MD-090S NOAA Weather Radio

I am something of a semi-serious collector of emergency survival gear and I can say with some confidence that, so far, this little item is one of my favorite purchases. Its hard to really describe how nice this thing really is without getting to play with it in person, but I'll give it a shot and break down the features one by one: 1) First and foremost, as a radio, this guy works great. The volume and sound quality is strong for a speaker of this size. It does AM/FM and Weather radio with no problem. The dials might not be as easy to use a digital readout, they are more than adequate. 2) The antenna on this thing does indeed fit completely inside the body of the radio and can be pulled out and extended to improve reception a bit. However, it will easily pickup most signals with the antenna safely tucked away inside the body. 3) The flashlight is fairly decent; you can light up a hallway or room no problem. Having some experience with flashlights, I would say its probably 15-20 lumens. You can focus the beam a bit, but it doesn't really improve it that much, might get a bit more distance out of it when focused. 4) The floodlight is great though. If you set it in the corner of the room, it will provide more than enough light to see what you are doing. Would work very well as a reading light, though I haven't used it for that yet. 5) The solar panel does work, but I wouldn't count on it to charge the internal battery significantly in anything but the brightest direct sunlight. Probably most useful in the sense it counteracts the natural battery drain if you leave this out in the light every day. 6) You can switch between the internal Lithium-ion battery and 3 AAAs with the switch on the front. There's also a switch on the bottom to toggle the internal battery between normal and charging modes for charging your devices. Would definitely allow you to maintain function while you recharge the internal battery. Just remember to flip one AAA upside down if you leave them in all the time to prevent drainage. 7) Bottom switch also toggles the emergency alarm. Alarm is fairly loud, though not incredibly so. Still, realistically, its pretty hard to yell continuously for help for hours, so could come in very handy in specific situations. 8) The hand crank for charging the internal battery is actually quite nice. It feels fairly sturdy and is pretty comfortable to use. Just make sure you hold the body of the radio at a good angle while cranking to avoid straining your wrist. I hope I don't ever have to try it, but I would estimate that it would take 30-45 minutes of cranking at 100-120 rpms to fully charge the internal battery. 9) You can indeed charge devices from the internal battery. I was able to charge my Galaxy Note 4 from 0% to 36% with a fully charged battery. So, probably not going to use it as a primary charger, but in an emergency, it could be your only source of power. Also gives you at least a reliable option for charging if you don't have enough light for solar power. 10) The overall build quality of this little guy is great and it feels sturdy enough to get banged around a bit. The plastic has a slightly rubberized feel, so it easy to keep a grip on. I can't speak to whether or not its actually waterproof, but at the very least its probably water resistant. Overall, this is a great value for its price. Something I have to stress here is that while this thing will definitely prove useful as a radio, in a true emergency, its most critical function is as a renewable source of light and power. Even in the highest quality flashlights or powerbanks, batteries will only last for so long and if you are faced with the prospect of no power for weeks at time, eventually they will run dry. In that scenario, having something like this that can reliably provide a small amount of renewable light and electricity for as long as the internal mechanisms keep working could make an enormous difference. For the same reason, it would definitely work nicely for camping, especially if you are going to be out in the woods for awhile. Just remember that something is always better than nothing, especially when nothing is all that you have.

Only problem it's small but works fine

Great little weather radio and all-around emergency kit. Overview: good features, great price. Pros: price, size, li-ion battery, hand-cranking Cons: 1) No battery indicator, other than a red/green charging/charged light. Some readout (even 4 lights: 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%) would be helpful. 2) Phone charger is a little slow and won't fully charge a big phone, but plenty to partially charge it - that's all I really need this for anyway. The features of this are: - LED light - Li-ion battery - hand-crank - solar charging - AAA battery (3) slots - AM/FM/Weather band radio - antenna - phone charging - SOS alarm - waterproof I'll run through the features one-by-one: - LED light 1W LED is bright enough to read by. It has a focusing lens which is so-so, but the light is good as it is. Plus the shape of the brick means it can point forward or up. Under the solar charger is also a 4 LED light (shown popped up in the picture), so you could read. - Li-ion battery Newer battery technology means it won't develop a memory, and isn't too unsafe. It has a Micro-USB plug to charge through (or the hand-crank or solar, of course). The included manual says fully charged in 4 hours; that's a little less than what it took when I received it (probably had some charge to start with). - hand-crank They claim 1 minute of hand-crank can power the light for 25 minutes, and I'm inclined to believe it - a 1W LED won't draw much power at all. Plus you can (theoretically) charge the battery to then charge a phone. - solar charging Probably more to keep the battery level up, rather than letting the battery run low and then recharging it. But a good option. - AAA battery (3) slots Good to have the option of just throwing a few batteries in, in case the battery runs down and you don't want to wait for the hand-cranking. - AM/FM/Weather band radio Dials are a bit "touchy", but I was able to get most of the stations near me without even pulling the antenna out - probably a necessity if you are camping, though. My big draw is the weather radio, but during a big emergency (e.g. hurricane), many of the stations are going to give frequent updates anyway. - antenna Fits inside the brick nicely, with just a small nub on the outside to be able to pull it out. The hinge is a little flimsy, but I don't think I'll be using the antenna outside of the brick too much. - phone charging I found an app that measures the incoming wattage, and I was seeing mostly around 280 mA with a peak of about 350mA. My wall charger only reads 850-900 mA, so a decent charge. I don't think it would take my OnePlus One (size of an iPhone 6S) up to 100%, but would be able to take it up most of the way -- more than enough to make some phone calls, or check the radar during a storm. - SOS alarm Loud. My big complaint is the slider for this is 3-way: charge phone, nothing, or the SOS alarm. So, sliding from phone-charge to nothing is tricky; too far and the alarm starts going. - waterproof I don't want to test this, but the plugs are behind silicone covers, so it seems like it would be safe enough. I don't think I'd dive with it, but it probably would protect it from a bit of accidental rain exposure. I'd definitely give this a 5-star if they added some kind of way to know HOW MUCH the battery is charged. As it is, it could be 99% or 5%; I think the red light comes on when the battery is low, but there is no note about how much even that is indicating.

Living in Houston, I have owned several weather radios in this price range over the years. This radio is my favorite. I like the fact that you can re-charge it easily with AAA batteries (not included). I have found that re-charging with a hand-crank is too slow. Solar re-charging works well on most devices if you keep the device stored on a windowsill for the year so that it is fully charged during a weather event. Having the option to use three AAA batteries is great because the radio can be ready to use immediately. Another feature that I like is that no screwdriver is needed in order to open the compartment in order to change-out the batteries. This is important when evacuating and also when the power goes out. During Hurricane Ike, I evacuated to a friend's home. The storm made landfall around midnight or so. In the dark, it is hard to find anything, so it's good to be ready before the lights go out. I can remember lying in bed alone listening to my friend's radio (not this radio) in the dark as the NOAA forecaster reported the progress of the surge up through Galveston Bay and into the bayous, lakes, and streams inland. It was so helpful to know exactly what was happening to the area in which I lived. My friend's radio was a very expensive radio, and the main difference between her radio and this radio seems to be the reception. Hers ran all night with no interruption with reception. With this radio, I do have to turn the radio off and then back on if I lose reception to the channel. A really expensive weather radio would probably have better reception if you want to listen non-stop. For my needs, however, this radio is excellent and is the best that I have owned in its price range.

I have had this radio for almost a year now and I am happy with the quality of this product. I purchased mainly for camping, as this things serves as my radio and lights. I think it is a great idea to have the wind up and solar together, you can get a little bit of charge throughout the day to top up your battery (but don't expect a quick charge if your charging from dead) and if the battery happens to run out, just give it a few cranks when you need some light. One of the other things that sold me too was the extra battery compartment that uses your regular AA's instead of battery packs, this really helps get the most out of a few days in the bush. I have not required the use of the emergency backup for phone charging, but I did hook it up and it works fine, just don't buy this thinking its going to charge a phone completely while you are camping or something, it is more for getting a few percent put back on your phone to make a call or something, which is still super helpful and great feature. This gets a solid rating from me, but! if this thing also had a SD reader for music or even USB, on top of all the existing features, that would be awesome! not blue tooth, as that would defeat the purpose of having one device for everything.

Compact and price is ok. Very easy to use. Ready for any circumstances

Great product! Getting ready for power blackouts is really easy with this item. Would recommend everyone buys one of these. Also gives you light! No candles required.

Excelente y trabaja bien con pilas o cargándolo,

My first emergency radio! 10/10! Would recommend! Watch the video of me tuning into the WB, FM and AM radio along with trying out the other functions! The quality is excellent and the packaging is brand new. The radio comes with a manufacturing date inside the battery compartment which was nice. The antenna is retractable and it stays up without any need for support. The manual is very helpful (I did find one typo, I took a photo of it ahaha). The WB radio is a little difficult to tune into with a lot of finicking. For some reason, the sound quality changes whether you hold the radio a certain way (holding onto the side or the antenna can make the sound clear or staticky). The FM radio on the other hand is GREAT! The sound quality is as good as a regular plug-in radio! The AM radio is at the same level of sound quality as other radios so it's all good. The SOS is pretty loud too and for sure help you if you were lost in a forest or something. The solar panel is glossy so when you crank it will leave prints. Ordering this on sale for 44 dollars is for sure a good deal for this quality! Something that I would have wanted is an automatic tune-in or an automatic alarm when an Emergency Weather Alert is sounded. Maybe in the manual add a few efficient positions of getting the best cranking? I found that the first time I cranked the handle was that my thumb would accidentally press the big green flashlight button. I turned it around and tried cranking the radio sitting cross-legged and on my leg for support... I think for me the best position for cranking would be turning it upward with USB port facing up so that my thumb would hold onto the crevice of the handle for better grip.