Can anyone recommend two emergenciy radios.
One is a portable for my train commute to/from work each day. Most AM/FM radios don't receive AM reception very well.

The second is for home use, so size doesn't matter. Whew, finally.

Thanks.

First, what do you define as an "emergency" radio? Do you want something with a hand-crank for power, or something that takes batteries? For the portable, do you want something that is as small as possible, or reasonably small with great reception?

For home, GE makes an AM/FM radio that is very highly regarded for its AM tuner. But it uses 120 or batteries. You can also pick up a Grundig FR200 with the hand crank for $40. It also has a light and does shortwave. Reception is decent.

For something portable, check out the tiny radios at CountyComm.

1. No radio is going to work very well in a subway. But since a subway exists where you are, that says you're in an urban area, so signals should be plenty strong outside the subway.

2. The sensitive GE radio is called the Superadio 3. It runs on six D cells and is great for pulling in distant stations. It has good sound and a big enough speaker to fill a room pretty well. It will run for a couple weeks nonstop on a set of alkalines. It's just kind of big for portable use.

3. In an urban environment there should be plenty of news and updates on FM as well as AM. You can get crappy 2aaa-powered FM-only earbud radios dirt cheap at places like Walgreens. The circuitry is not too bad, they're just cheaply made, you have to jiggle the earbud wire to make good contact, etc. The Countycomm radios are much nicer but they are bulkier. Walgreens also sometimes has one-piece earphone radios that are really tiny (they use watch batteries) and good for EDC. They are terrible radios but again, in a city, the signals are very strong, so the radios work ok.

4. I wouldn't bother with a generator radio unless you're moving to the south pole. Just keep spare batteries on hand.

This is my idea of a emergency radio! :-)

-john

Where portability is not a big issue, I've always been partial to Freeplay radios for an "emergency" radio. I have the big one, that runs off either the hand-cranked internal spring, solar panel, or a jack for external power. It's not my every day listening radio, but I can pack it away confident that no batteries have run down or leaked over time. Just the peace of mind knowing that as long as I can get a hold of the radio, I can have some contact with the outside world is worth it to me.

The reception is decent and the sound is very good. On a sunny day, you can still crank up the volume quite loud while running just off the solar panel. Comes in handy when I'm doing work outside for a long time and want to listen to the ball game. The nice thing is that if the spring is wound, the radio will automatically switch between solar and spring power to maximize playing time. It takes, oh, a minute to fully wind the spring and you can get about 45 minutes of radio, but playing time varies with the volume. I don't have the accessory LED light, but that would be a handy addition to keep with the radio in case of emergency.

Now, before anyone pooh-poohs the Freeplay saying that it's unnecessary because a C or D cell-powered radio would play for weeks or even months, that's true. I just like the idea of battery independence.

I also have the Coleman Outrider, which is a portable model. I believe that it's licensed from Freeplay also. Unlike the first-generation portable Freeplay radio, which was spring and solar powered, the Outrider is powered directly by solar or by its sealed, rechargable battery. The battery can be charged with the AC adapter, hand crank, or solar. It's a nice, but heavy, radio, but I prefer the spring-driven models for emergency use in extended blackout conditions. You get longer playing time for a given number of hand-cranks. Although the spring does slowly unwind even if the radio is not on so, it doesn't take much cranking to fully wind it up again. Actually, I like the unwinding feature since even if I store the radio away fully wound, the spring will return to the unwound state for longer life.

The big Freeplay I bought quite a while ago and I don't remember where. The Outrider I bought at an REI store.

Anyway, just my 2 bits worth. <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for the feedback. I made a purchase from County Comm last month and was debating on one of their radio models as well. I have a cheapo earpiece that was a tradeshow giveaway. Around my home, it worked great. But on the train, outside of the tunnels, it was horrible. It could be the unit and I have several others.

I'm not in the subway as much now, maybe 5 minutes of a 50 minute ride. So I'm just looking for a portable to keep on me or in the car. Even my car radio fuzzes on AM in certain areas.

The main thing that helps AM reception is bigger antennas. Try one of these: http://selectatenna.com - obviously it's not so portable though. With a moving receiver you're generally better off with FM because of AM fading like you describe.

The crank radios I'm familiar with have a rechargeable battery inside that's subject to failure and leaking just like any other battery. The crank simply charges it up. I don't know if the Freeplay works like that. It sounds like it might not, if the internal spring is generating power directly without a battery. That's more mechanically complex though, and may require more maintenance.

HombreWales,

Small-
For an emergency portable radio it is no contest. The Sangean DT-200V is the hands down winner for AM reception. There are many people that use this radio for AM band DXing (long distance listening). It uses common AA batteries with outstanding battery life. (AA lithiums would give it a shelf life over 15yrs and would function well in cold weather). It has a built in speaker or you can use headphones to extend battery life further. Of course FM is there for your entertainment. The icing on the cake is the inclusion of TV band. In my experience, the better funded TV coverage of disasters (even audibly) beats out the coverage provided by the radio broadcasting media. The best deal on this radio is via amazon.com, $49.99 with free shipping.

Sangean has some really slick AAA portables as well. The downside is reduced AM performance and the realities of costly (per mAH) and poor performing AA alkaline batteries. Fortunately Eveready has re-introduced AAA lithium batteries. While expensive, the extreme shelf life and run-time are worth the extra. I will soon be using these in my AAA Sangean. The other downside to these little guys is the lousy performance of the built in speaker. I really consider these to be headphone radios.

Mid-size-
If you can find a small AM/FM/SW radio from Sangean or Radio Shack that uses C batteries, you may have a winner. In my experience the C battery radios tend to have amazing runtimes (the discontinued Grundig YB-305 is a perfect example of this. I own three, and no, none are for sale).

Large- The GE Super Radio III and the Sangean 818/Realistic 390 are legendary. Both use D batteries. The GE has superb audio and extreme battery life, with low cost. The downsides are occasional quality control issues and putzy analog tuning. This radio can be had all over the web for $40. The Sangean/Realistic is a solid performer with good audio and good battery life. It also gives you the ability to listen to Shortwave and SSB communications. The CS version gives you cassette tape capabilities with a smaller speaker (reduced audio performance). Sadly this fine radio has been discontinued. It can still be found on the web for around $170-$180. Also keep an eye on eBay.

Rant-
Unfortunately many of the newer and mid-size and larger digital radios have gone to AA battery use. These radios have dozens of bells, whistles, gee-gaws, and festoons, but at the cost of dismal battery life. As an example, I have two very similar AM/FM/SW radios. A Grundig YB-305 running 2 C batteries, and a Sony 7600GR running 4 AA batteries. Loaded with Nicads and heavy use, the Grundig gets its batteries changed every 2-3 months. With the Sony and similar usage I burn through a set of batteries in 7-10 days. What a sick joke (plus the audio on the Sony is dismal). The American consumer and the manufacturers that feed their stupidity have their priorities backwards. I fully expect the next generation of radios to take pictures, act as a hard drive, and have cell phone capability as well. All this will be done with the batteries down graded to AAA or AAAA. Pathetic. Just Pathetic. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> (Going to listen to my Grundig to cheer up).

Good luck, TR

I was going to question why people always expect good Am reception out of a radio. FM was invented because of bad recpetion with AM, there just isn't a lot you can do about it.

> You can get crappy 2aaa-powered FM-only earbud radios dirt cheap at places like Walgreens. The
> circuitry is not too bad, they're just cheaply made, you have to jiggle the earbud wire to make good contact, etc.

The battery life may be very poor. I've seen cheap single AAA ones that claim 5 hours. In an emergency you might want it on continuously, so as not to miss important bulletins, so while 5 hours is better than nothing it's not very good.