Best Emergency Radio?

March 20, 2016 2:05 PM

Looking for an emergency radio with all of these features: 1. SAME capability, so I can choose the county and the specific types of NOAA alerts I want to receive; 2. Adjustable volume; 3. Can be plugged into the wall 24/7 and makes a sound when alerts come in; 4. Can be grabbed in an evacuation and relied upon to receive alerts using battery power, solar power, hand cranking; 5. Can charge a cell phone.

Spent several hours of research and couldn't find one that does all these things.

posted by TheOptimizer to Technology (5 answers total)

Best answer: We have this one. Seems to hit all your points. Direct power is via USB — we plug ours into cell phone charger that accepts USB then plugs into a wall outlet. Would that work for you?
posted by mon-ma-tron at 2:57 PM on March 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

To clarify, that's direct power battery charging via USB. I guess you could leave it plugged in 24/7. I don't know how that would affect the battery, though.
posted by mon-ma-tron at 3:06 PM on March 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

This roundup of the best emergency preparedness supplies at The Sweethome recommends this model.
posted by Happy Dave at 5:10 AM on March 21, 2016

Response by poster: @Happy Dave, Midland lacks SAME support which was one of my criteria.
posted by TheOptimizer at 5:31 AM on March 21, 2016

Ah, sorry, missed that. Although there are people in the reviews for the upgraded version saying they get SAME alerts on it. I guess they may be confusing them with general NOAA alerts though.
posted by Happy Dave at 9:56 AM on March 21, 2016