Emergency Radios

[Geo-George]

I used to (a looonnnggg time ago) have a radio that received SW, maybe a couple of bands if I remember right.
Is there a radio that will receive the Ham broadcasts/SW during an emergency?
All I can seem to find are "Boom Boxes" or full blown "Ham Sets".
Should we have an emergency, I sure as heck don't wanna have to try and depend on conventional media.

[gremlin]

http://www.shortwavestore.com/shortwave-receivers/
http://www.radiolabs.com/radio/Kaito/voyager-radio.php

looks like the one at radiolabs is a good one.

[Geo-George]

I agree with you on the radiolab. Good features!
Didn't see anything about an external ant.
I wouldn't think I would need one unless broadcasting.

[gremlin]

just depends on how far away you want to hear. a big ant would help bring in a few more stations.

the guys on my motorcycle site say there wifi stuff is good.

[MadJack]

"The Voyager is basically an LED flashlight, a shortwave/AM/FM receiver, a NOAA Weather Alert Radio, a solar panel, a cell phone/MP3 Player charger and a weapon if you throw it really hard at someone all rolled into one.

I may just buy the radio because of that line!

[MadJack]

OK, I got the Voyager. Made in china but what the hell...
I DOES have an external antenna but it only comes straight up, doesn't swivel so it is designed to sit pretty on a shelf. BS! I'm trading it out for one out of a torn-up boom box so I can lay it down anywhere.
The "charge nearly anything" jack is cool and it only takes a minute of cranking to charge my cell phone.
Where I prospect there is no phone or FM radio signal so this will be nice in the evening for background music from shortwave. Lots of 'haji' stuff on SW too, makes me wish I knew the language so I could listen in on the next "happening"
It's a small package so I can also have tunes in the boat without hard-wiring a stereo & speakers.
Fair market value? $25 - $29, but what the heck. I can use it to recharge my camera too, so I can bring home pics of where I found the big stuff!

Anyone else get one?

[golden optimist]

When I was in Alaska at Mark's place, we had the same problem. Not much on the radio. All we could get was a 24 hour religous station. Not that we didn't need it, but 24 hours a day got to be a little much. Kind of like the Niel Young alblum that Maryann left playing over and over and over one night. I wonder what was going on at the other end of the RV? I gave him a GE Super Radio. I pieced together about 100 feet of old blasting wire and hung it about 5 feet in the air. You also need to hook up a ground wire to a ground rod. I used to take a "whiz" on the ground connection every few days to make a good ground. That helped quite a bit. We could get 3 or 4 stations on am then. Someone needed it more than he did over the winter. I tried to get another at Radio Shack but they didn't have any and I ended up buying a different radio. I don't remember what kind it was.

Leonard

[gremlin]

MadJack


how well does it pick up stations. and would you recommend it.

[MadJack]

It is reminiscent of a 1970's transistor radio in the tuning department (tight, tune with tuning knob AND moving antenna on FM) but the fact that you can charge the radios [built-in] batteries as well as ipod-cell phone-even you laptop I think, along with the three LED lights (small, but you shouldn't stub your toe) I think it is an OK deal.
I would gladly pay $99 for one with better/easier tuning, better sound, waterproof cabinet, pivot-swivel ant, but this is the first I have seen with these *survival* features!

1 thru 10, I rate it 6.5.