Etón American Red Cross ARCFR160R Microlink Self-Powered AM/FM/NOAA Weather Radio with Flashlight, Solar Power and Cell Phone Charger (Red) by Grundig / Eton
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Digital camera reviews of Etón American Red Cross ARCFR160R Microlink Self-Powered AM/FM/NOAA Weather Radio with Flashlight, Solar Power and Cell Phone Charger (Red)
Digital camera Review: Great radio for price!
Summary: 5 Stars
Ditto all the other raters. I was very impressed with this radio for the price. Hard to tune in station due to small tuner, but otherwise excellent!Digital camera Review: Great radio to keep nearby.
Summary: 5 Stars
This little radio does it all and will keep doing it even through a powerless emergency. I recommend one for every home and especially for those who go camping and hiking. It will help throughout an emergency.Digital camera Review: Great to have
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this after going to an Emergency preparedness workshop at my church. The Red Cross was there and told us about this I couldn't purchase it that day but was later able to get it from Amazon.com I checked it out and played it and put it in my Emergency kit. The light is very bright and the radio is clear and easy to tune and the crank is also easy to use. I think it's a winner and will be very useful.Digital camera Review: I just had to know
Summary: 5 Stars
After reading reviews and reading the online manual I was curious about the solar panel charging a cell phone, the answer is no, the solar panel and the radio battery are not tied into the USB port, only the hand crank is tied into the USB port and only when the switch is set to cell. So no charging the radio battery via USB port. I tested the output of the hand crank when charging a cell phone battery and at 2 rev per sec the crank puts out 350mA at 5 volts. My wall charger for the phone says 5 volts 350mA output. The solar panel puts out 50mA and that's not enough to even think about charging a cell phone battery.
Eton.com offers a replacment battery and antenna for $6.95 each if you need one. The battery is located behind a door on the bottom of the radio, it has 1 screw through the door to hold it on.
P.S. To charge the radio battery with the crank you must have the switch in any position but cell.
Digital camera Review: If were a real emergency, you'd be dead
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought this radio about 9 months ago to replace another Eton hand-crank radio with a broken crank. The first problem was with the poorly functioning super-touchy volume knob which I had to keep fiddling with until it was just in the right place to hear anything. Seriously, radio technology has been around for a century now, one would think something simple like this would be pretty trouble-free by now.
And then, just the other day the crank/winder broke. Apparently it wasn't designed to handle... winding(!??!). I mean I use it fairly often but it should be built to take that kind of sterss right?. I mean that IS the only way to power the damn thing besides the solar cell which may give you an hour of listening on a full day's charge but I wouldn't count on it.
DO NOT BUY THIS AS AN EMERGENCY RADIO!!! It will break and you will be cut off from the world and zombies will eat your brain or something, I dunno, but it's not worth the money. Also, the Red Cross should be ashamed for putting their name on this product. You'd be better off buying a cheap radio and some rechargeable batteries.
I really hope someone perfects this hand-cranked power thing sometime soon or at least uses a better quality plastic that isn't prone to shattering. I've gone through 3 different radios like this so far with the same results. Sad.