I'm not a radio know-it-all, but I do live in hurricane country. While tech has gotten better as far as options during power outages, things can still get pretty serious here and stay that way a while. We lost power for 8 days after Katrina (we were lucky) and over 10 for Gustav. While the weather reports fade in importance once the storm is over, hearing about resources such as ice deliveries, road closures, and estimates on power restoration are just as important.
For years, I had an old weather cube, and it served me well. Over time, however, the batteries went and the acid fried the terminals. This is a fantastic replacement.
While I get that it can do more - MP3s, regular radio, etc - my main focus is for storm readiness. This is also a huge step up, as this has the rechargeable battery (comes with micro USB plug). Since we all have car chargers, we can always sit in the car (which can be nice just for the AC during such times) and recharge the battery if we don't have a charging brick available.
I'm grateful to have this. Hurricane season will be here before we know it.
Roger Wilco
★★★★★
Kaito Radiotronics
Kaito Brand Electronics have always performed well for me, in fact I have had the less sophisticated pockt radio variant of this KA110 compact AM/FM radio for many years now... I use it every day and it still works like new :)
IMO Kaito brand is higher than average quality & their products generally have superior performance in comparison to the competition.
This little KA110 is a big on features as it is packed with more modes & option than seemingly possible for a radio this small.
My older Kaito variant has AM/FM, NOA weather & Shortwave.... ( one on left in pic -
While this pocket radio which is marketed as an "Emergency Radio" has no shortwave, it has the NOA ALERT hazards notifications... AM/FM, an MP3 player/recorder, Micro SD card slot, built in microphone, an equalizer, a line in jack, a headphone jack, sleep timer, loop playback modes, multi tuning modes & the speaker has full range modulation output.
Kaito pocket radio's have always impressed me with how good they sound and ther reception/ability to tune & lock in in stations is second to none.
And this one is no exception.... it has crisp clear sound & great reception with it's digital tuning receiver, and the volume is respectable/ notable.... kinda loud even :)
The 1st major noticeable differencebetween the old/new Kaito pocket radios ... the digital tuning negates the need for dials or sliders... eveything is push button with an LCD display....
Another major change between Kaito's new pocket radio & their old ones.... is the older ones are battery powered & this new one has an internal rechargeable battery that you can charge from a USB port.
This emeregency pocket radio is very easy to operate, the controls are situated in such a user friendly manner that how to operate it is so readily apparant no expanations/instructions are really needed.
IMO this Kaito pocket radio is a highly recommendable product, it is well made and it's quality performance & unique assortment of functions modes & features make it a worthwhile addition to your collection of .... radiotronics :)
