Emergency Radio Recommendations?

[aarond]

I did explore PE's site and didn't see much.

My (older) mother told my wife that she wants an emergency radio for her birthday. I haven't asked mom for any more details. I did some quick googling and didn't see much in the way of established brand leaders except for maybe Fospower. I more than willing to go that route for $50-60 but I figured I'd at least ask for some advice from the techies here first. Along the same topic, I'm open for other thoughts or advice for someone that might be asking for the such an item.

I do think my wife said that mom was concerned about keeping her phone charged during extended power outages. Obviously, you don't need an emergency/weather radio for that and I was planning on reminding her that a her car battery will work fine for that and has a huge capacity. I was going to suggest having a dedicated 12v charger and cord to keep with the radio as well as verifying that the 12v receptacle in her car has power even with the key off.

[billfitzmaurice]

Emergency radios have gone the way of the VHS recorder. You can get far more information from a phone. Most cars today have USB charging outlets, and if hers doesn't she can get a USB charger that plugs in to the cigarette lighter outlet.

[invaderzim]

Emergency radios have gone the way of the VHS recorder. You can get far more information from a phone. Most cars today have USB charging outlets, and if hers doesn't she can get a USB charger that plugs in to the cigarette lighter outlet.

As long as the cell networks are still up. Real emergencies like big hurricanes, earthquakes and massive fires tend to knock those out. Stuck on ones roof waiting for the water to go down, a hand crank radio might be nice. Something I thought about when it took 2 hours to move 20 feet in traffic when a dam was in danger of failing

[billfitzmaurice]

Radio towers aren't immune to high winds etc. For that matter a common place for cell phone antennas to be placed is on radio towers. If you're stuck on your roof you should have got out of Dodge long before that became a possibility. It's natural for people to want to ride it out, but you can't stop the rain, and no house is worth dying for.

[invaderzim]

Radio towers aren't immune to high winds etc. For that matter a common place for cell phone antennas to be placed is on radio towers. If you're stuck on your roof you should have got out of Dodge long before that became a possibility. It's natural for people to want to ride it out, but you can't stop the rain, and no house is worth dying for.

Radio signals travel multiple times farther than cell phone. I can easily pick up radio stations from far enough away that the weather is different where they are broadcasting. Also if some of the towers are down and everyone is trying to access information on their phones it will bring phone data to a crawl. A radio signal doesn't care how many people are picking up information from it.

Sometimes disasters strike pretty quickly. There isn't much warning for earthquakes and even fires.

If traffic takes 8 hours to go 20 miles and doesn't, in that time, get you out of range of the flood that would result from the broken dam then the roof would be a far better place to be stuck than in or on a car. In areas that aren't experienced with evacuations it isn't a smooth process. You can go hours without seeing any police and intersections become free-for-alls.
Ask the people of Paradise California how well evacuations work and just how much advance notice they got.

Bottom line, an emergency radio is a cheap back up source for information in an unforeseen circumstance.

[djg]

Not quite extinct...

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=crank+am+f...ages&ia=images

[Whitneyville1]

The local NWS office uses a CELL PHONE LINK (!!!) to their emergency weather transmitter now, and if it storms badly, they lose the "linkage". Only two of the dozen+ broadcast TV stations have wire lines to the NWS and to the National Geological Survey Office a little south of Tussa (for our many, many tiny earthquakes). The City/County/State/Federal "EMS" radio station transmitter doesn't even work now so if there's an AMBER or SILVER alert-cable TV or cell phone is the only way to hear it. I worked for the cable TV co. here 9 hours and will NEVER use their service after the way they treated us techs! Not good!

[oldloder]

I use this. Been great for me ... worked in the mountains of NH where there was no cell service but the weather channel worked and there were radio stations if for some reason that wasn't accessible. The only thing I still have to get or make is an adapter for a cigarette lighter or power port for a car to charge it. Not sure how old your Mom is but I could imagine it being a little hard to crank for an elderly Mom ... perhaps if not this one look for one that is on the easier side to crank if you think that might be an issue. It's been awhile but I think a minute or two of cranking gets at least 15 or so minutes of listening or plenty of time to get through a loop or two of the weather radio regional forecasts and warnings.

[Brainer]

This won't get you the same sound quality or range as some of the older (well-built) model radios, but it's good a very good reputation.
The person that pushes it is a prepper, and a pretty honest guy, in general.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2NYJBGD...f_=as_li_ss_tl