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“It is super sensitive with terrific selectivity yet eats batteries, as most electronics with a power-hungry CPU will do.”

I have a new Sony world band receiver that uses four AA batteries. I have a big bunch of AA Sanyo low discharge rechargeable batteries and a 20 watt solar panel with attached smart charger to recharge 4 AAs in three hours of sun. Because of the number of batteries I have, some will always be charged.

If I end up in a tent as you suggest you might, I doubt I will be looking for news outside my immediate area of 10 feet away from me on all sides. At that point, I would be more interested in putting on my tactical vest with my ammo in it and my gun at hand.

Just as a point of interest I measured the output from a 1 amp nominal output solar panel the other day. Up here at 46.5 N latitude, the last week of December, the sun is low in the sky and pretty weak even at noon. I measured 330 milliamps, about one third of the rated output. Was surprised it was that high. In the summer I have measured it at 1.1 amp or so.

I then did some testing with a separate system, a 700 ah battery bank running an inverter. The batteries were fully charged from a generator. The ambient temperature was 20F. I attempted to run some electrical devices such as a small vacuum cleaner. Due to the cold, presumably, the current draw was way up and the cold batteries/inverter couldn't supply the start-up surge current for the motor. It runs in the summer no problem.

So in the winter, around here, I pretty much have to leave batteries out of the equation and depend on fuel only. Sucks, but that's the way it is.

Even our R/C helicopters with their lipoly batteries won't fly worth a crap when it's real cold.