NOAA Weather Radio Portable AM FM Transistor Battery Operated by1500MAH Battery with Strong Flashlight Emergency SOS Alarm Ultra-Long Antenna Best Reception Hurricane Tools

I live in Dodge County Wisconsin where the recent tornado hit - it literally passed directly overhead but thank goodness didn't touch down. I realized I no longer had an emergency radio - something I'd always kept with a couple good flashlights and extra batteries, but had gotten lost through several moves. I live in an apartment and most residents had gone to the basement. Someone had a radio going which reminded me how important this is. I ordered mine on Saturday and it came today (Monday). It is perfect! The extra features are cool but all I really need is the WB/FM/AM radio. For the price it's just what I need and can take it with me anywhere I go

I gave one of these to a long time Homeless Friend, and with daily use, living rough in the wild, it lasted him about six months, which is better than the radios he was getting.So I'd say it would last a not homeless person quite a long time if not dropped in the dirt and such.

I had read more reviews before trying this radio, I said trying, because I don't regret buying it. This is about the 1st one I bought before reading a review where the reviewer said he had the same issue. He extended the antenna and it came out of the radio.Yep me too, he bought a second one, me too!Here's why. I tried 3 other weather alert radios all digital. The digital ones are totally useless because I can't "tune" in the weather channels, they're locked on the frequency, to get reception at all, I live in a rural area, and these weather transmitters only have 200 watts output power.This radio allows me to "tune" in the station and get fairly decent reception.It's the best weather alert radio I've found so far.I'll keep this one, since I did pull the antenna out myself, and will be very careful with the 2nd one.

Few comments on the RD218:o Stereo headphone output is nice. Most radios in this price range do not have it.o Battery compartment a little small. Battery cover bulges when Eneloop batteries are used.o The Alert mode scans all seven NOAA channels which is nice.o Needs a digital volume control so the lock function will also lock the volume.o Needs a signal strength indicator.o Buttons are a bit small.o More presets would be nice.There are fairly minor nitpicks though. Overall the radio is pretty nice.

Am is fairly non existent in a rural area,plus a knowledge of what is available on fm or shortwave is key.works okay,but I don't get name brand batteries.

Maybe just my copy. I didn't really crank it up until the weather got scary and discovered it's incredibly flaky. Tune in a NOAA station, then tune off that station and come back to the same place on the dial and it's gone. The station wanders up and down the dial. Tune it in as good as possible, turn it to the alarm position and then back to on and the station is gone. It reminds me of the old 2-transistor AM radios in the early 60s. Haven't tried that AM and FM.

Great little radio. Sound is very good for a radio so small

The sound quality is very good. I love the digital reception and visual display.I have recently started listening to a Christian radio program from the Urban Alternative hosted by Reverend Tony Evans. As I listen to it five days of the week I found it was always at a time I was listening from my phone on Bluetooth or going to my van and listening. Always shutting one down or starting the other one up. So I broke down and ordered this small digital radio. Now I do not miss a word.I have a couple of the cheap "digital" radios that scan for a station but you have no idea what station you are listening to till you hear a station identification message. That is wasted time in an emergency. The digital readout on this unit solves that problem. But this unit has a weather band as well if the local radio feed fails.Living in a severe storm area it's nice to have an emergency back up for weather information. In one of our last storms we lost a couple of cell towers and a radio station tower as well. This radio will be a nice back up for those times.In my area the radio scanned and locked 28 local FM stations on its own by pressing the scan button. Then I selected 3 favorites on my 3 key buttons. It is a very nice unit.The Weather band has seven channels from 162.400 to 162-550 mhz.It also has an AM band in my area it picked up four local stations.It also has an alarm clock built in. That will be a big bonus if we loose electric from the storms again. Nothing like waking up late for work after being up all night because of a storm. That alarm will fix that problem as well.