C Crane CCRadio-2E Enhanced AM FM Weather and 2-Metre Ham Band (Titanium) CC2TE

I bought this before hurricane Dorian was supposed to pass us by because I did not have a decent battery powered radio with me. I picked this particular model because it can receive the 2 meter ham band and also because it has the tone controls on it. The built in antenna works just fine and I can pickup all of the FM stations in our area with ease. I have not tried AM. There are two screw terminals for an external AM antenna, there is also a bar antenna internal to the radio for AM so you do not have to provide an antenna for AM. The radio sounds great with the bass and treble adjusted to taste. It only has one, monaural speaker, but on the FM band you can listen in stereo with a pair of headphones. I really like this feature. It has a clock with alarm functionality. I keep the radio next to my bed on the nightstand and the clock is nice to have. The backlight on the LCD does not turn off or dim automatically, which may be a problem. For me, it is not. I have not tried the alarm, but I have used the weather band alert function. The weather alert has a few settings; it can beep and allow you to turn on the radio, or it can turn on the radio automatically and you will hear the NOAA station's update. There are two things I don't like about this radio. The first is the lack of squelch control on the ham band. So, if you use the ham band, be prepared to listen to a lot of static. Second, if you use the weather alert mode and you leave the radio unplugged, the batteries will go dead in about 3-4 weeks even without ever turning on the radio. This radio can be powered off of mains AC (110V, 60Hz) or 4, "D" cell batteries. The radio will automatically switch to battery power when the AC power fails even if the AC cord is attached. This is great because you will not lose your presets or alarm, etc., if the power goes out. This is a no frills, reasonably well built radio. It serves my needs perfectly and I hope it will last me a long time.

Overall a good radio.

Happy with the radio

From the picture it looks very plain and standard. But in person, it is very impressive. The weight is heavy and feels like quality. It’s bigger than it looks and exudes quality. Made in America still exists! Solidly built and well designed. No need for an equalizer, because there are controls for “base” and “treble”. High quality sound in both channels. Uses 4 – “D” size batteries, and is situated flat in the base so the radio sits very stable and unlikely to tip over (see photo). The top of the radio has a depression for your hand to grab so you can carry it firmly. The controls are well located so you can figure it out easily. It has an Alarm feature that uses a radio wake-up or a beeping wake-up. The TIMER function can turn the radio “on” at a specified time and turn “off” at a specified time. But you must attach a separate recorder with a TIMER too, to record those late night shows when you are sleeping. Also, the display has a backlight with 3 brightness settings so you can see in the dark, and turns off automatically. The only feature that could have been included is an internal battery and memory bank. Meaning, when you change the batteries, all presets and time settings are lost. If you connect the AC cord while changing the batteries, you can keep the presets and time. I am very grateful to have one.

I had an older CCRadio for many years and recently decided to get this newer model and sell the older one on an auction site, which I did successfully. This one one is very similar, but adds the HAM radio band. I doubt I will use that much but I guess it's nice to have. I also opted for the Titanium color versus the Black one that I had previous. I like the new color, it looks very sharp although the unit I received did have a slight manufacturing defect-there is a mar near the LCD window where it looks like they nicked it during assembly. This for me is not enough of an issue to hassle in sending it back in for a replacement however. The radio sounds and performs wonderful. I don't have any issues in my location with reception anyway but the reception seems quite strong and the speaker on it is great for both talk radio and music. It is very clear and can fill the room with audio nicely. I'm using this mostly as a clock radio and it works very well for that. I also use the sleep function often when it's nice to be able to fall asleep listening to the radio, without having to worry about having to shut it it off later. I only wish this had Bluetooth functionality so I could pair my iPhone to the speaker and use it to play music. That would be very cool. This radio is also a bit pricey. Note, this radio takes .6 watt of power when off but when you have the weather alert feature activated, it adds 1 more watt. I wish it was a bit less, but I can understand why this is: the weather alert receiver needs to be constantly on and scanning in order to be able to receive any weather alerts. I guess it's worth it, especially in the winter and since I live right on the coast. This amount of 'vampire' draw probably equates to less than $2.00 a year in electricity.