By Evan Ackerman
It’s been a long time since I’ve thought about radios. It’s easy not to think about them anymore, now that NPR is avilable on Podcast and I’ve, um, paid for and legally downloaded all of the music that I’m interested in. But last weekend, my house (in California) was hit by what I’m just going to go ahead and call a hurricane and we lost water and power. Needless to say, I completely lost my sanity.
What might have saved me would have been one of these colorful little radios by Eton. From the look of things, they’ll work just about wherever, whenever, and however. They recieve (in addition to AM and FM) NOAA weather reports and GMRS, and you can even transmit out to others. Most (if not all) of them are hand crank powered in addition to battery power and optionally solar power. They’ve got integrated lights, and they’ll charge your cellphone.
And, like I said, they’re colorful. Guaranteed to inform and brighten your life in the event of a disaster. Anywhere from $30 to a few hundred for all the hand-crank powered bells and whistles (literally).
[ Eton ]
The FR400 is nice because it has the NOAA (weather) channels, but soon it’s TV channels (2-13) will stop working (with the HDTV switchover.)
The FR350 has shortwave, but no NOAA (which is important since weather is the most likely emergency you might need an emergency radio for.)
So both have (minor) issues.