Emergency Radio

Recent events have got everyone thinking about emergency preparedness. Communications and light are critical in any emergency situation.

You may have a transistor radio stashed away for emergencies, but what happens when the battery runs down. What if the radio is stored for years, and the battery never checked. You could easily find your emergency communications plans falling short of your needs.

Here's a terrific solution to the problem of a dead emergency radio - the Grundig radio model FR200 emergency radio, emergency flashlight combo.

You turn the crank on the side and you've got an emergency radio and emergency flashlight. The instruction manual states that 60 - 90 seconds of winding charges its Ni-MH battery to run the emergency radio for 40 - 60 minutes. That's pretty good, but we have found the charge time to be significantly longer than that.

With any new rechargeable device, it is good practice to run the battery down completely before recharging, so after an initial crank of 60 seconds, we turned on both the emergency radio and the emergency flashlight. With both the flashlight and radio turned on, the charge should last less than 40 to 60 minutes.

The Grundig radio ran with light and radio on for well over an hour, I wasn't keeping time. It actually took several days to fully discharge the battery with just the flashlight on, so why Grundig states only 40 to 60 minutes is unknown.

Quality

The quality and workmanship of the FR200 Grundig radio is outstanding. Quality becomes apparent with the accessories included in any purchase. The Grundig radio comes with a protective carrying case made of nylon and well stitched - a well made accessory.

The high quality of the carrying case rubs off on the Grundig radio too. Despite its light weight for an emergency radio, the FR200 Grundig radio feels like it can really take a beating without falling apart. All of the knobs and switches are firm with a good positive feel.

Even the carrying handle on the FR200 Grundig radio is apparent with quality. Pleasing soft leather stitched to a nylon strap. You wouldn't expect the nice leather handle on an emergency radio.

Radio Bands

As an emergency radio, the Grundig radio model FR200 receives regular AM/FM radio and shortwave too. An emergency radio is best equipped with shortwave bands. Shortwave operators can broadcast vital information when local stations are out. In 1989, the San Jose Bay Area suffered a 6.9 magnitude earthquake. Local radio stations and TV stations were knocked off the air, despite having emergency generators.

Shortwave radio can travel great distances. When your local stations are unable to operate, the countries shortwave radio operators can still distribute vital information on shelter, evacuation, food and water. Shortwave reception should be a feature of any emergency radio you purchase.

Tuner

A good emergency radio should have fine tuning ability for bringing in weak signals. The Grundig radio FR200 makes the grade here too. The Grundig FR200 has two concentric knobs for adjusting the tuner. You can speed through the channels with the rough tuner knob, and then make fine adjustments with the fine tuner to achieve best reception.

Reception is nothing special, but there's nothing wrong with it either. The FR200 Grundig radio receives all the stations with the same clarity as any other radio tested, and in many cases weaker stations were slightly more clear in the Grundig FR200.

Emergency Flashlight

The emergency flashlight consists of a single ultra bright LED. It consumes very little power and won't wear out. It gives off a surprising amount of light for and LED, but not enough to replace your regular emergency flashlight. But the Grundig radio emergency flashlight does give off enough light to find your way around in the dark, or find something you dropped in low light. It's just not bright enough to illuminate an entire area.

The Grundig radio emergency flashlight is definitely bright enough to locate replacement batteries for your regular flashlight-dead, for this it is quite helpful.

Additional features

The Grundig radio FR200 emergency radio has a jack for earphone listening, and extendable antenna for better reception, and the crank handle tucks neatly away to save space.

It can run off of several other sources in addition to the crank power. Alkaline batteries can be used if for any reason you prefer and you can purchase a car or AC adapter. But the hand cranking charge lasts so long that none of these alternative options seem necessary for this great emergency radio, emergency flashlight combination.

The Grundig radio model FR200 emergency radio is an awesome buy.

It can be purchased at Amazon for around $40us here: Emergency Radio