Hand Cranked Generator

Back in history (around 1930s I guess) in Oz Rev. Flynn set up the "Mantle of Safety" for far flung outback stations (farms) It became The Royal Flying Doctor Service. His friend Albert Traeger designed and manufactured the "Pedal Radio" A high frequency (short wave) receiver and transmitter. Being all thermionic valves it required quite a lot of power just to run receiver perhapsd 40 watts and even more on transmit. Of course in those days there was no electricity of any sort in the bush. Traeger built a box to go on the floor with bicycle pedals and generator (no battery) such that with some pedal effort a radio session could be maintained. The point is he observed that much more power could be produced by a human using legs. Now I live in Oz with any amount of sunshine so have set up a small solar panel with USB connector for charging torch or phone should power fail seriously. Along with a USB battery set up I would not consider a hand crank charger. Charging just takes too long. ol'will
 
Its good to have a reliable source to produce power on demand. However, nowadays, solar panels produce power even when its cloudy and battery storage is equally as good. In my opinion, the Hand cracked Generator would have been useful perhaps 20 years ago, but I doubt it if anyone will ever need to use it nowadays. I have a hand cracked FM radio, but never used it.
 
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