[J.T.]

I was looking at the Eton emergency radios but ended up going with the Kaito Voyager. This thing is loaded with feautures. In addition to AM/FM, its got shortwave 1 & 2 bands and seven NOAA weather bands. Reception is great and the speaker is actually loud and clear too. What I like most is the many ways to charge this thing: solar, hand crank, AAA batteries, or just plug it in to recharge the built-in nimh battery. It has a USB port to charge your phones, ipods, etc. and even comes with five power tips for the most common cell phones. On the back are some LED lamps for reading and on the side is a more powerful flashlight with an SOS function. Also has a red signal light.

Although probably a little bigger than some of the Etons, its still pretty small. But man is it handy. Here's a few pics of mine and shown next to my hat to help see the size....

 

[J.T.]

You know, I don't think I even ever tried the shortwave bands. I'm heading to bed now but will check it tomorrow after work and report back to you.

 

[J.T.]

Okay so I just quickly scanned through the two shortwave bands but didn't get a whole lot. On shortwave 1 i picked up a political station (I'm assuming political because they were talking about Obama but I only listened for about half a minute) and then I picked up another broadcast that sounded like it was in spanish but couldn't tell for sure as there was alot of static. Didn't get anything on shortwave 2 except for static but at one point it sounded like I was starting to get something.