(Part 2) Best portable shortwave radios according to redditors

A few more ideas :

I would suggest having a battery-powered FM radio (and extra batteries if it's battery powered, or get one which charges via USB like the one I linked) to listen to the news and get vital information.

Also (if not too late), order a sawyer mini (best) or lifestraw (not as good). If you don't have access to clean water it can help you stay healthy (beware of chemical contamination which cannot be removed by these).

If you have the money, get a Garmin inReach satellite communicator (requires a (relatively cheap) subscription, down to $15ish a month). You can request SOS (much like 911), and send/receive SMS and e-mails, even without cell coverage. Excellent to keep in touch with relatives and in case of emergency. Can be used year-round when hiking, snow-mobile, skiing, ... Don't tell anyone you have this...

Download the offline map of your area on Google Maps on your phone beforehand. Can be priceless to navigate around and doesn't require internet access. Also get the Maps.Me app and download the map of your area too. Google Maps offline maps will expire and disappear from your phone after 30 days (I believe), Maps.Me maps will not.

If the cell service in your area is out of order, use your phone in airplane mode so that it doesn't continuously and desperately looks for a cell to connect to, which will drain the battery VERY quickly. Also use it on the lowest practical brightness setting to save battery power.

If not too late, get big USB power banks (>=10000mAh such as this one) and fully charge them beforehand. It's good as barter items and it can be nice to recharge your things when you have no access to a generator (on the go, or if you don't want to run the generator to avoid attracting attention). You can also get USB lights (this one for instance) and your powerbank doubles as a flashlight with a very long battery life.

Get a first aid kit, and not just one with bandaids... Get a CAT tourniquet, trauma dressing, Celox (preferred) or QuikClot bandage, triangular bandage, SAM splint, ... and know how to use them. Also get the basic medecines (stomach/diarrhea relief, basic painkillers, anti-allergy, and any prescription medecine if you require any). Remember 911 service may be unavailable for some time and you need to be able to take care of injuries. Tourniquets save lives, everyone should have one readily available.

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I am a radio amateur and in these situations I like to have one or two portable radio for two-way communication but I realize it is not for everybody. Still, a pair of FRS/GMRS radio can be helpful. Please note that GMRS requires a (cheap) license in the USA. I would recommend this model which also allows to be used as a scanner and to program the NOAA weather frequencies (do it beforehand) and some local police/EMS/fire frequencies (if allowed in your juridiction).

Please DO NOT use a radio made for amateur radio use, where you can transmit on any frequency, such as the UV-5R; you may interfere with emergency communications, even if you can't hear them, miles away. Please stick to the FRS/GMRS frequencies. The radio above guarantees safe operation and still allows to be used as a scanner.

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Take pictures of all your important documents (ID, properties, ...) and store them in a waterproof plastic bag. Try to keep at least your passport and driver license with you during the storm...

If you have a sump pump, try to arrange so that it can be battery powered and/or connected to your generator. If using battery power, get a battery charger and/or a generator connection, if the outage lasts and the battery runs down. Sometimes homes are not affected by the main storm but are flooded due to the lack of power around the storm and are still ruined, and that's totally preventable.

Also, beforehand, depending of the situation you might want to BLOCK your main sewage pipe. This way you might avoid sewage backflow into your home. There are normally valves already installed but in case of serious flooding (high backpressure) they sometimes are not up to the task.

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Download a few offline movies on the Netflix app (if you have Netflix). I never lived though a hurricane but I assume after a few days/weeks, you might want some entertainment. You can also download e-books. Bonus if it's survival-related e-books.

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Hope this helps... good luck to those affected


PS: oooo, thank you stranger for the gold, I think I never had one before ! Happy prepping :)

Okay. If you want a slightly larger portable one with lots of utility for camping and long battery life, get this one.

Kaito KA390 Portable AM/FM Shortwave NOAA Weather Radio with LED Flashlight, Color Black https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071DXSZ7Z/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_tbtXAbDJB9GTQ

If you want a small one that doubles as an alarm clock, get this one.

TIVDIO V-111 Portable Shortwave Travel Radio AM/FM Stereo with Clock and Alarm (Black) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0186SDYZU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_MgtXAb217SMTR

If you're worried about buying from a company of which you have never heard, you shouldn't be. You want a radio with DSP, allowing good reception of bad stations, and most of these radios are made with similar chips.

If you are worried about that, just buy one of the Sony ones for $20. They're overpriced and lack virtually any features, but they're at least well made.

http://www.99w.com/
Tips for the Newberg drive in:

Gates open at 6:30pm.

There is always a double feature. They give you time to leave between the first and second movie. You can also move your car between shows (lots of people bolt after the first show..it gets really late..2nd movie starts around midnight).

Bring a portable am/fm radio. Don't tempt your car battery going dry. I purchased this Panasonic Am/FM radio from amazon and it does the trick. They broadcast on 96.5 FM

Sundays are the best nights to go due to everyone working next morning. I can't vouch for Thursdays. If you go Friday or Saturday, the following applies:

Get. There. Early. There will be a line around the corner of HWY 99 and Debroah Rd going so far as along Hayes St. You WILL say "holy shit look at this line..." . If you want a semi-decent spot once you're in, be in line NLT 5pm. If you think I'm blowing smoke, I guarantee if you show up at 6:30 you won't get in.

The concession line can be a test of patience. I highly suggest you bring your own. On the sold out weekend nights, we've watched people leave for popcorn and never come back. Just kidding...but still, 40 min waits in line? Not ok.

If you're coming in a hatchback (SUV, wagon, or the like) and plan on parking backwards to lay down in the cargo area, you will need to bring tie-down ropes or bungie cords to ensure your hatch doesn't raise past the roof of your vehicle. The people who are parked in the row behind you don't want to see your hatch. Be courteous.


Hope you have fun!

You can probably get an old DX-440 at a yard sale cheap, or one of the more modern sangean versions. https://www.amazon.com/Sangean-ATS-909X-World-Band-Receiver/dp/B003XU76PQ

Then get onto a few websites so you have cheat sheets, a big spiral bound notebook to jot down favorite stations, and off to the races.

It's mostly lunatic fringe stuff, religious programming, various state sponsored news agencies, and lots of weird music. Plus all the ham chatter. You can hear about someones wifes bunions up in Idaho, how a coyote tried to eat their grandson Little Billy, and an assortment of weird stuff.

Learning to tune in SSB is kind of a trip, not sure if the new versions have manual controls still, or just a USB/LSB setting.

Beyond that, is the road to hell called Ham radio, which can vacuum up thousands of dollars while you learn to be a self taught radio engineer/tech. ;)

You need a Shortwave Radio, or you can listen in on the TuneIn streams, or the SoundCloud recordings. I myself use This Shortwave radio, and a 23 foot portable antenna. ReviewBrah uses a Tecsun PL-660. Cheaper ones can be had for $15. If you E-Mail [email protected], John himself will send you his recommended radios if your interested.

Shortwave is nice, because you can pickup broadcasts from 6000+ miles away, since the signals are bounced around the globe off the atmosphere. It's a fun time listening to broadcasts from Africa, Greece, Cuba, Korea, etc.

Frozen caveman mailman here; I use this, and while I'm limited to just radio broadcasts, it's got a speaker. I keep it in my chest pocket, and just shut it off or turn down the volume when I interact with a customer. I (personally) just don't think earbuds are a good optic out on the street.

A camp stove that runs on either propane or butane. $32.56

AM/FM/Shortwave Pocket radio $13.99

Digital Compass watch $33.49

Shortwave receiver performance of an HT is mediocre at best. HF reception on HTs is intended to serve as a "nice to have" feature and not so much as a serious receiver. HTs are expected to bring in the stronger HF signals in your area and not much more. Many mid-range SW portables priced under US $100 will outperform them, especially with a small reel-up random wire antenna.

From the current SW portables this is my choice for packing light:

Eton Elite Executive Satellite. The best combination of relatively small size, light weight and outstanding shortwave reception. This is one of the very few shortwave portables that can handle a longwire antenna of any length without overloading. It is a portable DX machine for shortwave. US $149.99. Lightly built and a bit fragile, pack it carefully. I would chuck the leather cover for this radio and pack in a lighter padded drawstring bag.

Gift one!

Gift two would be anything!

C'mon...gimme.!

You guys rock though.

Edit: Oh wait, now you're saying dream bigger for the first gift. This tent then! I really need one, plus I don't have prime and without it it would take 2-4 weeks to ship even if I get the money to get it. It's dumb.

Check out the GE Superadio III. Good sound, excellent reception.

GE SuperadioIII

Look at the used list from the universal-radio.com site. Try to ignore 1990's-era design--this is a good site that sells enthusiast and professional-grade radios. Go down and explore your options for radios within your price range.

The Grundig G8 Traveler is good, as well are many other older, tried-and-true Grundig models.

Almost anything from Crane is good. I bought one of these as a gift (actually got a lightly-used one through universal-radio.com), and it has reception like you wouldn't believe. FM was perfect, and the AM reception was so good, you wouldn't mind listening to AM music.

Sangean also makes some famous pocketable models.

Oh, and always try and read reviews on radio enthusiast blogs. Check out the comments here for some very useful commentary on pocketable radios.

edit: Here's a nice review of the Sangean DT-400W. I'd go either with it or the DT-200VX if you're looking for something that's pocketable.

> Scanned around the house with an AM radio (this one to be exact). I tuned to an unused AM frequency and kept the antenna collapsed. I didn't really know what I should be on the lookout for, and I ran the test with the house powered back up, so I'm open for suggestions on what I should do here.

You're looking for places where the noise gets louder... when doing the breaker trick, turn them back on one at a time to find the circuit that's generating the noise, leave that off, and check the rest (there may be more than one circuit making noise).

Once you have two or three breakers off, go around finding where those circuits are. Unplug everything that can be unplugged and turn everything else off... turn the breaker back on and see if it's fixed. If not, you missed something, look again. Smash the thing into a million places and buy a higher quality replacement.

> No change on 40m, but wow did it sure clean up everything else.

Now... as for the 40m not getting better... move the radio to a different circuit. Use an extension cord if necessary and see if it's coming from the same circuit the rig is on.

EDIT: For the AM radio, it's better to use one that does shortwave... I'll dig up a cheap one and link.

It depends - do you want a software defined receiver (SDR) that uses a computer to provide the display? If so, check this out for $250.

Or if would you prefer a conventional receiver, the superb Sangean ATS-909X sells for $220.

Did you consider a solar powered one? I can't tell you if they're any good or not but Roberts are a good manufacturer.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Roberts-DAB-Digital-Solar-Radio/dp/B003GM62PQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1499553705&sr=8-2

Might be worth trawling through the reviews to see if it'd do the job when you were camping, I guess it depends on how long you can sit it out in the sun for.

A quick look suggests you might need to install better batteries so it can hold a better charge.

Honestly, this is something I really wouldn't reinvent the wheel on.

Chromecast just isn't a good solution for this.

Just buy a simple portable FM radio:

https://www.amazon.com/Sony-ICFP26-Portable-AM-Radio/dp/B012F0DGYE/

You can plug it into the 3.5mm jack on any speakers.

Or just a larger one that has a decent sized speaker:

https://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-RF-2400D-AM-Radio-Silver/dp/B00007KDX6/

Tis is a great deal! Ordered one myself.

https://www.amazon.com/Eton-Executive-Aircraft-Shortwave-Leather/dp/B000NOSCN0/ref=sr_1_1?crid=26VE4B562TW7R&keywords=eton+elite+executive+am%2Ffm%2Faircraft+band%2Fssb%2Fshortwave+radio&qid=1574952931&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&sprefix=eton+e%2Caps%2C169&sr=8-1

Agreed BUT the whole reason I purchased the thing was to monitor APRS. This kind of goes to what original is saying, its a nice feature but its not done well for the price you pay.

If I have GPS off, beacon off, and APRS on. What does that use 3-4 times the battery of just listening to 144.390 on audio? Its absurd that the radio's power usage shoots up reading the few bytes of the aprs packet compared to driving a .75w speaker.

Throw that aside, just money wise.

TH-D74A was recently on sale for 479.99. Compare it to a kit to make the baofung comparable functionally. TriBand, wide recieve, aprs even assuming you have no phone.

Triband uv-5 https://www.amazon.com/Mirkit-Baofeng-Battery-Tri-Band-Operator/dp/B07MWCT2J1/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=baofeng+uv-5rx3&qid=1565973762&s=gateway&sr=8-4 $35

Audio Cable https://www.amazon.com/BTECH-APRS-K1-Interface-APRSDroid-Compatible/dp/B01LMIBAZW/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?keywords=baofeng+pc+audio+cable&qid=1565973835&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmr1 $19 complete rip off but whatever

Amazing SSB/AirBand/AM/FM wide reciever to compliment it https://www.amazon.com/SSB-Shortwave-Scannable-Aviation-Operated/dp/B07HXKR479/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=ssb+shortwave+receiver&qid=1565973865&s=gateway&sr=8-3 $170

Cheap android https://www.amazon.com/Total-Wireless-Rebel-Prepaid-Smartphone/dp/B07GBRB3SB/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=prepaid%2Bandroid%2Bphone&qid=1565973981&s=gateway&sr=8-3&th=1 $40

APRS Droid, Repeaterbook Proximity Search - Free

260 bucks gets you the same functionality, granted in pieces. Is 200 bucks really worth DStar it being bundled into one piece. You would arguably get better AM/FM/SSB reception with this setup and could load a dozen books onto the android phone to use as reference on the go.

Yeah, the first one, but not portable, more like this. Oh well.

https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Rechargeable-Neodymium-Speaker-Automatically/dp/B07415WG1L/ref=sr_1_9?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI27ev-tiQ5gIVCtvACh0rEgsQEAAYASAAEgJ2DPD_BwE&hvadid=267948026588&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9027285&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t1&hvqmt=e&hvrand=3734980745988898742&hvtargid=kwd-304790733260&hydadcr=24627_9648891&keywords=radio+for+dementia+patients&qid=1575074290&sr=8-9

not sure if this would work but have a look. Could also consider a device like Alexa, maybe a Christmas sale. You could set it up for her to just ask to play music. her voice has to be clear tho. My dad has PD and his voice fluctuates alot and his Alexa has a hard time with him. But you can even set her up an amazon prime acct and add her fav tunes to her playlist.

If only there was a device that could pick up radio signals, that is cheap and doesn't connect to any wifi networks...

Yup! Right on the mark. I want basic functionality and something I don’t feel inclined to put away and forget about when I’m not using. i like a visually non-cluttered desk area.

This Panasonic is the closest I found.

PANASONIC RF-562D AM FM SW Shortwave Transistor Radio - Retro Design (Battery operated) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CDC5QLK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_xmigAbGVE05WV

I don’t like this because it doesn’t have AC.

All the hand crank radios I've seen have a cheap dial capacitor to tune the radio. When I use my battery powered radio, I use a preset button to instantly change stations without pissing around trying to find the station and fine tune it in. This alone is worth the effort of charging from a larger battery or solar panel or generator or simply using 3 AA alkaline batteries. I have the previous model of http://www.amazon.com/Kaito-KA1103-Worldband-Radio-Dark/dp/B00IT9LWP6/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1413740632&sr=1-3-fkmr0&keywords=kaito+1102+radio and really like it. The next step up above this is a wide band amateur radio which you need a license for.

actually to make my question easier, can i just buy this one:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IID3OAY/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2NYACAJP9I1IY

first off, can this radio device find and listen to both analog and digital scanner frequencies? and secondly, will this radio scanner i linked pick up san gabriel valley and los angeles county police radio talk? thank you very much

I find the sync to be mixed from game to game. Some times it is perfect, I prefer when the radio is a tad behind. A few pause/play adjustments on the DVR and I can usually get them to sync. From my experience the game is usually behind on the radio more times than ahead of the action - sometimes it gets better after a few minutes. If it is ahead you need a dvr like device on your radio. I am hoping like you someone has a cheap solution for these times. Maybe something like this to record and pause the radio feed:
http://www.amazon.com/DE1129-Stereo-Player-Digital-Recorder/dp/B00AYPSBO8/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1376575017&sr=8-5&keywords=FM+Digital+Portable+Radio+Recorder

This one says you can pause the radio:
http://www.amazon.com/Radio-Portable-Player-Touch-Screen-Display/dp/B004KG1J3W

Try a SuperRadio, they are very good at picking up distant signals.