Emergency managers are constantly trying to get people to be prepared. One of the items on the disaster kit list is a battery powered radio. Well, times have changed - it should be a radio that does not need to be plugged in to the wall.
The difference is that emergency radios have more options for power than just batteries. A good emergency radio should have more than one way to power up. Other sources of power now include solar and wind-up.
Most people are aware of solar power. A built-in solar panel, when placed in sunlight, provides power to run the radio as long as the sun shines. There are obvious limitations - what happens when the sun goes away? What happens when you want to take the radio indoors?
More people are becoming aware of the wind-up option. The radio will have a hand crank that the user winds up, which provides a finite amount of power to run the radio. The limitation here is the wind up eventually winds down. (An approximate result is 60 seconds of cranking gets you 60 minutes of power.)
A good choice would be an emergency radio that has all the optional power sources. If the sun is shining, use the solar panel. When the sun goes down, switch to the hand crank. When you get cranky about cranking, switch over to the batteries. When the power returns, plug into the AC receptacle in the wall. Now that's redundancy!
Aside from the AM/FM bands, other radio options to look for are weather channels (with SAME capability), built-in light, cell phone charger, and maybe even television and/or shortwave frequencies. Another point to consider is how the radio is constructed - after all, it is an emergency radio, so consider durability and water resistance.
Some of the popular brands include Eton/Grundig, Freeplay, Midland, Oregon Scientific, Sony and even Hummer. I also found an Excaliber/Weather Channel brand, although I could not find it on the Weather Channel website. You should have no problems finding the vendors, as well as some good reviews, on the internet. (WFTND has no financial interest in any of these brands, they are provided only as information.)
WFTND Blog Information
An emergency manager trying to make a difference.
The name of the blog comes from a conversation with my daughter, where she told me that I was always looking to help people be prepared for the inevitable emergencies in life.
I started this blog as a place to assemble all the information that I was getting every day and to share my thoughts and ideas on emergency management.
I had no idea how much of the blog would wind up being what's in the news. While it does not take a lot to add a blog entry, I just did not realize how much of my day was involved with simply keeping up with what's going on. All of the posts, whether what's in the news or comments or just a piece of information, have a purpose; to get us thinking, to get us talking, and to make things better - in other words, to make a difference.
Hopefully this blog will save you some time and energy, or help you in some other way. If you would like to see something, please let me know.
Posting an article does not imply that I agree with the comments in the article. In fact, in many case, I do not agree, but feel that the comments should be part of the discussion. All opinions are welcome. I only ask that you remain considerate and professional of other opinions.
CLICK ON "MY WEB PAGE" ON THE WFTND BLOG PROFILE PAGE FOR MY LINKEDIN PUBLIC PROFILE
The name of the blog comes from a conversation with my daughter, where she told me that I was always looking to help people be prepared for the inevitable emergencies in life.
I started this blog as a place to assemble all the information that I was getting every day and to share my thoughts and ideas on emergency management.
I had no idea how much of the blog would wind up being what's in the news. While it does not take a lot to add a blog entry, I just did not realize how much of my day was involved with simply keeping up with what's going on. All of the posts, whether what's in the news or comments or just a piece of information, have a purpose; to get us thinking, to get us talking, and to make things better - in other words, to make a difference.
Hopefully this blog will save you some time and energy, or help you in some other way. If you would like to see something, please let me know.
Posting an article does not imply that I agree with the comments in the article. In fact, in many case, I do not agree, but feel that the comments should be part of the discussion. All opinions are welcome. I only ask that you remain considerate and professional of other opinions.
CLICK ON "MY WEB PAGE" ON THE WFTND BLOG PROFILE PAGE FOR MY LINKEDIN PUBLIC PROFILE
Favorite Quotes for the Emergency Manager
- “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Dwight D. Eisenhower
- “Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.” Dwight D. Eisenhower
- “Failing to plan is planning to fail”
- “Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised.” Denis Waitley
- "Station 51, KMG365."
- “One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.” Arnold H. Glasgow
- “An ostrich with its head in the sand is just as blind to opportunity as to disaster”
- “The powers in charge keep us in a perpetual state of fear keep us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it by furnishing the exorbitant sums demanded. Yet, in retrospect, these disasters seem never to have happened, seem never to have been quite real.” Douglas MacArthur
- “My ideas have undergone a process of emergence by emergency. When they are needed badly enough, they are accepted.” Buckminster Fuller
- “Bad planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part”
- "If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, ..." Rudyard Kipling
- "Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." Aldous Huxley
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