Any recommendations for an emergency radio
- Thread starter walterjay
- Start date
Will this radio be maintained in standby mode or are you looking for something which can lie idle for years?
Does "emergency radio" require a hand cranked generator in your view? ...or will batteries do?
Seriously.
Does "emergency radio" require a hand cranked generator in your view? ...or will batteries do?
Seriously.
Don't forget your car probably has a radio.
Its used to be Radio Shack for us. I still have one of the last made.
Pretty much they will all be good, certainly no reason to spend even near $100.
You can search weather radios. Radio Shack made it simple to get a radio without all the fluff.
I would seriously consider this. Well known brand, if NOAA sends out an alert ex. Severe Thunderstorm, Tornado etc. It will blast out a loud tone for you to listen to the forecast. It does not require anything complicated.
https://www.amazon.com/Midland-WR12...hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4583795261460198&psc=1
Pretty much they will all be good, certainly no reason to spend even near $100.
You can search weather radios. Radio Shack made it simple to get a radio without all the fluff.
I would seriously consider this. Well known brand, if NOAA sends out an alert ex. Severe Thunderstorm, Tornado etc. It will blast out a loud tone for you to listen to the forecast. It does not require anything complicated.
https://www.amazon.com/Midland-WR12...hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4583795261460198&psc=1
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This one is within your budget
https://ccrane.com/cc-skywave-am-fm...-and-vhf-airband-small-portable-travel-radio/
https://ccrane.com/cc-skywave-am-fm...-and-vhf-airband-small-portable-travel-radio/
Why not a cheap ham radio like a Baofeng UV-5R? For $20 you get the ability to receive
-- broadcast FM
-- weather radio
-- some police & other public service radio
-- marine VHF
-- GMRS, MURS, and FRS 2-way
-- 2 meter HAM
You can also illegally talk on some of the above, which is excusable in an actual emergency. And if you study for and get your ham license you'll get some skills you can use in a hurricane or whatever.
-- broadcast FM
-- weather radio
-- some police & other public service radio
-- marine VHF
-- GMRS, MURS, and FRS 2-way
-- 2 meter HAM
You can also illegally talk on some of the above, which is excusable in an actual emergency. And if you study for and get your ham license you'll get some skills you can use in a hurricane or whatever.
JHZR2
Staff member
Wow, that's a lot of radio for $20!
Elkins45
Site Donor 2026
Thank you for this. That’s cheap insurance in a real emergency.
Make sure to learn how to use it beforehand.
After reading this thread I realize we are all talking about various types of “emergency radios”
There is
Emergency weather alert radio (which was my interpretation) as in a home plug in device.
Emergency radio station radio with a power supply which can be similar with the above
Emergency communications such as ham radio
I wonder what the OP was asking?
I have the previous version of this one (Mine is sans Bluetooth) and love it!
https://ccrane.com/ccradio-solar-bluetooth/
https://ccrane.com/ccradio-solar-bluetooth/
This was my question. However after seeing @eljefino 's post, I didn't realize how cheap those were. I may buy one just to try. I have no intention of transmitting.
If your looking for weather radio you can check what towers are near you here. I can easily pick up 2 stations on the cheapest portable weather radio you can buy. If you click on each station it shows propogation charts.
https://www.weather.gov/nwr/Maps
Ive had one my whole life. Most always for the marine forecasts as it's not easy to get anywhere else and I have boated my whole life.
Also good to know the wind at the beaches now that we are on the coast. *LOL*
You will pick up broadcasts anywhere. Never ever was a thought that I could not. But if you buy one, it's easy to check, just turn it on and see if you get the 24 hour forecast that is broadcast every minute of the day. It then has a button to only turn on during a weather warning and siren.
This one cant be bought anymore since there is no Radio Shack. Unless you find on on EBay. All it does is NOAA Weather radio. Great too for marine forecasts.
We do not use it often, only mostly for emergency broadcasts and ONLY if we know there are tornados or severe type storms in the area do we leave it on standby. If not we keep it turned off.
The reason being is every emergency broadcast for even thunderstorms meaning severe weather and possibly amber alerts sets off a LOUD siren tone.
The thing is some of these storms can be 20 miles from you...
With that said, if there are huge storms around, we will turn it on, now that we live near the coast.
This is a great unit, sad that there is no more Radio Shack, plugs in the wall with battery back up. It only does NOAA and nothing else which is great. Sits on my wife's nightstand.
I see on eBay many used ones, including ours below but listed at $30 plus tax if you search Realistic NOAA radio but I found others as low as $13 if you search Radio Shack NOAA radio. If all you want is NOAA broadcasts and NOAA alerts I feel it is the way to go if you want the whole deal, like everything now, many other do everything, actually I dont think anything new only does NOAA.
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Yeah, there are a myriad of these cheap radios out there. Some of them allow you to install 3rd party software to customize it further. I picked up a few earlier this year to play around with...
https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/t...operators-in-bitog.340098/page-2#post-6839269
I have 2 of them. They have impressive specs. And people make impressive claims about them.
HOWEVER, they are very short range, line of sight two way radios with no more than 1/4 mile of range between identical units.
YES, before you chop my head off, they can be used with a better antenna, such as a Nagoya NA-771, or even a roof mount "J-Pole", and reach repeaters for long range communication. But as purchased, between 2 identical units, they are pretty much useless beyond shouting range.
NOTE: We had a social emergency in my Jupiter Farms neighborhood, that would be inappropriate to mention here. Other than to say that the residents wanted to be ready to oppose molotov and brick throwing 'bussed-in' rioters. The Baofeng's were used by those of us on patrol. We very quickly learned the limits. Useless as walkie talkies.
My emergency radio (and also, woodshop radio) was based on my existing battery infrastructure - Makita 18v radio, so that in the event of an extended power outage, we could listen to the radio nearly indefinitely by swapping charged batteries.
Job site radio, so dust, temperature, etc, shouldn’t hurt it.
It charges the battery that is in it, and in an emergency, it will charge cell phones, etc. from that 18v battery.
https://www.makitatools.com/products/details/XRM10
It is not under $100, but I like all the capability it offers.
I had no idea about all of the NOAA radios. Very cool. Focused weather information. Might look into that.
Job site radio, so dust, temperature, etc, shouldn’t hurt it.
It charges the battery that is in it, and in an emergency, it will charge cell phones, etc. from that 18v battery.
https://www.makitatools.com/products/details/XRM10
It is not under $100, but I like all the capability it offers.
I had no idea about all of the NOAA radios. Very cool. Focused weather information. Might look into that.
YUP the weather radio has been around since 1968..
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