I tested a $14 emergency radio with solar and hand-crank power – it’s in my survival kit now

Emergency Solar Hand Crank NOAA/AM/FM Radio

4 / 5

Very good

 on Google.

In an age of 5G, satellite internet, and being able to make calls from your smartwatch, an AM/FM radio might seem old-school and outdated. I mean, they had those things when dinosaurs roamed, right?

Today, most people seem to think radio outside of cars is dead. But nothing could be further from the truth (research suggests radio still has an enormous reach, 87% weekly reach, ahead of smartphones/TV, and is still the main source of in-car entertainment). And when it comes to emergencies — you know, the sort of stuff that’s happening all around us, like wildfires, heatwaves, and storms — FEMA recommends that you have a radio in your kit, alongside your spare water and food, flashlight, and first aid supplies.

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And not just any radio, either. Since the power could go down for an extended period, it’s recommended that you have a battery-powered device that can be charged via hand crank.

Now, I’ll be honest. I’ve not had a radio in my kit for a few years, but as I’m seeing more power outages and wildfires here in the UK — both things that can take out the communication infrastructure — I thought it wise to get one. Also, readers have asked about radios, so I thought I’d take a look. 

. Since this device isn’t something I’ll be using a lot, I didn’t want to spend big bucks on it if I didn’t have to.

So, I bought a cheap one. And since I didn’t want the punchline of my cheapness to be that I pulled the radio out mid-emergency only to find it didn’t work, I put it to the test.

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I paid $14 for a pretty generic yet feature-packed radio. For that money, I got a radio that picks up AM/FM and the NOAA weather band (more on that in a moment), has a triple-level LED flashlight (which, oddly, doesn’t have the usual obligatory SOS function), packs a built-in 2,000 mAh/7,400 mWh battery, and is chargeable via USB-C, hand crank, or the built-in solar panel.

I said the radio doesn’t have an SOS strobe feature, but it does have a surprising and somewhat startling SOS siren feature that you activate by holding down the LED button for a couple of seconds. I discovered this capability when trying to see if the device had a hidden SOS LED feature.

And, to top it all off, the radio can act as a tiny power bank. All this in a package measuring 5.1 x 2.1 x 2.4 inches and weighing 0.51 pounds. Something worth noting is that this unit is IPX3-rated, so it’s not dustproof, but is rated to resist splashes (don’t immerse it in water).

Why do you need a radio?

Bottom line: to listen for emergency messages.

The FCC’s Emergency Alert System regulations (specifically, 47 CFR Part 11) legally mandate that AM and FM broadcasters carry Emergency Alert System (EAS) alerts and presidential alert capability. These alerts include severe weather warnings, such as tornadoes, flash floods, and hurricanes, civil emergency messages for hazmat incidents and evacuation orders, AMBER alerts for child abduction, and periodic tests.

If you’re tuned to a station, you should get these messages.

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OK, you’re probably familiar with AM and FM, but what’s that weather band I mentioned earlier?

The weather band is a separate network run by the National Weather Service that broadcasts continuously 24/7 from the nearest NWS office. The band covers about 90% of the US, plus coastal waters, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Pacific territories.

You need a dedicated weather radio or a multi-band emergency radio that specifically covers this band, since most standard AM/FM radios don’t (it’s actually seven channels in the VHF band, between 162.400 and 162.550 MHz).

Given that the radio only holds 2,000 mAh of power, this is a tiny power bank. Sure, that power could get you out of a jam, but it’s not much, and you can get a tiny lipstick-sized power bank that can hold 5,000 mAh of power. If you’re serious about your prepping, this device is what you need. However, if you want a just-in-case radio, this budget $14 unit will do the job fine.