Emergency Weather Radios and Why You Need to Have One

Article kindly provided by Danny Major of Alpha Survivalist

An emergency weather radio isn’t simply your standard AM/FM tuner, of course they can be used as such, but they bring a whole lot more to the table other than simply providing some tunes to listen to on the drive home!

A weather radio is predominantly designed to provide access to channels that continually broadcast everything there is to know about local and regional weather conditions, as well as natural disasters, powerful and unusual changes in the weather, and a whole host of other problems that could happen and extend from one area to another.

Considering the essential safety and informational benefits that they offer, most emergency weather radios are very reasonably priced. Although personally speaking, if an item has the potential to save my life or that of those I care about most, I’d pay whatever I could afford to ensure I had that item – and in my humble opinion, an emergency weather radio is one such item!

Unfortunately, choosing a reliable weather radio isn’t as easy as some might think!

As with anything else, not all radios are created equal, there are good ones and there are bad ones, and what makes choosing the right radio even more difficult is that not all of them are reflected by the price you pay for them. You’ll come across some pricey pieces of garbage and some bargain basement jewels, so it’s important you know exactly what to look for in order to get the biggest and best bang for your buck!

What to Look for in an Emergency Weather Radio?

An emergency weather radio has to be sturdy, portable and easy to use. It also has to be capable of holding a signal for a long period of time and to ensure that it keeps working with minimal power requirements for a long time.

An emergency weather radio has to work under almost any circumstances. This means, even if you’re caught off guard by the intensity of, and bad weather conditions associated with, a powerful storm, your radio should still work properly. The ultimate goal is for your new radio to be unlimited in its scope and ability and there are certain features that your radio will definitely need to have in order to do so:

• Off Grid Recharging Options – Generally, most radios can be operated and charged, using mains electricity, USB adapters, and disposable batteries, but what happens when the grid is down, you’re out of batteries, and there’s no charge in your laptop? The answer is to manually charge your radio using a hand crank or use a solar charger. You will find that emergency weather radios featuring hand crank charging functionality along with in built solar panels will dominate pretty much every list of weather radios you will come across and with good reason – in theory, your radio should never run out of charge!
• NOAA and SAME Weather Alerts Access – A weather radio is not worth much at all without access to all regional NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) weather stations and their respective alerts. If you want a radio that provides emergency weather alerts that are even more localized, for your city or your county then look for a radio that offers SAME (Specific Area Message Encoding) as well as NOAA alerts.
• Digital Tuning – Personally, I’m not against analogue tuners, in fact there are some pretty darn good emergency radios out there that use analogue tuning, it’s just that digital tuning is quicker and more precise and in most cases will operate automatically whereas analogue is manual. A lot of times during an emergency, you will need things quickly, so speed is important. Time lost tuning in an analogue radio is time you can never get back, stick with digital.
• Ruggedness and Portability – Nobody can dictate what will happen when a force of nature strikes or if some other crisis rears its ugly head. You may be able to stay put or you might have to bug out quickly. If it’s the latter, you will need a radio that is small enough that it can be picked up and packed quickly, is built solidly with strong materials that can take a few knocks without breaking, and can withstand the elements to a certain degree.
• Extras – Most radios come with added extras, some could be deemed more important than others dependent upon an individual’s preferences, but one extra that should be a prerequisite is a built in flashlight. As with hand crank functionality, pretty much every emergency radio that you will find on any of the numerous ‘best of‘ lists will have this feature.

As helpful as it is to have a general tick list of features and functions that every good emergency radio should have, it only serves to whittle a very large list of radios to a much smaller list. This smaller list of quality radios can still be overwhelming when faced with making a final decision.

Obviously personal preferences will come into play when making a final decision, but reading reviews given by people who have bought and used specific radios is always a good way to get feedback on a radio.

High Quality and Efficient Radios to Consider

While the American Red Cross owes a small portion of its popularity to proper disaster prevention techniques and advanced technology, devices such as emergency radios tend to make everything a lot easier. Did you know the American Red Cross has actual emergency radios built to provide people with quick access to local and regional weather stages and to survive just about anything Mother Nature throws at them. The American Red Cross FRX3 radio made by Eton is considered one of the most durable and versatile radios out there. Easy to carry and capable of operating without a power cord, the design of this advanced piece of modern technology is quite inspiring.

RunningSnail is another established brand renowned for providing some of the best survival equipment and its weather radio the MD-090 is no exception, although it is let down by it being an analog radio!

For some people who are on a tight budget buying the cheapest radio, doesn’t necessarily mean they have to put up with a lesser radio. The KA500 Voyager emergency radio is a good example of this. Manufactured by Kaito, the KA500 is highly regarded as an excellent piece of survival technology, it includes a hand crank solar panel, adjustable features for better portability and access to all 7 NOAA stations, it is analog again though, but if you can look past that, the K500 is definitely one of the bargain basement jewels I mentioned earlier.

 

Author Bio: Danny Major is an incredible writer and a great resource for all things to do with survival. His site, AlphaSurvivalist.net is a great place online to learn about everything that you are going to need to make it through a possible apocalyptic scenario.