Purchasing a Strom Radio

During the recent Ice Storm we lost power for 46 hours. During this time it became apparent that I needed a good storm radio. However, what makes for a good radio during a storm ? Obviously the radio is a form of entertainment and news, so it needed to bring in AM/FM radio stations. Even more importantly it needs to provide emergency information on weather conditions and to accomplish this it needed to bring in NOAA weather channels and there alerts.

The other critical feature in my opinion was the available methods to charge the radio and keep it running through out the emergency. The more ways that the radio could be powered the better.

I began by doing some research via the internet and good old Google. Reading through the various survival preparedness sites I came across a radio that was moderately priced and included all of my required features plus a few I hadn't realized I needed/wanted.

In reading various reviews I narrowed down my selection to the Voyager KA500 by Kaito Electronics. This radio which cost $59.95 at most websites was in my price range. It is powered by 3 AA batteries, included rechargable batteries, solar power and hand crank. It also gave me the option to use an AC adapter (purchased seperatly) for power and charging as well. This was perfect as it provided me with multiple was to keep the unit charged and ready for use. An added bonus was the ability to charge the unit via an USB port but even better this same port could be used to charge my cell phone or my son's all important Zune MP3 player ! It was critical that my cell phone remain in service as my house phone died after 8 hours. I did not realize that having a cable based phone service would limited the access my corded phone would have to dial tone. However, it does as I learned, the cable modem ran for 8 hours on its backup battery and then died taking with it ability to use any of my "house phones". So my cell phone became my primary access to the world. I happen to have a PDA phone with unlimited web access so could use e-mail to keep in touch with family members.

My next requirement was the ability to stay informed during the emergency via the radio. This unit is able to bring in FM/AM stations, Short Wave Radio (for world wide broadcasts) and the all important NOAA stations. The NOAA stations are broadcast over 7 channels and its important to determine which one is your "local" channel. This radio also offered the "Alert" feature which when turned on, allows the alert to turn on the radio for the broadcast and then turns the radio off to conserve power.

Added features are an LED flashlight, a red flashing emergancy light and a 5 LED adjustable reading light, 5 charging tips for various cell phones.

After I selected this brand of radio, I found the best price at an internet survival store called "Midwest Native Skills Institute @ www.survivalschool.com. They were offering a "speacial" price of $54.95 and a free AC Adaptor ($7.99 ) was included. I placed my order on 12/21/08 and recieved it on the 24th. Thats darn good shipping during the Christmas season !!

I've spent the evening playing with the radio and found it to have great reception on the FM band, no problem finding the local NOAA channel and the lights all function as advertised. I have not played with the hand crank function as the rechargable batteries arrived pre-charged.

I'm very pleased with both the radio I choose to purchase and the company I purchased it from.

Bonnie