Posted: 7/4/2011 10:21:36 PM EDT
| I'm looking for a weather radio. I would like a hand crank but doesn't have to be. |
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An NOAA alert radio? Never seen one with hand crank and not sure why that would really be desirable.
I have several of the basic Midland WR150 models and they work fine. 12V wall wart with AA battery backup built in. I guess what the world (or at least the survival forum) needs is a small hand crank 12vdc generator, that any radio can be a hand crank radio. |
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just a different option here, but slightly more expensive. you can get a relatively cheap 2m ham radio that has weather alert built in. not only do you get the toned alerts but you can actually monitor the actual real time reports coming in to the weather nest from the storm spotters. You will get the info 10-20min sooner than it generally hit the radio or news in many cases. also they come with long running battery packs and a charger and are weatherproof making them ideal fro carrying with you outdoors. buying the radio doesn't mean you have to talk on it, but if you decide you want to the tech license is EASY and cheap. a good weather radio will run you 30-50.00. a cheap 2m w/ WX will run you about 120.00 or less. |
| I'm thinking something portable would be good? I haven't bought one yet but this one seems to get good reviews... Sangean America DT-400W Digital AM/FM/Weather Alert Pocket Radio |
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Quoted:
An NOAA alert radio? Never seen one with hand crank and not sure why that would really be desirable. I have several of the basic Midland WR150 models and they work fine. 12V wall wart with AA battery backup built in. I guess what the world (or at least the survival forum) needs is a small hand crank 12vdc generator, that any radio can be a hand crank radio. If Standard Horizon put a hand crank dynamo on the HX370, they would make millions off the survival forum... Every hand crank radio I have seen either had a terrible receiver and/or no selectivity, poor dynamo that broke fast, the capacitors/built in battery died quickly, or all the above. OP: This one seems to have all you are seeking. It also has a cell phone charger, flashlight, and solar power. Pure survival forum win. |
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I own an Eton (Grundig) fr-600. It is a complete POS as an emergency radio. You can program your county and get current weather alerts...for about six hours, and then it is dead. It is a huge battery pig. It has a small solar panel with a built in battery pack but I think you would need to put it on the planet Mercury to charge it. It also has a hand crank, wind it for ten minutes and the radio will play for ten seconds.
But it does sound great when it works! Don't buy this. |
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I'm thinking something portable would be good? I haven't bought one yet but this one seems to get good reviews... Sangean America DT-400W Digital AM/FM/Weather Alert Pocket Radio I bought my mother a larger console type made by Sangean. It work great, sounds great, and has great reception. But I have no experience with their smaller units. |
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I'm thinking something portable would be good? I haven't bought one yet but this one seems to get good reviews... Sangean America DT-400W Digital AM/FM/Weather Alert Pocket Radio I have Weather One. No AM/FM. I like for being water proof as well as it uses a 9v battery. For this they last along time. Not sure if they still make these. Anyone know if they do? I did fine the radio above at a little cheaper price: Sangean DT-400W AM/FM I think having AM/FM would be helpful. PITA45 
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Quoted:
Quoted:
An NOAA alert radio? Never seen one with hand crank and not sure why that would really be desirable. I have several of the basic Midland WR150 models and they work fine. 12V wall wart with AA battery backup built in. I guess what the world (or at least the survival forum) needs is a small hand crank 12vdc generator, that any radio can be a hand crank radio. If Standard Horizon put a hand crank dynamo on the HX370, they would make millions off the survival forum... Every hand crank radio I have seen either had a terrible receiver and/or no selectivity, poor dynamo that broke fast, the capacitors/built in battery died quickly, or all the above. OP: This one seems to have all you are seeking. It also has a cell phone charger, flashlight, and solar power. Pure survival forum win. I just got the radio in that link. So far I like it a lot for the $30 I paid for it. Its not the most selective receiver in the world, but it works good for local radio stations. The weather band works good in my area too. On sunny days I leave it on a window sill and it plays just fine. If its cloudy I crank it for a few minutes and it plays quite a while. I haven't tried the cell charger yet, but I imagine it would work just fine for making an emergency phone call. ETA - I've only had it for about a week so my review is basically my initial impression of it. |
| I like my Reecom. Much better than the Midland. Make sure you get one with SAME technology. http://www.reecominc.com/ Look arround you can find deals on them. |
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Edmund Scientific had one a few years ago, about 1/2 inch thick, and about the same other dimensions as a the old "pocket transistor radios" of our youth.
Weather tuning to each of seven common freqs, and volume control. Built-in cheapo compass, thermometer with feeze warning,clock and alarm, and digital readout for all modes. powered by 3 AA cells, on standby, batteries lasted about 24 hours. Makes the same alerting sounds as any NOAA Weather radio if it goes on alert. Mine was $20 at the local J.C. Penney outlet. Edmund was getting about $80, if I recall. '03 |
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I like my Reecom. Much better than the Midland. Make sure you get one with SAME technology. http://www.reecominc.com/ Look arround you can find deals on them. Without getting in to "professional" level weather gear, this is by far the best radio on the market! The AM/FM version is nothing to write home about, but as a weather radio, it can't be beat. |
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Quoted:
An NOAA alert radio? Never seen one with hand crank and not sure why that would really be desirable. I have several of the basic Midland WR150 models and they work fine. 12V wall wart with AA battery backup built in. I guess what the world (or at least the survival forum) needs is a small hand crank 12vdc generator, that any radio can be a hand crank radio. Seriously? Most I've seen will do alerts, but will alert on anything... i.e. no SAME discrimination. I swiped one from my old man that has a failing NI-CD battery. After researching it, it's cheaper to buy a new radio. |
Radio Shack Model 20 - 108
I have this model and it works great. < $40.00 has a setting for weather alerts Runs off 3 AA batteries, AC or has a rechargeable replaceable battery (user selected power source). Will charge the replaceable NiCad from hand crank, or external AC adaptor. Also has USB adaptor for charging cell phone (or other electronics), and it has a single led flashlight Edited for clarity. |
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We have the Midland WR300. Works great, and not much money. I like that you can select the counties for which the alarm will be triggered. |
| I got me one of these about a year and a half ago... Two AA batteries (that I haven't changed yet) and it works fine, at least for AM/FM. Haven't tried it out with the SW side yet. |
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Quoted:
just a different option here, but slightly more expensive.
you can get a relatively cheap 2m ham radio that has weather alert built in. not only do you get the toned alerts but you can actually monitor the actual real time reports coming in to the weather nest from the storm spotters. You will get the info 10-20min sooner than it generally hit the radio or news in many cases. also they come with long running battery packs and a charger and are weatherproof making them ideal fro carrying with you outdoors. buying the radio doesn't mean you have to talk on it, but if you decide you want to the tech license is EASY and cheap. a good weather radio will run you 30-50.00. a cheap 2m w/ WX will run you about 120.00 or less. +1 on that. A dual band Wouxun can RX a lot more including FM. Program in your local 2m repeater and your likely to get your weather alerts right through there. It will receive WX channels and more. A little bit of reading and you can find the local weather net repeater or freq and get the info way ahead of the actual WX alert. 12V charger and AA battery pack adapter is cheap. Plus you can set it up to monitor FRS GMRS and/or pretty much any frequency in its receive range. Or for even cheaper you can go with an ebay/china special: baofeng dual band. For 50$ it gives you a lot of monitoring capability. (no AA pack though) I have one and it can easily monitor/listen for over 24hours on one charge. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
just a different option here, but slightly more expensive.
you can get a relatively cheap 2m ham radio that has weather alert built in. not only do you get the toned alerts but you can actually monitor the actual real time reports coming in to the weather nest from the storm spotters. You will get the info 10-20min sooner than it generally hit the radio or news in many cases. also they come with long running battery packs and a charger and are weatherproof making them ideal fro carrying with you outdoors. buying the radio doesn't mean you have to talk on it, but if you decide you want to the tech license is EASY and cheap. a good weather radio will run you 30-50.00. a cheap 2m w/ WX will run you about 120.00 or less. +1 on that. A dual band Wouxun can RX a lot more including FM. Program in your local 2m repeater and your likely to get your weather alerts right through there. It will receive WX channels and more. A little bit of reading and you can find the local weather net repeater or freq and get the info way ahead of the actual WX alert. 12V charger and AA battery pack adapter is cheap. Plus you can set it up to monitor FRS GMRS and/or pretty much any frequency in its receive range. Or for even cheaper you can go with an ebay/china special: baofeng dual band. For 50$ it gives you a lot of monitoring capability. (no AA pack though) I have one and it can easily monitor/listen for over 24hours on one charge. Which model are you talking about ? the UV-3R? |
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Which model are you talking about ? the UV-3R?[/div] Yea, I wrote this in another thread: Quoted:
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How do you like the Baofeng uv-3r ? Isn't that the VX-3 clone ? I really like it for what it is. Yea it does seem like a VX-3 clone from what I understand but I have never used a VX-3 so I can't say for sure. Here are a few points I can think of: No AA or AAA battery option. Its only rechargeable but it does have a 12V charger as an option. Batteries are cheap though so order a spare if you order the radio. (I did) For listening/ monitoring battery life is amazing. 24 hours + of monitoring with about 10% of that listening to the FM radio or rag chew. I haven't really monitored the battery life when using it for TX. I have been using it for the past 3 days just listening while at work and it is sitting next to me right now still going strong. Volume level steps are not the best. It doesnt bother me but you would want head phones in a quite office or waiting room type setting (it actually comes with a ear bud/ lapel mic. Only 2W of power, but thats to be expected with such a small package. I can hit my two local linked repeaters that are over 10 miles away as the crow flies (2m) Software is a must for programing any more then a couple frequencies w/pl tones/ offsets/ etc into memory. Everything is done with a couple buttons and turning the knob. Software is very easy and works every time... Easy like the Wouxun software. I use the non USB cable and it detects/works every time No text ID for memory channels. It displays the channel number, the frequency, and identifies + or - offset. You have to remember your channels or know the frequencies or have them written down. I keep all my HT frequencies and channel memories uniform so that doesn't bother me. Or I write them down. It does not really have "dual watch" It will auto switch between uhf/vhf. (I turn it off) Scan is slow, but works ok with the 40 some frequencies I have programed into it. FM radio works great. Has 18 different menus. The titles are a little clunky but once you figure them out its easy. If you play with off set or PL tone in the menus while in channel mode you are actually adjusting the channel setting of your current channel. Have to remember though, I just listed every negative I can think of for this radio, but It only costs $50.... and it is dual band. Other then those few things it is a really great pocket rig. I ordered mine with a dual band antenna option. It works good on both. (comes stock with one vhf and one uhf antenna) If any one is really interested I can do a quick little video review and how-to of the Baofeng UV-3R. The TX band is wide open so use at your own risk. It is only "legal" for TX on ham bands as it is not fcc type certified or accepted. |
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I just purchased a couple of these little NOAA's ... They are super small, you can carry it in your front shirt pocket and never know its there.... I really like it for a $20 cheapo..
MIDLAND-HH50-Pocket-Weather-Radio |
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Radio Shack Model 20 - 108 http://rsk.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pRS1C-3912564_rshalt1_t92.jpg I have this model and it works great. < $40.00 has a setting for weather alerts Runs off 3 AA batteries, AC or has a rechargeable replaceable battery (user selected power source). Will charge the replaceable NiCad from hand crank, or external AC adaptor. Also has USB adaptor for charging cell phone (or other electronics), and it has a single led flashlight Edited for clarity. I have this model too, and it has served me well. Hasn't seen a ton of use, but it seems to last forever on a set of batteries when listening to FM radio. I used it a while back when some spring storms were coming through DFW for the WX alert and it worked as advertised. I paid $50 for it, but it is a good little radio. |