Recommend a survival radio

I have been thinking of asking for a survival radio for Christmas but I don't know which one.

What do you gentlemen recommend?

Thanx!!
Charlie

Solid radio and a great price on amazon for the Baofeng UV-5R

I really like these products: http://www.ccrane.com/Radios/CC-Solar-Observer-AMFMWeather-Windup-Emergency-Radio

I've got two Eton Scorpions, one in the house and one in a bug out bag.
Great little radios.
Solar powered or hand crank. Has a USB port for charging a phone or portable device with solar or hand crank. Digital tuning, push button volume control. More than adequate sound volume from the built in speaker.
Also has an LED flashlight and a carabiner clip. Smallish, lightweight but well made. I'm quite happy with them.

In reality there is no such thing as a survival radio unless you are in a position that someone knows where you are and listening.

It may seem that you are prepared and you may be but what about the other guy? Is the FM or AM on the air or did the weather channel suffer the same power failure. The real question is if the Ham radio guy that I talk to have a generator or not, and his situation relevant to me.

Buying a radio assumes the catastrophe is small enough that there is something to listen to still on the air.
Local event vs global.
WWII had Tokyo Rose and Axis Sally.

mongoose said:

In reality there is no such thing as a survival radio unless you are in a position that someone knows where you are and listening.

It may seem that you are prepared and you may be but what about the other guy? Is the FM or AM on the air or did the weather channel suffer the same power failure. The real question is if the Ham radio guy that I talk to have a generator or not, and his situation relevant to me.

Click to expand...

Barring a collision with an asteroid or a massive EMP there's a very good chance there'll be something to listen to in the US anyway. A certain number of radio stations are part of the Emergency Alert System and have a power source independent of the grid. Their programing will be taken over by official sources of information. Back during the bad ol' days of the Cold War there was a similar system and designated stations were required to have a fallout shelter capable of broadcasting.

That is exactly what I would consider an emergency. We all have the information at our finger tips but to tell you the truth I would reach out to my neighbors to help each other in a REAL emergency except for a military invasion to know what areas are safe or occupied the same that was done in Berlin 1945. Talking to someone at a long distance or listening to updates will not help but walking out of the comfort zone will.

An Emergency radio is a nice thing in the event of an earthquake, tornado, flood, blizzard or some other localized event.
In the event of total global nuclear destruction, I think listening to the radio or charging my cell phone would be the last thing I'd be concerned about.
And having spent 60 bucks on a radio that is now useless because I'm the last surviving human in the western hemisphere wouldn't upset me too much.

Survival radio could mean lots of things so I'm not sure exactly what you're after.

Looks like the solar powered receivers have been covered already but you might want to look for one with shortwave as well as the normal AM/FM bands. Then if the local stuff is off the air for a bit you can receive stations from much farther away.

These Spot things are great if you go out in the wilderness and want to have a way to call for help. http://www.findmespot.com/en/

If you want two-way communication, look at Amateur Radio. There's everything from VHF radios for fairly short distance line-of-sight comms, all the way to HF that can cover several hundred miles around you or all the way around the world (maybe, depending on lots of factors).

being prepared should be the rule of the day.in an emergency information is critical.if nothing else you can find out where not to go.