Kaito KA370 Voyager Solar & Hand Crank Emergency AM/FM/SW NOAA Weather Radio with 5-LED Flashlight - Portable Survival Radio for Outdoor Camping, Hiking & Emergency Preparedness (Black)

This is my preferred radio for bug out and get home bags. With five LEDs it puts out a little more light than the smaller Eton Microlinks I first tried, and unlike the Etons it accepts AAA batteries in addition to the built-in NiMH unit (though this does make it a tad larger in the hand). The beauty of this is that if the main NiMH battery self-discharges in storage, the three AAA's will be ready to go without having to crank the radio, making the solar/crank feature a backup in case of an extended period of need. If you're "on the run" from a disaster of some sort, how much time and energy do you think you're going to have to power these things if it's cloudy outside? These types of radios' flashlights are pretty efficient, but the radios require frequent cranking to keep them running. Hand crank generators just don't produce a whole lot of electricity in my experience, so it's better to utilize solar or pre-charged batteries whenever you can.I also prefer this to similarly sized digital emergency radios because the ones I've looked at or tried have always had a clock display that couldn't be turned off and slowly drained their batteries while in storage. Ironically, most of the digital ones have built in lithium batteries that wouldn't self-discharge the way cheaper NiMH cells do, but then the clock discharges it instead. Nuts! The only digital emergency radio I use is a LaCrosse unit that I keep near the bedroom and can grab on the way downstairs in the event of a late night tornado warning. As long as your analog radio has the weather frequencies "on crystal" like almost all of them do (and this does, see the slider in the lower right), you really don't need digital tuning for good reception. And these Kaito units tend to have surprisingly good reception for AM and FM, too.Last but not least, these have a full size USB port for plugging in items to charge with the crank (though crank charging a phone is very tedious, exhausting and takes forever to put any amount of charge into your phone whatsoever) and use a mini-USB for charging the radio itself. I'd prefer a more modern micro-USB for charging the unit, but at least it doesn't have proprietary cables that are likely to be lost like so many cheap portable options do. Note that it has a small cordless phone style NiMH battery and will continue to charge it even if it's full, without any indication that is. So go ahead and give it a good charge for a few hours, but then disconnect it to keep the battery healthy. Then, slap some Energizer lithium AAA's in there, knowing that they'll hold their charge for a good decade in storage and not leak like alkalines are prone to.All in all, I know that this radio will be ready to go in an emergency so long as I don't drop it on rocks or splash a bunch of water on it, and figure with solar working for it the cranking should be minimal even if I were to find myself relying on it exclusively for a week or more. If you do find yourself cranking, be sure to only do so for a minute or two at a time and operate the crank *smoothly*, then let the transmission cool down between sessions. The generator is the weakest link on radios like these because of all the moving parts.Finally, cross-shop this with Kaito's KA-350 as well. It's available in more colors and though the KA-370 is newer, I own both and can't tell any difference between them outside of styling. I do prefer how the 370's two sliders capture the tip of my finger compared to the older models, but that's trivial.I really wish that someone would make an analog radio/flashlight like this, only in impact and water resistant form and with a lithium internal battery. You know, something that would truly roll with the punches like its owner? When I look at what's available on the market billed as "emergency radios" I can't help but get the feeling that manufacturers think to themselves "they'll accept whatever cheap junk we offer them." Or maybe we, as consumers, are just unwilling to pay what a truly endurable emergency radio would cost for something we hope never to use. Either way, as far as cheap crap goes I feel this unit is currently the absolute best option for a bug out bag.