PanasonicPortable AM / FM Radio, Battery Operated Analog Radio, AC Powered, Silver (RF-2400D)

I purchased this Panasonic portable radio for emergency use during storms and tornadoes, and it has far exceeded my expectations. The radio is incredibly reliable for picking up AM and FM signals, even during rough weather conditions. It has been an essential part of my emergency preparedness kit, giving me peace of mind knowing I can stay informed even if the power goes out.I also use it when we go to the drive-in cinema, and the sound quality is surprisingly great for its size. The audio is clear and loud enough, and it has a solid reception, picking up stations easily. The analog tuning gives it a classic feel, and it's easy to adjust the station with precision.What I love most is how portable and simple it is to use. It's compact, lightweight, and operates on batteries, so I can take it anywhere without worrying about recharging. The battery life is also excellent, making it a great companion for outdoor activities or travel. Overall, this radio works exactly as I hoped – great sound, easy to use, and perfect for emergencies and fun events alike!

This is the best basic radio I have ever had. Am, fm, volume control and on off selector sw. Great reception and a good size 4 inch speaker. Battery and 120ac power. I recommend this to anyone needing a basic great radio.

Bought for times when the weather is bad and we have no electricity. Works well on battery power as well as a plug in radio. Sound and volume are good, tuning is easy. About the size of a cigar box, if you can relate! Good handle. Not very attractive, but certainly a good value.

I bought two of these radios to use as monitor receivers for a broadcast station's Emergency Alert System(EAS). All the radio has to do in this application is receive a station off the air, and route its audio to the EAS encoder via its earphone jack. Something any analog radio receiver should di very well, right?I tested the radios as radios and they worked fine. I did notice that the radio has some sort of augmented tuning, and seemed to tune in steps, especially on FM. But when I got the radios close to the EAS encoder, the audio started to cut out, both on AM and FM. It got worse when I connected the earphone jack to the encoder. Thinking that there was some sort of EMI being conducted out of the EAS encoder, I added an inline hash filter of my own design, and this actually made the problem worse. I have never seen a simple radio behave this way. And lots of broadcast stations use inexpensive radios like this as monitoring receivers.I eventually went to a thrift store and picked up a couple of older radios that worked just fine for this application. Curious as to what circuitry this radio used, I opened one up (see picture) Although not surprised to find most of the guts of a modern radio on one chip, I was astounded by the almost total lack of any kind of frequency selective components. No IF transformers. No ceramic filters I could find. Only one inductor besides the AM bar antenna. And very surprisingly, no tuning capacitor (The tuning control is the pot in the middle of the PC board) So apparently, this radio is some sort of direct conversion receiver, or some sort of software defined radio. I don't know what the chip is, but I do know there are at least a couple AM/FM receiver chips available that use conventional superhetrodyne circuitry. In any case, this solved the mystery of why this radio works so poorly-- it has no selectivity components. If it is hit by any kind of broadband noise (like a poorly shielded digital device, or a room full of them), it quickly overloads the radio's front end. For those who were reporting in other reviews that this radio was intermittently cutting out, it was probably broadband noise causing front end overload.Despite this flaw, they are fine as an ordinary radio, and I will keep them for this purpose. I just won't use them an any environment with a lot of electronic noise.UPDATE: I decided to try one of these radios as a monitoring receiver at the radio station the EAS project is for. Much to my pleasant surprise, it worked fine there. And this with the radio about 100 feet from an FM transmitting antenna radiating about 100 watts of RF power. I am not noticing any meaningful desense from the transmitted signal. So now, I need to find out what is different about my home environment that might be causing the original issue.

UPDATE 05.01.2021. The batteries last you about 2 months with occasional listening about 1.5 hour per day. Thats with rechargeable NiMH 2000 mAH batteries. These batteries lasted me just short of 2 months for limited usage per day (average about 1 hour per day for 2 months). Thats about 60 hour of operation for one set of rechargeable batteries. Not to bad but neighter outstanding. Considered it uses 4 AA batteries using rechargeables is a must. When the radio starts to stutter reception then thats the sign the batteries will die within a minute. Once the batteries are dead after the intermittent reception (stutter) then the radio makes no "hissing" sound anymore. This radio will not go gradually weak as a Sony does for example. It will hold volumen, sound quality till the very last and then dye off within a minute. Other radios go slowly quieter (you notice batteries are dying by having to jack up ever more the volume knob), and reception gets poorer. Not so this one. It holds the reception and sound quality till the very last and starts to get intermittent stutter type reception (off.on.off.on. etc) for about half a minute and "turns off". The radio must have some built in power stabilizer to maintain voltage since it seems to hold power till the batteries are completely dead. For me thats an excellent electrical design and power management. Good job Panasonic. The speaker is outstanding and the loudest I have ever experienced on this size of radio.However the voice based sound settings of this radio make any statics more noticeable while listening. This radio is clearly intended by its sound settings (bass, treble, etc) for voice listenings and not so much for music. That on the other hand makes any statics from the radio station or transmission more noticeable (ticking sounds, etc). This radio is IMHO on par if not better than the competition from Sony, except on the sound the Sony has a slight advantage (however the Sony I have is not nearly as loud than this Panasonic).Buy with confidence this Panasonic radio.MAIN REVIEW: This is the best radio I had ever. I recommend. There are just a few minor things which are not the optimal. The speaker has not the full rich sound quality of an Sony radio this size (ICF-19 for example). I would say it lacks a little bit of bass. As well my Panasonic RF-2400D did shift from an AM station after 10 o clock at evening while it was tuned (red light lightening) and then from itself the tuning light went off. So an weaker AM station (I guess the particular AM station reduces its power output after 10 o clock at evening) did shift a bit on the tuning as such as the red light was not on anymore. I dont know why that happens. During daytime this does not happen.The speaker is the most powerfull I have ever experienced on any radio and the older Sony ICF-18 not even comes close to the loudness of this Panasonic speaker. It truly lives up to its sound power statement. Believe me, it will get very soon too loud at about 10% of the power screw turned up while the Sony ICF-18 gets the same loudness at about 70% of volume knob turned up. You will not complain about an powerless speaker since this speaker is the most powerfull I have ever experienced on an radio. It has lots of ooompf!It takes 4 AA batteries and I use allways only NiMH rechargeable batteries (Eneloop or similar). I even used the radio with no problems where one rechargeable battery (Energizer) was faulty and dead. So the radio is not iffy and will work even when one of the batteries of the 4 is completely dead.This is simply the best radio on the market although I believe its a bit overpriced at just over 30$. I can see these costing 20$ but not more since we are not anymore in the "tube radio" times where radios cost an arm and a leg.The box the radio came in was in a bad shape and was definatelly beaten up visibly and the radio got a slight buff on the plastic but nothing was visibly broken. The radio can be easily damaged in this box since it is not encovered totally in foam but only the edges.AM reception is quite stronger than the one an Sony ICF-18 has. Tuning in is preciser. Distortions are way less than those on the Sony. The quality is very good and the design as well as it is an classic 1990's design. Very nice design and quality feeling. The tuning knob makes audible clicks when you turning it when off and the volume wheel has a quality feeling to it as well. Seems quality materials were used in this radio so maybe that justifies the steep 30$ price tag. The speaker grid is not that thick and can be bent in with one finger - its seemingly metal. For AM radio reception you dont need to extract the antenna which supposedly according to the manual is for FM. The AM radio stations I receive are about 95 miles away. I can hear them very well. The one FM station over here (rural aerea) is about as well 95 miles away but I can not receive it at all.IMO the 48$ Sony radios do not offer any advantage over this 32$ Panasonic radio as to justify the price tag. This Panasonic is Made in Indonesia and seems to be the upgrade from 2017 (Manual is from 2017). This Panasonic has an digital tuner but an analog scale (hence the designation "D" in its model number), so thats a plus.The battery cover is of quality and hinged so you dont loose it.This Panasonic radio looks to me as it is still old Made in Japan quality workmanship of the 1980's. It is a bit retarded on the newest & greatest bells & whistles, like its headphone jack is mono only meaning hou hear just in one ear on your headphones and its scale is not digital (the tuner however is digital beneath the analog scale). So it's clear the japs got a little stuck in their technology in the 1980's compared to modern (very expensive) korean Sangeon brand radios. But radio is radio and the japanese maintained their superb quality and relative competitive price tag. Since the modern radios are all transistor radios, this radio should last a long time given the quality materials used in it. The manual states this Panasonic RF-2400D has an built in ferritic antenna which YouTube videos confirm being it of about 4 inches long and fairly thick. Thats may explain the very good AM reception. Turning it around it allmost never looses signal inside the house of these 95 miles far away AM stations. However the reception is not dramatically better than that of the newer Sony models (I compare it with the Sony ICF-18) but it has no statics on clear weather. If the weather is tending to rainy then statics are same as for the Sony models. But otherwise statics are not an problem with this, at least it is equal to any high end radio brand. The Power Off/FM/AM switch is IMHO way better than that of the Sony brands. However I wished it would be as on the Sony being Off in the middle and then left or right eighter AM or FM. Since I use only Am then I allways have tot switch passed the FM setting to get to the Am setting for switching on and viceversa for switching it off. However the switch does not feel slimsy as some have stated. Volume and tuning wheel/knob are of very high quality - at least thats how it feels. Same as for On/Off/FM/AM all in one switch which is the moving part most used and so it has to be sturdy (which it is IMO).If the electronics last long this is the best bang for your buck and quality radio on the market today. Specially one appreciates the very loud speaker which is wastly superior to other radios tiny sound system. However I would not turn up the speaker all the way up since that may damage the speaker I fear since it gets so incredible loud with decent sound quality.Old world japanese "cold war" quality workmanship which speaks for itself.This radio is like an japanese Honda which outlasts eventually its first owner compared to an BMW or an iPhone (other more expensive fancy w/ bells & whistles digital radios) who fall apart after a few years and are way overpriced to buy and cost an arm & leg to own (if a repair is pending you better sell your kidney to organ traffickers).Buy with confidence. I recommend. Best price-quality relationship on the market.