I am set on stacking and food, water ..... but what about an emergency radio? I am seeing solar, hand-crank, recharegable ........ AM/FM/SW/NOAA ....... what are your thoughts and experiences? Thanks pedes:)
Comments (17)
sorted by:
A friend of mine swears by ham radio. He said bacon radio just doesn't cut it.
Not a radio, but prepped related. Battery operated chainsaw is a very nice piece of hardware. I have a Makita it will cut a lot if wood per charge.
Hand cranks are nice, never run out of energy. Most also use batteries.
If comes down to having to use it, not sure many networks or programs will be airing.
A CB is probably better for communicating I have both
I'm thinking hand-crank with battery back-up. AM/FM/SW
Do some research on those. I need to do this myself. I made the mistake of buying a plastic one on my way out of Walmart (spur of the moment type thing). I later looked at reviews and found people saying the handles break off and the plastic gears get stripped easily. Thanks for the reminder. I've forgotten about it.
Short wave... Or ham?
https://carcbradios.com/frequencies-that-can-be-used-without-a-license-full-list/
Above shows all the common citizen radio types, some requiring a license, some not. The lowest common denominator is CB. GMRS, MURS, & ham which covers shortwave (SW). Having a CB, GMRS/MURS & ham band unit would let you listen to just about anything out there. Used CBs & & mobile hams sets are cheapish used, the other ones new a bit more $$$. Also consider a police & fire scanner, cheap too.
Not sure if you're looking for just monitoring or transmitting. As a Ham operator, I carry around my Yaesu FT-70D everywhere I go and can pick up a wide range of frequencies. There's also GMRC radios. The reception may be limited w/GMRC, but you can remedy that if you have a 'repeater' nearby. Others have mentioned CB radios, a great choice as a lot of folks have CB's (myself included) bringing in a wider audience, but reception distance is limited and a good antenna with help that. Note, you officially need a license for Ham or GMRC, but in an emergency 'you gotta do what you gotta do'.
20+ years ago I gave my father a Grundig FR200 Shortwave Radio. After he passed away, I now own it. Is has been discontinued, but you should be able to find something along that line. It has a hand-crank, battery compartment, and an A/C adapter. I have now used it (hand-crank) a few times now when the power went out to dial up weather stations, quite handy.
Not rechargeable- that needs electricity unless solar or hand cranked. Your post is a good reminder to check the condition of radios you have stored etc as technology has come forward in leaps and bounds. A good range walkie talkie is handy if you have children at school. Have you spoken to your children if the grid goes down or any emergency for that matter of them getting to a preplanned meeting point? Many teachers will want the children to stay in class and that could be a bad situation as say there was an EMP this will render all electronics useless. Can they walk to school and home? Have you walked the route with them? Do you have very small children that could met with older family friends to get home safely? If school is in a built up area, a route needs to be planned NOW. If you can as things become critical, I would be considering home schooling until things calm down.
This is American Preppers Online. There are many Prepper forums that can help with advice on radios. This is one link. God Bless
https://www.americanpreppersonline.com/?s=Radios
Another idea just hit me:) What about one that has a police scanner too? What better way to find out what is going on than listening to what the cops are doing?
A police scanner would be an awesome addition. Not only police, you will be able to listen to hams and FRS/GMRS/CB radios. You might need a scanner with trunk tracking or digital voice depending on where you live. Some, maybe most of them now, have a feature to find nearby signals. That would help you to find what channel your neighbors are using. Or possibly alert you to a coordinated attack. Most police scanners do not do AM/FM/SW.
There is another category of radio, the wideband receiver. They can receive almost all widely used frequencies, AM/SW/CB/FM and those received by police scanners. They usually don't have trunk tracking. Many HAM radios include wideband receive capability.
Rechargeable batteries loose charge over time and also loose their ability to hold charge, so give preference to radios with an option to use AAs. If you can get an AA holder and attach the right plug to the wires that should work too. The AA batteries have a shelf life of 10 years so they'll be ready Don't store batteries in your radio for a long time. They will leak.
Radio monitoring is a fun hobby if you like learning about technology. The self-study material for a ham radio license is a great place to start for learning more about radio. Having a crank/solar/AA radio around is not a bad idea.
Battery operated.
Hand cranked. Love it! NO batteries, works great, portable....
That’s even better!
This site has boards for every emergency situation you can think of including communications.
https://www.survivalistboards.com/
Hand cranks with solar are good if without power.