What is RDS?
Radio Data System, or RDS, is a communications protocol standard for embedding amounts of digital information in conventional FM radio broadcasts. RDS standardizes several types of information transmitted, including time, station identification & program information.
What is NOAA Alert?
Connected to the Emergency Alert System (EAS) through NWR (National Weather Radio) network provided by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association), this feature wil
$ 72.95
Excellent Emergency Radio for the Price,
Overview:
(Short Version)
This radio earned a 5-stars rating for the reason that I have used and tested this radio for several months now and find the performance and features of this radio to meet and often exceed my expectations for an emergency / camping radio.
(Long Version)
For those who want a lot more information about this radio, below is a very long detailed review. If you are interested in this radio, this should be an informative review. Amazon displays only the first half of the review and to see it all you need to click on the blue “read more >” link at the bottom of the text. I tried to include information not previously mentioned in other reviews or available in the Amazon description. Included, is general information for improving the use of this or any radio’s performance. This review is not too technical (this review is aimed mostly at the beginning user), but radios are technical instruments and will need a very slight technical understanding to achieve maximum performance.
Blue highlighted texts are links that you may click on to see the additional products on Amazon referred to in the review. None of these other Amazon accessory products are necessary to use the radio, but may be useful to get more performance from this radio or any radio for that matter and are included only as helpful guides.
Purpose:
This radio was purchased primarily to be an emergency grid-down (power failure) or off-grid (camping) radio. Some folks may not fully realize how important a source of reliable communications and lighting are in an emergency, until they do not have them. The radio is loaded with features that will be very useful when faced with a grid-down or off-grid situation. The radio is not the ultimate in shortwave portables on the market, but is does a great job pulling in the lots of shortwave broadcasts with a good antenna. It meets its intended purpose by giving the user plenty of emergency lighting and ability to hear important local, regional and international information when needed.
Emergencies have a nasty habit of not announcing their occurrence in advance. This radio fills the niche of a “go to radio/light” when the lights go out or really bad weather is on the way. If things are getting really primitive, whether grid-down or off-grid, then you will be grateful for the intelligently integrated features of this radio. This radio has become my first choice for a dependable portable emergency radio.
Construction:
The radio is well made, light and durable enough to take in a backpack. Loaded with 3 alkaline AA cells the radio weighs 23.4 oz. (600 grams), reasonable weight for all the features. The case of the radio is made of a good grade plastic that appears very durable. The radio has nice rounded corners and hinges, buttons and pieces fit very tight. The construction is first class, unlike a lot of other poor quality “emergency” radios also on the market.
Battery Power Sources:
The radio has two sources of power from batteries, a built-in NiMH battery (supplied) and provisions for AA alkaline batteries. The radio comes supplied with an internal 600 maH NiMH (nickel metal hydride) rechargeable battery. The battery compartment uses 3 replaceable AA alkaline batteries, available in just about any store (Duracell, Energizer, etc.). Batteries are one of the first things to disappear from a store in an emergency, it is wise to have plenty in the house now.
Internal NIMH Rechargeable Battery:
The radio never really shuts off, because it displays the date, time, temperature and humidity all the time, which is a nice feature. The power for these features comes from the internal rechargeable 600 milliamp-hour NiMH battery. The NiMH batteries can power all the features of the radio and lights. The NiMH rechargeable battery is a very common type used in cordless home telephone handsets (about $10 at big box stores), so when it wears out in 5-10 years, a low cost replacement is readily available and easy to access through the battery compartment. Kaitousa sells a replacement NiMH battery for $9.95.
The radio has a nice display that shows when the NiMH battery is charging, it scrolls left to right during charging and when charged, all bars show and scrolling stops. The display also gives a rough indication of the charge remaining in the battery. If you deplete the NiMH charge, you still have a backup power source of the alkaline AA batteries (or rechargeable Eneloops Sanyo NEW 1500 eneloop 8 Pack AA Ni-MH Pre-Charged Rechargeable Batteries) to power the radio. The radio protects the NiMH batteries by shutting down early and a Low Batt light blinks until the NiMH batteries are recharged. This…
Read more
Was this review helpful to you?
|Worth the money!,
As reviewers of similar products have stated, the receiver on most crank radios is not usually of the best quality. The tuners are generally not very sensitive and tend to drift. That’s also the case with a cheaper emergency crank radio I have. After researching many different radios on Amazon, I was of the conclusion that there were probably none that had exactly the features I was looking for but also were of good quality.
Finally, I found the KA600. It actually did have everything I was looking for (many didn’t have shortwave). This thing is loaded with features. The tuner, being digital also works well and eliminates the sensitivity and drift problems. The quality of the unit seams to be pretty good. I love the charge-by-USB feature, as well as the fact that I can charge a USB device by hand-cranking.
I don’t think you will be disappointed with this radio after purchasing it.
Was this review helpful to you?
|I Dig It!,
I have had this radio a few weeks now – but haven’t tried charging the battery via solar yet.
So I will tell you about the stuff I know about….
I DID notice that there was a warning in the manual NOT to leave the radio
in direct sunlight for too long – which is funny given the product being discussed.
It’s a decent radio – sounds good for a single speaker ditty.
I mean – It’s no BOSE, but it delivers the weather like you want it; clean and clear.
Here’s why it gets 4 stars:
The case is really well built and feels solid – not like a cheap toy.
The radio gets good reception on local stations and the weather stations.
I like the scanning feature for the SW a lot. It saves a lot of time.
The extra stuff like the thermostat and lights actually work well and the RDS display is nice.
The flashlight is bright enough to really annoy my wife while she is seriously playing her MMORPG.
The radio has a groovy handle on it you will never use but it looks James Bond cool just the same.
They sent some earbuds I wasn’t expecting and I appreciate that.
The instructions are well written and in plain English.
Here’s why it don’t get 5 stars:
I think if you were stupid and didn’t know your own strength –
you would break the generator crank off pretty easily.
It’s not built too tough so don’t let the kids crank it.
The radio tuning knob on my radio has loosey goosey give in it for half a turn and then tightens up.
This doesn’t affect the digital tuning any but it’s weird and I don’t like it.
PLUS – there’s no fine tuning adjustment and that’s bad.
You get the staticky stations you get and that’s it.
I bought the 20′ antenna extension. I think it helps but I didn’t do much comparison testing.
That said – I’m not pulling in as many SW signals as I had dreamt of getting when I bought this product.
There is a LOT of dead air and I think a better SW radio would find more talkers. But I’m guessing.
And also – many people in the world don’t have the common courtesy to speak english and this radio doesn’t translate.
ha ha.
Also – this radio doesn’t do SAME channels and specific alerts for the weather.
So that kinda sucks. But in all fairness – they didn’t claim it does and I didn’t expect it did.
Anyway – I like this thing a lot and would buy another for a backup in case some idiot broke my generator handle off during the apocalypse.
I think I will save up my coin and buy the more expensive Grundig with the SW fine tuning knob.
Because I want to hear people speak in languages I don’t understand – more clearly.
I did not drop it to see how durable the case is.
For that review you will have to find the same person who broke their dyno handle.
CHOW!
Was this review helpful to you?
|