Emergency Hand Crank Radio, FORNORM Solar Radio 2000mAh Power Bank Wind Up Radios with Phone Charger and 4 LED Reading Lamp, AM/FM/7 NOAA, 4 Power Methods, Green

Product Information

Weather band radios have their uses if you’re expecting poor weather, but weather alert radios are more generally useful since situations can change quickly. Impressively, I didn’t find a whole lot of difference between the areas where I easily had cell phone service and the areas with rolling hills where a radio would be necessary. While this radio won’t receive AM/FM frequencies, it does bundle in an alarm clock, and will provide you with a weather alert whenever you’d like with the push of a button. Each emergency radio has different capabilities and standards, so there were some variances with each device. Common to all emergency radios is the need to maintain power as long as possible in times of power failure.

Solar panels – The Etons, Midland Emergency Radio and the RunningSnail radio all come with a solar panel. New: A brand-new, unused, unopened and undamaged item in original retail packaging (where packaging . Although all of our picks survived similarly well, some models—such as the Retekess HR11W and our previous budget pick, the Epica Emergency Radio—either short-circuited or left behind pieces of shattered plastic on the sidewalk (or both). A double-tap of the flashlight button triggers a blinking red SOS light from this position, as well.It has a one year limited warranty, and is also one of the easier models to fix yourself, should the need arise: When we opened up the ER310 and examined the electronics, we were impressed with the organized wiring, which included multiple plastic connections designed to make it easier to disassemble for the replacement of any broken parts. It has all the features we recommend, as well as a sturdy, reliable construction and an impressive design nearly identical to that of our upgrade pick. Plus, the hand-cranked battery generator actually worked as advertised (a frustratingly rare feat for weather radios). Based in Sacramento, California, Brown is a competitive CrossFitter and powerlifter and an avid hiker and trail runner.

The Eton Sidekick also sets itself apart with Bluetooth capabilities, as well as the best speaker we’ve ever tested on an emergency weather radio.Other than the lack of active weather alerts, the RunningSnail’s only other drawbacks compared with the Midland models are relatively minor: It doesn’t have a clock or an LCD screen, and the audio quality isn’t the greatest.

The LED flashlight brightens up dark areas, and the USB port lets you charge smartphones and other small devices. And the auto-off feature turns the radio off after 90 minutes of play to help stretch its battery life. There’s a solar panel on the radio, and during testing I found that it charged impressively fast for such a small solar panel. Re-insert the battery pack and AA batteries (if desired), then using the hand crank, crank the radio at a good pace for 90 seconds and try the radio function. Those signals can differ in their modulation (which gives us AM and FM radio) but are transmitted and received in the same way.If there’s a weather alert in your area, the ER310’s built-in NOAA audible alarm and flashing display will make sure you notice. There are also Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) alerts, which, after you manually program your location, transmit a series of codes that are relevant to only that exact position (SAME-enabled radios tend to be stationary, rather than portable). In addition to receiving AM/FM, weather-band radio, and NOAA weather alerts, the Sidekick also picks up the hyper-local and customizable Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) alerts—it’s the only portable emergency weather radio we’ve found that does so.