Product Review

Hi all,
I was sitting here watching the snow, listening to my new Red Cross
Emergency Radio and thougth maybe I would do a little review on it.
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Eton FR300
I understand this is a Grundig, according to Cnet. I like the radio
overall. The color is white. The case a black one with an extra pocket
and carrying strap. I like the magnets instead of snaps. Virtually
guarantees closure.
I think the buttons are it's weak link. they are made from plastic and
feel like they will break when you manipulate them. The buttons I am
referring to are all but the tuning and volume ones. Those have a better
feel to them.
I got good reception. I am in a rural area and radio signals are weak,
yet I was able to pull in stations on am, fm and tv. Funny, because I
have to use sat to get tv here. The weather knob has 7 stations, not
adjustable. On station number 4 I received the local weather loop.
Seemed fairly accurate. Well, ok, It was snowing and they said rain, but
the snow level was 5,000 and I am at like 4950.
I liked the red flashing LED. It is one LED. Not sure how far it will
go, but it is like any other single led. The bright white light is not.
It is 2 LED's. Yes, you can see. It is like my shake up flashlight. I
would not want to walk in an unknown area with it or read at night, but
it does put out like maybe a candle. The siren is loud and the young
child walked away from his fire engine toy Christmas morning to come see
my toy as it was pretty loud. I can not test how far, as the light due
to my current injured status, but I think I could signal someone if I
saw a helicopter with the light or get attention of someone searching
for me on foot.
The radio tuner has 2 knobs. One is for fine tuning, like a shortwave
radio. Nice feature.
The hand crank is easy to operate. A child could turn it. Be careful
though, it is just plastic. A little red light comes on to tell you it
is charging. It charges by cranking either way. The radio works while
cranking if you have no battery. The nimh battery inside appears fully
charged. It would take a long time cranking to fully charge that. I like
that though, because you can charge it on your ac and have a lot of use
from it before you need to crank it. To charge your cell phone, you have
to crank. I found I had to be fairly steady and even in cranking or my
cell phone cussed at me..
I would rate this little radio an A if it were 30 bucks. At 50 dollars I
am going to give it a c. It is worth it to have one, but the price seems
high for the quality of the parts. Much better as a gift than buying it.
This puppy is going in my BOB, if I can stop playing with it.