08-17-2018, 12:48 PM
If you are talking about receiving radio, I would recommend a nice Sony multi-band radio. FM/AM are nice but in a SHTF scenario you might want to be able to pull in radio from elsewhere on the planet. I have a few AM/FM/SW/MW/etc radios and my Sony (Japanese manufacture) outperforms the Chinese ones.
I wouldn't worry about finding a radio with built in cranks or solar panels. Those are just cheap gimmicks to add perceived value to cheap products. Buy something that can use AA batteries, and buy some high quality rechargeable batteries (like Eneloop) and some means to charge them. At the very least you can probably buy a half dozen AA-powered solar patio lights at Walmart for $9.99 that make decent solar chargers. And of course they make light too.
They also sell adapters that let you use AA batteries in devices that take C or D-cells. Eneloop makes them but I found some on eBay for a fraction of the price that actually are a lot better because they let you put 1-3 AA batteries in them (D) instead of Eneloop's single battery (D). So they last up to 3x longer. It's a lot easier to try to stick to emergency supplies that use only one type of rechargeable battery (AA) and use them with adapters rather than trying to come up with ways to charge multiple sizes of batteries.
ETA: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=as_li_ss_tl...-alias=aps&field-keywords=AA+d+cell+adapter&rh=i:aps,k:AA+d+cell+adapter&linkCode=ll2&tag=pw016-20&linkId=f7228b338ac762d8fc6a9005fc4e69c7&language=en_US
I wouldn't worry about finding a radio with built in cranks or solar panels. Those are just cheap gimmicks to add perceived value to cheap products. Buy something that can use AA batteries, and buy some high quality rechargeable batteries (like Eneloop) and some means to charge them. At the very least you can probably buy a half dozen AA-powered solar patio lights at Walmart for $9.99 that make decent solar chargers. And of course they make light too.
They also sell adapters that let you use AA batteries in devices that take C or D-cells. Eneloop makes them but I found some on eBay for a fraction of the price that actually are a lot better because they let you put 1-3 AA batteries in them (D) instead of Eneloop's single battery (D). So they last up to 3x longer. It's a lot easier to try to stick to emergency supplies that use only one type of rechargeable battery (AA) and use them with adapters rather than trying to come up with ways to charge multiple sizes of batteries.
ETA: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=as_li_ss_tl...-alias=aps&field-keywords=AA+d+cell+adapter&rh=i:aps,k:AA+d+cell+adapter&linkCode=ll2&tag=pw016-20&linkId=f7228b338ac762d8fc6a9005fc4e69c7&language=en_US