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The sound quality and reception are fine for emergency purposes, but not for daily use. The Microlink FR 150 is smaller than a dollar bill, making it great for a backpack or glovebox. The Kaito KA500 produces only 4 minutes of play time for 3 minutes of hand cranking. If sound quality is really important to you, you will be disappointed. I bought this radio as well as the Kaito Solarcraknk KA500. The Eton gives me 32 minutes of play time for 3 minutes of cranking. This is truly an emergency/survival radio.
have had mine since spring 09 sometime, love the small size,and the only problem i have had is a small screw inside floating around loose, will send it to authorized fix it place whare they can open it up and put the screw back with some lock tite adhesive then I will have an improved fr150,,,, have only now started to look at others reviews, some have some horror stories of battery run time at the worst possible time like when no ther options are available,, i would not critisize the radio if you don't take the time to understand care and feeding instructions of "rechargables" you use them, they wear down, you recharge them again, what many who live in an instant society do not realize is that new rechargables need a "work in time" yes it is possible that you may only get 5 min of use after 10 min of hand cranking,,, crank another 10 minutes and the next time you use them you may get 8 minutes of use, crank again ten minutes, and notice a longer play time,, as in todays rechargeable technology is capable of up to 150 chargings,, each one giveing a longer play time with less cranking,,,, then as the battery ages the hold charge decreases, replace the battery and of course as another reviewer said, keep it charged, not in a drawer forgotten about untill the time of need arises,,, I would recomend to any one go to [.]. and go through the 2 or 3 hrs of written material on rechargables, then when you discover how much money a hand crank or other rechargable can save you, perhaps you won't be able to buy regular batteries again, commercially chaged throw away batteries have thier place, wall clocks, flashlights used once in a wile, the back up battery in your digital alarm clock, smoke alarms the once a year or even 2 year life span is awesom,,for a radio or cd player heavily used, flshlights used daily, go rechargeable
I also plan on taking it camping next summer. This radio is a great buy and I highly recommend for anyone looking to complete their emergency or camping kit. The FM radio is very clear, weather band works well and the light is bright enough for various tasks. It's about the size of my hand, but packs quite a bit of sound for it's small size. But after finally breaking down and buying it, I have to say I might even by a second one. I had my eye on this radio for some time, but just couldn't justify spending $30 on it. This little radio is quite impressive. I haven't had a chance to use this radio for an emergency or other event, but it is now packed in my emergency kit, and I am sure it will come in handy when needed.
There is also an "Eco Edition" model that a contribution is made to OhRanger.com, that supports our National Parks. For more information on these contributions, you can go to: [.]./ I use it as my main radio in the house. The reception inside my house is wonderful. Living in South Florida, storms crop up all the time. I purchased this product two years ago and not a month goes by I don't use it. A minute of cranking and setting it on the NOAA station, I am immediately informed as to what is going on and what to expect. I use the strap to hang this radio/flashlight on my kitchen wall next to the light switch making it very handy, as we have frequent power outages.The unit I purchased was produce with the Red Cross with $.49-$1 being contributed to the American Red Cross with each sale.
I filled out and sent in all the required paperwork to get the cell phone adapter from the company over 6 months ago, but never received anything from them. The radio and flashlight functions work well, but it was also advertised as being a cell phone charger. It would have been better to just buy a cheaper model and forget about the phone charger.
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