Looking back at a very useful article published here on 1776PatriotUSA last month (September 13, 2018) entitled Basic Hurricane Preparedness it was mentioned that listening to the radio for weather updates was important. I’d like to take that a little step further and expand upon the importance of the AM/FM radio when the SHTF, whether that would be a weather-related situation or man-made, and particularly those radios that can be charged using a hand crank power generation system.
Without trying to put a jinx on anyone’s life here, it’s pretty easy to understand how being prepared for an emergency can only be deemed as a positive thing, especially when the reality is that many emergency situations can occur with little or no advance warning.
When these situations do arise though, a radio will be the most reliable means of gathering up-to-date information about what’s going on, what and what not to do, and where’s safe and where’s not safe to go.
So, in the interest of being prepared for the worst that life can throw at you, let’s take a look at some tips for finding the best and most dependable radios for when disaster strikes!
Why a hand crank rather than a standard radio?
First of all, any AM/FM radio will be better than having no radio at all, and that’s a fact, but what will you do when your radio only uses mains electricity and the power goes down, which is highly likely no matter what the crisis?
In all fairness, most modern radios also use batteries of one kind or another as well as mains electricity, but once those batteries are flat and your emergency stash has gone, what then?
In this scenario, the sensible option is a hand crank radio which will continue to provide you with access to emergency broadcasts and other any vital information without being connected to the grid or even the need for batteries.
Hand crank radios use kinetic energy developed by your own hand movements to power up. That energy is stored as magnetic energy in self-contained lithium-ion batteries or alternatively, a large capacitor.
Regardless of how the basic science behind hand crank power generation works, hand crank radios are without a doubt invaluable at times when extreme weather strikes, or when other SHTF situations cause long-term power outages. And hand crank power generation isn’t just isolated to emergency radios either, it is during these times of grid disruption that you’ll also be grateful that you’ve put your faith in a few trusty hand crank lanterns and flashlights too for good measure!
What should you look for in a hand crank radio?
Hand crank radios, as with any other types of radio, come in many shapes and sizes, and they can also be quite diverse in terms of their overall cost.
As with making any purchase related to your personal safety, performance should always be the key element in your decision-making process, especially when talking about equipment your life could depend upon.
Here are a few pointers as to what to look for when choosing a hand crank radio:
- Check your budget. If budget isn’t an issue for you, you should always bear in mind that quite often the best performing radio isn’t necessarily the most expensive one on the shelf! Hand crank radios can set you back anything up to $100 but there are plenty of really good radios that can be purchased for under $50, it all depends on how many bells and whistles you want with your radio! Which leads me very nicely into…
- Make sure your radio has support for VHF and the NOAA frequencies. The radios you consider should all have the Public Alert logo and/or the NOAA NWR All Hazards logo. I haven’t mentioned it enough here but your radio NEEDS to be a weather radio. In reality, you are more likely to put your emergency radio to use during a weather disaster than you would during an EMP attack for example, so NOAA functionality is a given!
- They are not very common, but make sure the radios you are checking out are able to store electrical energy and not just allow you to generate it. Battery powered hand crank radios should have additional backups such as solar cells, electronic capacitors or mechanisms that store the momentum of your cranking movements to prolong the electrical power that they generate.
- Portability and a user-friendly design should also be high on your list. Your radio should be compact, easy to use and handy. It should also be able to withstand just about anything that mother nature would throw at it during a weather emergency.
If you follow these steps they should help you track down the most suitable hand crank emergency weather radio for your needs and your budget.
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Article kindly provided by Danny Major owner of Alpha Survivalist