Sangean MMR-88 AM/FM/Weather Alert Emergency Rechargeable Radio. Solar/Hand Crank/USB/Flashlight, Siren, Smartphone Charger Yellow

This a nice small radio. It works well and sounds better than you would expect from the size of it.The crank will charge a dead battery to operate the radio quite a few minutes with just a couple minutes cranking. The solar charger works but no where near as fast as the crank and it needs a lot of direct sunlight outside. Not the dash of a hot car left in the parking lot. That is too much.The radio will only take the supplied rechargeable battery, no off the shelf alkaline AA or AAA or whatever will work.There is no AC recharge option supplied but they do supply a USB 2.0 Mini-B 5 Pin to USB 2.0 Type A cable. You cannot use a regular USB type A to type A cable. The USB Type A port on the radio is only used to charge a cell phone or other USB device from the radio it that device and not to charge the radio itself. That way you can crank charge or use the radio's battery in order to charge a cell phone in an emergency.The charging port for the radio battery is the mini-B USB 5 pin only. If the charge light, lights up you know you have it connected properly.You can easily obtain, or more likely already have a cell phone AC adapter that the USB regular Type A connector can plug into. Any AC or USB port that the supplied cable can plug into is fine.Reception is ok but weather channel (FM) and FM seem to be a bit weak. AM I am not sure of as I have not tested it yet. Then again this is an emergency radio and it is sufficient for that.Switching between weather alert mode and regular operation can be a bit confusing if you do not use this all the time. Setting the presets and using them is somewhat the same.All and all I really like this small radio, it is great for what it is designed to do and the price.Two hints: (Yes these are my pet peeves. Lol)1. This should be common knowledge but I find that too many people don't get it. The metal extendable antenna is only used for FM and the weather channels, which by the way are also FM. The AM radio antenna is inside the radio and "tuned" by physically turning the radio itself. This is true for almost all AM/FM radios.2. AM radio is very, very susceptible to any electrical impulse interference, like computers and pretty much anything electronic. Move the radio away from these things in order for it to work well.3. Please do not collapse the extendable antenna from its weakest point which is the top. Grab the first bottom extended section and push each section at a time into the very bottom section, this will prevent you from joining those with the bent and broken antennas.

This is the first Sangean radio I've bought, but it won't be the last. Except for a "boom-box" era relic, every radio I have is AC powered, so I thought it would a good idea to have something basic that I could rely on during power outages. Then I realized that this would also be something good to have while camping, backpacking or even in the car on long trips. It is, after all, an EMERGENCY RADIO! This review will not include information already in the Amazon product description.The construction is very substantial. It's made with the same plastic material used in the making of various construction-site things that "take a licking but keep on ticking". The radio is protected from "drop" damage by thick, screwed on, rubberized protective caps. One rubberized end has a flap that gives access to/protects the connections for headphones (the use of which mute the speaker), USB power-in and USB power-out. Now, DO realize that this is a basic AM/FM radio with a Weather Band and an Emergency Weather Alert setting. You cannot play your iPod or iPhone through it as it has no external input. You CAN, however, charge either of these items from the radio itself. The quality, design and construction of this radio is absolutely excellent. Instructions for use are straightforward and easy to understand.Although it weighs only about 14 ounces (with the included Lithium-Ion battery), it feels much more substantial. It is conveniently small (3.5"H x 2.5"D x 6.0"L) with a retractable antenna for both FM and Weather bands. There are 7 Weather band stations, but expect to get only 1 or 2 local stations to come in; frankly, that's all that will be available in any particular area. In times of potentially bad weather (e.g., the risk of tornado), the radio has a "Weather Alert" setting that, if a local/national weather alert is issued, will give you an "alarm" that will be followed by the actual alert; a near-essential feature here in the Midwest, but also useful in other areas of the country (again, when camping, hiking or in the car, this can be a life-saving feature).The sound from the mono speaker is very good. Although the radio has no tone controls, they're not needed. There is an excellent balance of tone, not too much bass or treble; very easy to listen to. FM reception is very good. I don't listen to AM often, but I tried several stations to see how well the radio did. It passed with flying colors. The radio has a ferrite antenna for AM reception, so the telescopic antenna isn't needed. The stations I listened to all came in quite clear and without the AM static I grew up with. I'm about 20 miles north of Milwaukee and I was still able to get a Chicago station, loud and clear: impressive.The incremental volume control goes from "0" to "30". A good listening level, for me, is between "14" (in a quiet situation) to "24" (in a noisy environment). With the volume at the max of "30", very slight distortion was evident in the most-used FM band. Because the AM band has less fidelity, it can be "cranked" to the highest volume level without regard to any kind of distortion. Likewise the Weather band (the fidelity of which sucks, anyway).Sangean claims the battery will provide about 10 hours of power with the radio in AM mode. In FM mode (at a moderate sound setting of 20), it gave me over that much time before the charge light told me it needed recharging. Pretty decent since it can be fully recharged in about 2-hours with a USB input (I use a direct AC to USB charger. It may take slightly longer with a PC-based USB power connection).When in the off position, the radio displays the current time. Once turned on, you can select stations with "band select" followed by manual tuning , or you can select up to 19 presets (AM & FM combined) which are easily programmed. In warmer, sunnier times the radio is automatically run or charged by direct sunlight by way of a large solar panel on the top of the radio (15 hours of direct sunlight = full charge). In a "worse case" scenario, you can run the radio using the folding & included "Dynamo" crank handle. The Dynamo provides 5-7 minutes of use for every minute of cranking at about 120 cranks/minute; not ideal, but useful in dire situations.Finally, the radio also has an LED light that provides (my estimates) a steady "high" brightness of about 15 lumens, a low night-lite level of about 2 lumens. It also provides a steady pulse light (on high only) of about 1/second and a standard SOS signal at the same brightness level. In keeping with the emergency theme, the radio`has an "Emergency Alert" button that produces a piercing, pulsing sound for purposes of location.On the overall, I can't think of anything else I would want in an emergency radio The sound is good enough that I will be using this in my main bathroom on a regular basis for local music/news while I shower and keep it charged with an AC adapter. All-in-all, I feel better that I have a radio that I can use anywhere that will keep my both entertained AND informed without any loss of power worries. Highly recommended!