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What I’m talking about is the kind you can crank/solar charge/plug in. I bought one on Amazon thinking this was the answer and it wasn’t any good*. Looking at the reviews, it doesn’t look like ANY of them are any good, no matter the price. It appears these are all made by the same factory in China.
I’d like to have something for hurricanes, but I’m almost ready to give up.
Anyone able get something reliable?
*Not what I really wanted to say, but in the interest of continuing to be able to post here, I kept my language in check.
Puna: Our roosters crow first
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A Baofeng UV-5R will tune in FM, weather band, old police and fire bands, and let you transmit on FRS, GMRS, business, HAM, and Marine bands. They are only legal for amateur radio use, but in an emergency anyone can transmit on any frequency to seek help.
No solar or Dynamo, but you can charge off your home solar or car...
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They are also cheap, for what you get. Consider an antenna upgrade as our terrain here has a lot of places where reception is not so good. And programming them can be a bit difficult, but there are quite a few people out there with the experience to help (I am not one of them). And please, don't get on the ham bands for less than an actual emergency, or, better yet, get your license.
Peace and long life
Peace and long life
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The Baofeng's are great, but they're not allowed to sell them in the US anymore, because they transmit on more frequencies than they're allowed to.
But wow. Those things run forever without a charge!
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Odd, I still see them on Amazon.
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It's a very recent development:
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-18-801A1.pdf
It's not illegal to use them, as long as you're using them correctly. They're just not allowed to be sold in the US.
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My experience with these products is the battery always die out. So gotta get the eyeglass screwdrivers to unscrew it and the battery hard to access to remove. The batteries at Walgreen's much better. So I rather get a 20th century boombox. Getting hard to find but I thought I saw a $60 Sony at Wal-Mart.
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Check out the C. Crane radio company-
www.ccrane.com - best radios made & built to last. They're out in northern CA. Bought one of their multiband portables @ 20 years ago and it's still alive & well. Prices are very reasonable.
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Tara,
Are you referring to the item in my post?
Puna: Our roosters crow first
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I have used this several times when power went out.
I already have so many other Ryobi tools so I have the batteries for it. It has taken some abuse and still works after a couple years.
https://www.ebay.com/p/Ryobi-P742-One-18...2529340430&chn=ps
