the hurricane).
Right now, I'm gearing up for a tough overnight and we'll likely be contending with lots of rain and high winds----hopefully the storm will move east and we won't suffer massive power outages and property damage. My Radio Shack SAME (Specific Area Message Encoding) weather radios are at hand to help get me through it all.
Angelo
I still have my Radio Shack DX380, which I think is the same radio. I thought it was underrated back in 1992 when I bought it and I still do.
I don't use it all that much anymore, it's in the guest bathroom, but every once in a while I'll do an hour or so of AM DXing with it and I am still pleased by how good it is.
In fact, the only thing I never really liked about it is that it doesn't have any way to illuminate the display for use at night. But other than that it's the equal or better than my 7600GR and YB400, two more famous radios that it competed with.
Posted by: Ken K. in NJ | August 27, 2011 at 03:16 PM
Once again, I'm hunkering down in old Massachusetts, waiting for the weather to descend upon us, with my trusty weather radios and local AM broadcasts talking us through the hurricane. I know the internet will be slowed to a crawl - useless to me as usual - and that we may lose power anyway, but I'll be kept well informed without it. I can't imagine enduring these storms without radio. I've got plenty of batteries on hand and even a CC Observer with its dynamo crank and LED lamp. Radio has made passing these long nights and days much easier, much less anxious.
Once in a while, being a radio maniac actually pays off, even in the eyes of one's wife!
Posted by: Tim | August 27, 2011 at 08:47 PM
I feel the way you do, Tim. A radio is a comfort. Safety to you and your family.
Posted by: Jeffrey McMahon | August 27, 2011 at 09:46 PM
On another topic - I find it very interesting that, on Amazon, the most outstandingly flattering reviews of the Sangean 909X radio are written by people who haven't written any other reviews. Hmmm....
Posted by: Tim | August 28, 2011 at 07:57 PM