Some of this comes from old memories, but I think it’s fairly accurate.
Kaito
Back in the day I bought a nice emergency radio, a Kaito KA-600.
It had many features, including LW, MW, FM, SW and weather bands. It had FM RDS and weather alerts. It had one other feature, a non-slip rubberized coating that turned to goo after a couple of years. I cleaned it up the best I could and it went away.
Eton
Still on a name brand kick I got an Eton Solarlink FR360. It was just MW/FM and weather.
I don’t remember how well it performed. I accidentally left it out on my deck and after the rain, the radio never worked again.
Mesqool
My next try was on the cheap side, a Mesqool CR-1009 Pro. This was April 2022.
I checked it out upon arrival and noticed that it didn’t pick up any MW stations. The radio is tuned with up and down arrow buttons. I punched the arrow 100 times and got nothing. But then when I started tuning downwards, I got stations. I assumed it was defective and returned it for exchange. The replacement did the same thing, plus the weather broadcast was occasionally garbled. (In retrospect, I think both flaws are inherent in the design.)
The radio was sold as a 5000 mAh power bank and contained a user replaceable 21700 battery.
I moved on.
XHDATA
The next radio was pre-release one sent me by XDATA in exchange for my suggesting improvements in the manual. Thinking About the New XHDATA D-608WB.
Apparently my pre-release unit was defective — virtually no FM. It also has a lower power pack (18650 3500mAh cell). Because it was defective, I lost interest, although I believe performance on the other bands was good and reviewers say FM is fine. It has perhaps the best speaker in its class. I was tempted to buy another of these to get a working FM band. It’s a nice enough radio with Bluetooth and a TF card slot, but I didn’t do that because the price had gone up substantially since its introduction.
iRONSNOW
The iRONSNOW came next: Before the battle: iRonsnow IR-688.
Gray is all you can get from Amazon today. Mine was green. This radio has some nice features, including two shortwave bands and stereo speakers. Tuning is a pain, especially on shortwave. It takes forever to get to a station. The speakers aren’t very good either.
Axyebi
Incoming Radio: Axyebi AB-US-107Y 13000mAh Crank Emergency Weather Radio. I solved the tuning problem with an Axyebi MD-107. It has a tuning dial, but no shortwave. I failed to read the product description skeptically, including
This is not a “weather alert radio” in the usual sense of the phrase. It doesn’t listen for and detect hazardous weather tones. It just receives weather band.
A quick trip to the Goodwill store took care of this radio.
That still leaves me somewhat without an emergency radio, although the iRONSNOW technically works.
Sttfaishen
Try, try, again: Incoming Radio: Sttfaishen S10.
So one more outreach to Amazon returned this example:
There are essentially two listings for this radio on Amazon, both offering two color choices, green and orange. I really liked the sea green photo above, but somehow I could hear the snake hissing in the background. My expectation was that I wouldn’t get the radio in the photo. The radio I got was not the color I ordered, but a much darker green.
The second disappointment was the size. It was sold as 3 x 4 x 2 inches.
The radio is actually 6.62 inches wide.
The third was the greatest shocker. When I turned it on, the display it looked exactly like my old Mesqool and it appears that they both essentially work the same way. The Sttfaishen is slightly thicker than the Mesqool and the light/SOS buttons were moved from the side to the front panel.
A little fiddling found that the firmware has changed and some of the buttons work differently. What I don’t like about the new one is one has to turn the radio on before the lights work, and that the SOS siren is easy to accidentally turn on.
But on the good side, MW seems to work better. On the bad side the weather station was garbled just like the Mesqool.
Another donation to Goodwill I think.
What now?
Hope springs eternal.
Thanks for this post Kevin. It ties together my hunt for an ‘inexpensive’ portable weather band radio. I read several of your blog posts on this topic and in part made my decision based on your findings.
Like you I started many many years ago with the KA600. My wife just discovered it a few days ago sitting on a window sill. And the rubberized coating was a sticky mush.
I looked at all the radios except the Eton that you have listed above and finally decided on one that you have mentioned elsewhere here. The Lijiani RD239. In all of my research I never really considered it…. But, I found myself gravitating towards it due to the fact that it can use AA batteries, has the full short-wave band, VHF, and Airband which I will never use. It also gives me the excuse to buy a couple extra BL-5C batteries and a dedicated charger. My Tecsun PL-330 will thank me for this.
Anyway, thank you for your reviews and findings on radios that you have at BlogOrDie.
Cross your fingers for me that I find the Lijiani acceptable.
Mark
Fingers crossed.
You make some good points about the LiJiANi Rd239, all of I would agree with. And the flashlight is bright. Evaluating radios always comes down to a personal preferences. If first and foremost you’re looking for a good radio, then the Rd239 may well be a satisfying selection.
The issue with weather alert radios in general for me is that the radio is essentially on while it’s listening for alerts. Depending on the battery capacity, this means the radio can only listen for a day or two at most before it has to be recharged or the batteries replaced. That’s time consuming over the course of a year. That’s why I’ve been looking for a high-capacity battery that might operate longer in alert mode and why I just ordered a Zhiwhis ZWS-2415. I have no expectations that it will be a good radio, but it might be adequate with a big battery.
What I need to remember is that for $18 I can buy a 37000 mAh battery pack to support the radio. It radio doesn’t have to do the heavy lifting.