Red Cross Solar/Turbine Powered Weather Radio

Eton hit the nail on the head with this radio. Unless you see another on the market with more reviews of a higher rating, stop the search and hit the Buy button. It isn't perfect, but for its product class, it's the best yet. I live in tornado country, and have owned 3 high-end scanners that cover NOAA channels, 3 home/office weather radios, and 3 different handheld weather radios. I consider the "base station" models that you would use at home on a desk as one product class, and the portable handheld models as a second. In the base station class, Reecom comes the closest to the best. There are a few caveats and flaws, but nothing that sacrifices your safety. In the portable/handheld class, the Eton FR160 is the one to get. I recently bought a larger Eton model, I think the FR200, 300, or 320 (since returned, which explains my inability to remember its model number), and Eton FR160, and the Midland HH50. Although they are each different sizes, each is portable. I found a deal on the largest one, and ordered the other two from Amazon, being unsure which would be the better choice. The first one, the larger Eton since returned, had poor reception and was confusing to operate. It went back right away! The second one, the Eton FR160, had mostly excellent reception and was easy to operate. Surprise! It was as if two different engineering teams had developed the two different units at Eton. Reception is excellent, the audio is loud, the speaker is clear, the LED light is bright, and the unit is lightweight and compact. Reception, audio, and power are the critical elements for a weather radio. The Eton is strong in all these features. The third, the Midland, in my mind sacrificed safety for simplicity. While it was a "no-brainer" to operate, it was equally "brainless" when it came to power handling. You could leave it on accidentally and never know it -- no low-battery warning -- until the next time you need it, at which point it would be useless. There's even an "alert" mode, requiring that the unit be left on full-time, which inadvertently encourages you to forget that you left it on... This unit too is going back. There are probably enough reviews that cover the features of the Eton. I will only add this fictional scenario for you to put yourself into, in order to make the best choice between the Eton and any other battery-operated portable unit: worst case, you forget to turn off both units and the power drains to zero. When an emergency comes, which one can you still use? The Eton. You can turn the crank and get light, radio, and weather. With the other one, you're still in the dark, looking for fresh batteries. I rest my case.