Kaito KA500GRN 5-Way Powered Emergency AM/FM/SW Weather Alert Radio, Green

I recently purchased the Kaito KA500 5-way Powered Solar Power, Dynamo Crank, Wind Up Emergency AM/FM/SW/NOAA Weather Alert Radio with Flashlight, Reading Lamp and Cellphone Charger from the Kaito Store and I am thoroughly impressed with this product. Firstly, the radio is incredibly versatile with five different power sources: solar power, dynamo crank, wind-up, AA batteries, and AC/DC power. This means that no matter what the situation, I can always rely on this radio to stay powered and keep me connected to the outside world. The emergency features on this radio are also top-notch. The NOAA weather alert system ensures that I am always aware of any potential weather hazards in my area, while the built-in flashlight and reading lamp come in handy during power outages or other emergency situations. Aside from its emergency features, the radio also has excellent sound quality and a wide range of channels to choose from, including AM/FM/SW. Plus, the ability to charge my phone through the built-in USB port is incredibly convenient. Overall, I highly recommend the Kaito KA500 radio to anyone looking for a reliable, versatile, and high-quality emergency radio. The Kaito Store provided excellent customer service and shipping was prompt. I am extremely satisfied with my purchase and will definitely be shopping at the Kaito Store again in the future.

Let me start by saying that I've done wayyyy to much research on emergency survival radios. I'm talking hours and hours of research. Why? Frankly, I was looking for a radio to replace this KA500. My expectations for this radio were sky high and I was disappointed by some of the features of this radio. But after hours and hours of comparing the features of every survival radio I could find, I realized that this radio is literally the ONLY radio that combines all the features I wanted. You will not find a radio on Amazon or anywhere else that can do everything this radio can do. Radio Bands: The KA500 has a unique combination of AM, FM, SW, NOAA AND Weather Alert. Many radios can do AM, FM and NOAA but few can also do Weather Alert and almost none can also do SW. The reception is better than many reviews state. FM was crystal clear, NOAA was very sufficient, AM and SW were a mixed bag. I don't have much experience with listening to AM or SW so I can't compare them to other radios very well but I got several AM stations that were clear enough. I was able to get a few SW stations, inside my house, during the day, with no external antenna. I was impressed. A stand alone SW radio in this price range might get better reception but, as I said above, you will need several different radios to get all the bands this radio has. And that standalone SW radio won't have the added benefits below. Power Options: No other radio has the combination of power sources that this radio has. Period. This radio can run off crank, solar, AA batteries, Android cell chargers/external mini-USB batteries, or a DC wall outlet. But here is where the radio really fell short of some of my expectations. This radio does NOT charge efficiently from hand cranking or solar power. You're looking at 1:4 ratio at best for cranking. That means 10 minutes of cranking will give you around 40 minutes of play time. Solar is even less efficient. But after researching other emergency radios I realized this was a industry wide issue. Apparently crank radios used to be powered by a Baygen mainspring crank, which didn't even have a battery to store the energy and was extremely efficient (30 seconds gave you 30 minutes!) These radios no longer exist. Now all radios have gone the route of Dynamo and nimh batteries and simply aren't very efficient. So why did I give it 5 stars? Because the radio can operate just fine from these power sources. Cranking the radio at a slow and steady pace will power the radio. Placing the radio under sunlight will power the radio. Your alarm clock radio with weather alert or your fancy SW receiver will not work when the power goes out and the batteries die. Other, cheaper emergency radios can do this but do they take AA batteries? (It's important to standardize your emergency equipment to one set of batteries.) Can they run or charge from your mini-USB external battery? Added Benefits: Let's start with the most important: this radio is weather resistant. That alone sets it apart from so many other radios I was seriously considering, especially SW receivers and Weather Alert radios. Many emergency radios are weather resistant but can't do half the stuff this radio can do. The lights on this radio are also awesome, the flashlight is great and the reading light is even better. Lights are common on emergency radios but rare on SW and Weather Alert radios. Are you starting to see why the combination of features on this radio are truly unique? Finally, let's talk about the most contentious feature: the cellphone charging. So many emergency radios claim they can do this but none can do it well. If you plug in your cellphone and expect the KA500 to sit there and charge it from solar or it's internal batteries, you will be disappointed. The internal battery is too small, the solar charging too inefficient. BUT this is, without a doubt, still a feature because you can hand crank and charge a device. Will it be slow? Yes. But you're essentially getting the exact same thing the Eton BoostTurbine can do, and that alone is $20. A hand crank charger should be appreciated for what it is: an emergency feature that will work when no other options are available. If any other option is available, it will be more efficient. I challenge anyone to comment below if they can find a radio in ANY price range that has ALL the features of this radio.

We got this for our earthquake go-bag. Nice features: You can power it from a wall plug, regular batteries, via USB link to computer, a solar panel or the rechargeable battery. We love that it will work and recharge without ANY power source around. You could be in a cave underground and this will give you light (not sure about radio, because well let's face it ... you're in a CAVE). But LIGHT ... you really need that. True, it's not a spotlight ... but the reading lamp is excellent, especially if you need to sit down and read a map. VERY IMPORTANT: You can keep your mobile phone powered up with the Kaito by USB link. That to me is huge, since when you've got to run ... you are definitely taking your phone with you ... but if the mobilephone battery conks out after a day or two, you're on a raft in the ocean with no gas. But the Kaito gives you confidence your phone will still work one, two, three or 300 days after the disaster. And this is cool: You can run the Kaito Voyager off an external battery, and when THAT battery conks, you can use the Voyager to RECHARGE the same external battery! Excellent! It's like some cool yin-yang symbiosis. About the quality: We like that this is NOT a cheap design ... the feel is solid and tight. NICE that there's a tight-fitting rubber cap to cover the usb, ac adaptor and headphone jacks. Can't believe some of these radios have no strap, but the Kaito does ... that's good, because what if it can't fit in the backpack? You can TIE it to the backpack using the strap. This is our first "disaster" radio, but on the whole we really like the quality design and features and would recommend it to others. P.S. We'll add a 5th star and more comments after we survive the earthquake.

There's lots to review on this radio because of its many features, so for people who don't like long reviews, the short story is that it's WAY better than I'd ever hoped, that I highly recommend it both for emergency and for everyday use, and that readers should at least scroll down to the part where I tell how I messed up the initial charge, just in case they are no more observant than I am. It does everything they say it will, and does it better than any radio I've had. Other condensed points for readers who are pressed for time: ** Keep the box in a 2 gallon Ziploc bag--it may come in handy some day (see below) ** If you want to listen to the radio, I *think* the manual says the radio works better NOT plugged in to the AC adaptor (if you ordered one) because it will cause some interference. True, not too much but some. Usually it's just a little hum and I often play the radio plugged in, but I think you're supposed to unplug it when you turn it off so the battery doesn't overcharge. ** Check the date on critical reviews, and look for reviews elsewhere on the net. I did and decided the current radio would probably be good, and I'm happy. ** READ THE MANUAL. It's short and very good. ** Be SURE to plug in the internal battery correctly and securely before the initial 6 hour charge, if you get the optional AC adaptor. Otherwise, you'll get no charge. This is how I messed up! ** PROS: Shortwave, AM/FM, NOAA weather; solar, crank, 2 AA battery charge, OR an optional AC plug; reading AND flashlight; cell phone charger and one or 2 more that I haven't tried. Good reception, at least to my satisfaction certainly (but I'm not radio savvy), small size that fits nearly anywhere and picks up stations nearly anywhere; lightweight for carrying in case of evacuation; and overall just very pleasantly surprised by the great value for the price. ** CONS: None yet. I don't know how it will hold up over the long haul, especially since I use it every day, and I don't know what will happen if I need service, and I haven't tried the cell phone charger. But the Kaito is cheap enough that even if I break something and have to throw it out, I'll have paid no more than I did for the 2 NOAA "desktop" weather radios I already bought, not to mention quite a few other radios which only picked up, or CLAIMED to pick up, NOAA stations. And if I do break it, I will probably buy another and try to be more careful. I don't think the value can be beaten. Now for the details... I had looked at this radio for many months or longer but was always put off by some negative reviews. They said it was flimsy, wouldn't pull in stations, etc. I kept looking for reviews all over the web and didn't see these criticism, and wondered why. Finally I noticed the dates of those critical reviews. They were from around 2012, and I didn't see those complaints in more recent reviews. So I figured that maybe the company did have some problems with quality control in past years, which they overcame. So I decided to take a chance. After all, it was a great price, and I have spent way over that on weather radios that didn't last very long either, and had no features except NOAA stations. And those weather radios are hard to find the right place for, unlike the Kaito which fits anywhere and so far seems to get great reception anywhere. When I opened the box, everybody said, "Oh how cute!" I wouldn't care if it was uglier than homemade sin if it performed--and it does, way beyond anything I could have expected. I'm seriously impressed. This will not be an emergency radio, but my everyday radio now. It IS cute, or rather I would say, stylish and thoughtfully designed. You can see the photos yourself, and it looks really good. I will say, however, that while it gives the appearance of being a really tough field radio, I would doubt it's that tough. Some pieces look a little flimsy, but I'm thinking of the metal sliding piece that turns on the reading light and flashlight, so this doesn't apply to any high-usage pieces. Since I intend to set it on a shelf or carry it out in the yard maybe to solar charge sometimes, I feel it's sturdy enough for my purposes. I wouldn't throw it in the back of a jeep and go off road--unless I had a case for it. The crank that some reviewers complained about seems very good to me, having had several crank radios or flashlights before. I haven't tried the solar panel yet, but in the nuclear reactor that we call a climate here, I'm thinking it will work pretty well. In the past, I didn't have much luck with solar equipment some years ago when I lived in a climate more suitable for habitation, so you be the judge of your local sunshine. I know people here who grow beautiful vegetable gardens in what I'd call the shade, i.e. just a few hours of sun a day, so it's a really, really sunny place. I'm not in a position to really criticize the solar panel yet so look at other reviews to find out about that, preferably people who don't live in Africa or on the Equator or near me. That is one improvement the company might make. I think they are justifiably proud of this radio. Probably some talented people have worked hard on it. I really like to see a company take pride in their product, and try to respond to constructive criticisms to improve it, or even just to CARE if the consumer is satisfied. They seem anxious to make this product the best they can and solicit user feedback. If this little radio becomes a good seller as it ought, they might consider making a padded case, hard outside and padded inside, to sell as an accessory, with extra room for an AC charger, earbuds, whatever, and maybe a long shoulder strap. A good case like this would cost a good bit, but since this is, among other things, an emergency radio, some people might appreciate the convenience of a traveling case, instead of having to make their own--because anything as vital as a radio in an emergency needs to be well protected from hard knocks and bad weather. For now, I'll just keep the box it came in to pack it in if I ever have to be evacuated or something horrible like that. The box would do fine actually instead of a special case if you only need to transport it on rare occasions, since the box protected the radio just fine during shipment, but I'd put it in a plastic bag to weatherproof it for such transport which could involve bad weather, chemicals, radiation, whatever. I put my box in a 2 gallon Ziploc bag and there's room left for cords or small electronics--plus the manual! So actually, selling an optional carrying case might not really be necessary, if you just keep the box for carrying. HOW I MESSED UP Before I forget, I should mention how I messed up, to spare others of my ilk (somewhat clumsy and careless--I can't be the only one) from this boo boo. The manual said to charge it for 6 hours using the AC adaptor (if you ordered one extra) before first use, so I did. There's an internal battery that must be connected before charging, and I did that, per manual instructions. I noticed that the battery access cover was just slightly akilter and I wondered why, but I plugged it in and waited impatiently for 6 hours. When I tried it out, not one thing happened! From having similar radios in the past, I thought batteries (3 AA batteries) would probably still work, so I opened the battery bay and saw that the internal battery, which I had plugged in, had become unplugged before I even started the 6 hour charge! I plugged it in more carefully to be sure it was well seated and tried again. But after waiting 6 hours, I HAD to see if it would pick up any stations at all, so, well, I didn't wait for the proper 6 hour charge before I tried it, as the manual said to do. I figured I could always buy another internal battery if I mess this one up. I don't live in a great spot, far from everything, so I didn't expect much, and boy, was I amazed. It had the clearest reception of any radio I have, even the car radio (at least the stations I like--can't speak for the others). It picks up FM stations I never knew existed and in the evening scads of stations on SW1 and SW1. Shortwave stations are more limited during the day, which I think is to be expected, but the ones that do come in are loud and clear. My knowledge of shortwave is limited to using my father's set years ago and I expected to be constantly retuning the stations as they drifted in and out. To some extent, I do have to with the Kaito, but nothing like I did years ago. Besides, I consider this the full, interactive shortwave experience! So no, it's not digital, but I don't care. Also, this good reception is without the optional antenna, which I didn't order initially. I'm curious now to see if I could get even better reception with that. I also like the small size of this jewel. It's easy to find a spot for it, and in this one radio I can switch from AM to FM to SW bands to NOAA weather (just to get the daily forecast fast), use emergency lights, etc., so it's terribly handy and works well for my limited space. I have two other AM/FM radios which I have to put in bizarre locations to pick up a few stations and I am getting rid of those. I have a couple of weather radios that I may give away or store since I don't have much space. This Kaito runs rings around all the others that I have, plus has shortwave and more charging options, a reading light, a flashlight, a cell phone charger (though the manual says don't expect too much of that, like using it with a totally dead battery, yet they say it works within limitations), and can use the optional external antenna, plus another couple of features I haven't looked at yet. I also have an Eton American Red Cross radio but I was never really happy that it had no shortwave. I really wanted shortwave because I just like listening to the weird stations, but also because if there were a big disaster in my area, I still might be able to pick up SOME news from other countries or locations. The Eton doesn't seem to have AM/FM either, now that I look at it. It quit working so I put it up and later realized what might be the problem, right before I was ready to throw it out. I just now cranked it and it works find by that method, but only for weather, so I wouldn't recommend it, unless NOAA weather is all you care about. If so, an Eton would be fine, but why not get something you can use every day? Incidentally, desktop weather radios that are so popular can also be fragile. I now have a Midland which I got to replace my first "desktop" NOAA radio that was promoted by the local TV station. I can't remember if that was a Midland too or not, but I knocked it off the table and ruined it. A teeny plastic piece held the antenna connection and that broke, so I had to toss it. The Kaito's weather radio picks up several stations in my area, and I just had to turn the knob from stations 1 to 7 to find the one I prefer, no codes needed and none of the ordeal of going through every state and county in the USA to find my station, as I have to do with my Midland weather radio. Again, NOAA comes in extremely well. I forgot I have yet more crank weather radios which don't pick up anything at all. I guess that's 2 more radios I can toss now. I MIGHT keep the white Midland like most people use since I already have it and I'll just use it for alerts. I'm not sure how to use the Kaito for alerts. It certainly has that feature, but I see no need to risk running down the battery just before I need it for an emergency, since I already have the Midland. I'm not sure if I can plug the Kaito in and set it on "NOAA alert" because I think the manual says not to overcharge the radio and to unplug it when not in use. Guess I should ask the company about that. I don't really like the NOAA alerts anyway because the Midland beeps so loud for alerts that it could give anyone a heart attack, which sort of defeats the purpose of preserving one's life in an emergency! Be sure to READ THE MANUAL!!! It's just a leaflet, but it's full of info and deserves careful study. I know that seems an unAmerican thing to do, but read it anyway. This little radio has so many features that it's really necessary to know the precise settings etc. required for each one. You'll be glad you did, I think, and avoid frustration from not using the radio correctly. I'm going to read mine over again to be sure I understand all the features. The manual should answer most questions a new buyer will have, and reading it will give you something to do while waiting for the initial 6 hour charge for those who got the AC adapter. Of course, being an American I didn't read it ALL before I started using the Kaito, but that's what one SHOULD do. And it's all in English! No leafing through 10 other languages before you come to the one you want! I've been so excited about this terrific little radio that I forgot until just now that my favorite candy also came in this shipment! Yes, I love my Kaito, I'm very pleasantly surprised at how great it is, and I heartily recommend it, except to people who want to throw it in their jeep's floorboard or let the kids toss it around. This is what I've wanted for many years.

I live in New Orleans and the weather reports indicated that Hurricane Harvey could be sending a lot of rain and tornados our way in addition to knocking out power. I thought it prudent to have an emergency alert device that isn't dependent on the grid or on cell service, so I decided to get one. Initially, I bought an Eton at a local store but it was faulty out of the box. After reading reviews, I noticed that was a trend for their products. After returning it, I did better research going forward and purchased the Kaito KA500BU instead. I've only had the Kaito KA500 for a short while, but it's been fantastic so far. The versatility of having 5 ways to charge this radio is reassuring, especially for a device intended for emergencies. My favorite part is that the USB power is reversible. Being a techie, I have multiple laptops that have now become de facto batteries in the absence of power if necessary. I haven't tinkered with the Short-Wave stations yet, but the AM/FM stations come in crystal clear. One nice surprise is that this little radio is quite loud, especially in NOAA Weather Alert mode. We're still under intermittent Flood/Tornado watches until Thursday, so I left this radio on in the bedroom last night. It received an alert and startled my sleeping wife by blasting it, so I had to move it into the next room. The hand crank seems to work well, providing a few minutes of power each time. We've had so many alerts right after receiving it on the initial charge that it was likely run down early from that. It's charging by USB now and I expect the battery to hold a charge longer once it's been fully charged and cycled. The LED reading lights, flashlight, and strobe light are a nice touch. The reading lights were a big selling point for my wife. I need to buy AA batteries and actually get some sunlight before I can test the auxiliary battery and solar power functions properly, but based on my experiences with this product I expect them to work well. Overall I'm very please with this purchase and would recommend it to others without reservation.

Really a great value for the money. So many different functions. Very reliable and good sound. Works with AA batteries and can be powered with an AC adapter.

It works!

I like this radio! It claims that it is a solar radio and it is! Other radios (like Eton) claim to be solar radios but after buying them and using them, you find that they can be charged by solar power but the power does not last very long and a back up battery is primarily used to power the unit. I leave this radio out in my Florida room and let it charge up by solar power. When I want to use it I turn the radio on and listen without any problems. I have used the radio for at least 1/2 hour without any problem, I don't know what the total capacity of how long the solar power will last when the unit is not in the sun during use. The unit comes with an internal battery that plugs in after purchase and is charged with the solar cells or the AC adapter. You have the capability of putting another battery as a back up but I haven't put one in it and have been using solar power as the sole recharging source. I purchased the AC adapter as a backup to charge the internal battery but haven't used it yet. The AC charger is just a backup in case I need to charge the internal battery fast and there is no sunshine available. The radio sounds good and the tuner seems to be easy to use. In one review, I read the crank was cheap and some people had problems with breaking the crank. For my use, I haven't had to use the crank too much and can't say how durable it is. there are several radio bands on this radio. AM, FM, Weather, and 2 Shortwave bands. I also bought the shortwave antenna for future use in case I want to play with the shortwave bands The radio comes in a variety of colors. I picked blue so it would stand out if I was in a park or grassy area so that it would stand out and I hopefully won't leave it behind. I thought Black and Green and camaflauge would blend into the enviroment and not be easily seen, the Yellow was a little too bright, the red was a second consideration and so the blue was the final choice. I primarily bought this radio for the solar capability and it so far performs as advertised. I like the size, it's not too large to carry easily. It will probably fit into a gallon ziplock bag in case you want to keep the accessories with the radio and save it from some wet enviroments. For approx. $50 on Amazon.com I am very happy with this radio.