I was a radio amateur as a child, but as adults we didn't have a shortwave radio in our house. A shame! So the main attraction of this emergency radio for me was the four shortwave bands it offers. I'm happy to report that the four shortwave bands actually work. I had to take the radio out of the house for the best shortwave reception to get rid of all the electronic noise from our computers. So yesterday around 5:15pm I brought the radio into our private garage and found international shortwave stations on all four bands. Wonderful! In addition to the four shortwave bands, the other features of this emergency radio are also convincing. First, these are the standard AM and FM broadcast bands. They work well, although the setting is a bit touchy (sensitive). The speaker's sound quality is rich, strong and full for such a small radio. And the sound quality through the headphones is excellent, although MONOx2, not stereo (ie playing the same mono track in both ears). But that's just the beginning. You can also play MP3 tracks (both WMA and .?) via USB-A port and TF card slot. I've tried both and they worked fine. Additionally, this product claims to offer Bluetooth pairing capability. So presumably you can pair it with your smartphone to play the sound of your smartphone through the speaker of the radio. I tried this feature but it didn't work properly for me. The audio was poorly edited (segmented) and unusable. I'm not sure what the problem is here, and I've never been a Bluetooth fan, but I have to deduct a star for the claimed feature that didn't work in my test. The entire left side of the radio body is dedicated to a very practical LED flashlight. The flashlight has three modes of operation: super bright spotlight, strong diffused light and diffused + spotlight. This is a great feature and definitely something you'll want in an emergency. In fact, I plan to use this unusual flashlight regularly in my daily life. However, I have to say that the spotlight is dangerously bright: let the night shine in someone's face! The headlight feature could have come in handy in an emergency, but I was so concerned about its brightness that I built a protective valve to block the headlight's beam except in emergencies. See photo A attached to this review showing the front of the device. (The top left corner of Photo A shows a hastily assembled valve.) This radio has a USB Micro-B connector for charging the radio's battery, and a USB-A to USB Micro-B charging cable is included included. You can also use the USB-A port to charge devices such as a smartphone if you have the appropriate cable. I was actually able to charge my smartphone this way, despite getting a message on my smartphone screen saying it was "charging slowly" and that I should use the "charger that came with the phone" when it did I wanted to charge it fast". But hey, it's a way to charge your smartphone in an emergency. And you can also control your smartphone while it's charging, even if it's "Slow Charging". As for the general As far as power is concerned the radio features a portable battery charging generator which comes in handy in the wild or during a power outage.Very cool!The charge LED lights up when you crank the alternator so charging seems to be working although I haven't experimented how much cranking it would take to fully charge a completely dead battery Now as if the hand cranked alternator wasn't enough there is a Also a solar panel on the radio that continuously converts ambient light into electrical energy to charge the battery. In daylight or bright indoor lighting, the charging LED is lit, so it also appears to be working. Very beautiful! Despite all of these backup charging systems, you can still end up in the wilderness with a dead battery and still want to use some of the features of this radio and don't have the time or inclination for a long generator start session. Then what to do? Well, if you have a couple of ordinary D's flashlights handy that still have some juice left, then you can remove the back cover of the radio, remove the blue battery (see back of unit) and put those D's in place to return to work. And pay attention to photo B that in a normal situation when the cells D are not inserted into the radio, you still have a useful compartment inside the radio to store small things. In my case, I use it to store a couple of short USB charging cables. In addition to all this, this radio offers an emergency "siren" function, which emits a very loud siren and also flashes a flashlight. Everything is ready for Armageddon!
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