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