great little radio. good quslity

I wanted a portable radio to work outside with. But also a radio with the weather band besides AM, FM. It also has a very nice sound quality. I also like its rugged design.

These radios are of good quality and meet my expectations. Good value, functional. The volume is very acceptable and clear. A lot packed in a small package. There could be issues with reception in some rural areas

As we are frequently camping in the UP area and thus need weather alerts stemming from Lake Superior I was hoping this weather radio would do. This is a well made weather radio but weather reception is not a good as I was hoping.

I purchased this mainly as a weather radio to use while camping, and it serves that purpose well. I do have a few comments:> As pointed out by other reviewers, there's no way to save AM/FM stations, so you can't quickly step through known stations. The tuning does accelerate when you hold down a tuning button. Turning the radio back on will take you to the band and station it was set to when you turned it off.> You do need to be a little careful when turning off the radio. It requires a three second push of the on-off button. Read the instruction sheet that comes with this. It's complete and well-written.> There's no way to run this from an AC adapter. Because this is powered by three AA batteries, I suspect it would run fine from a 5V DC adapter (think USB). There is one on Amazon that I may try!I give this 5 stars despite these nits. The radio works, is solid, and sounds good for what it costs. I truly am a happy camper!

The first thing to know about the Midland ER50 is that while it can receive 162 MHz NOAA Weather Radio broadcasts, and can play an alarming sound when triggered by the National Weather Service, it is not a Public Alert receiver capable of Specific Area Message Encoding (S.A.M.E.) That is, it cannot be programmed to play only weather alerts for your county or for only certain events that you select.That is why, while the ER50 displays the official NOAA Weather Radio logo, it does not meet the more advanced requirements for the Public Alert logo, as seen on other Midland models for home use.Midland Radio Corp. states on its website that "we don't foresee having portable radios with S.A.M.E. technology. The benefit of these on the go emergency radios, is that you receive local weather, at the press of a button, no matter where in the United States you travel, with no programming needed."For this reason, any non-Public Alert receiver could blare alerts for places or hazards which do not pertain to you, or for which you do not wish to be notified.You may occasionally receive Non-Weather Emergency Messages (NWEM) on this radio as well, if authorities have asked the local Weather Service Forecast Office to transmit such messages within their weather broadcasts. NWEM could include AMBER Alerts and Missing & Endangered Person alerts for abductions, Blue Alerts for harm to law officers, or other messages not related to weather.Unboxing the radio, the user must remove two protective stickers: one covering the battery, and another over the flashlight. But there are two more, less obvious stickers, one over the LCD display and another over the the solar panel at the top. Fumble around for a small tab or corner of the sticker and you can peel it off.The ER50 does not take ordinary dry cells. The internal battery is of a popular rechargeable type that one would find in modern flashlights. The charging port, however, is one of the old mini-USB types that used to be included on mobile phones before the switchover to USB-C.Fortunately, the ER50 includes a charging cable with the necessary plug. The radio can be charged with its solar panel or crank, though the manual does not say how long it must be illuminated or cranked in order to charge.Reception of AM, FM and NOAA Weather Radio stations was excellent, even including the local Low Power FM (LPFM) station. There are now about 2000 of these new LPFM stations across the US. FM and weather reception depends on extending the telescoping antenna, of a type supplied with receivers for decades. It's a shame that engineers have invented no substitute for this common, easily bent and broken part.Fewer vehicles are coming equipped with AM receivers. Automakers insist that new car customers are not interested in AM. That electric vehicles interfere with AM reception. So some sort of portable, independently powered radio is a must for emergency preparedness. Should electrical service be disrupted across the U.S. for an extended period, only a few stations - those equipped by FEMA to remain on air in a crisis - will be possible to receive. Internet and mobile phones will fail. Without utility power, you'll need battery power, crank power and solar power to get official information you may need to survive. The ER50 has all three.

This little radio is something you can keep in your car, keep in your pocket, or keep in your house. It's pretty easy to operate once you read the instructions. I got this to keep with me throughout the winter months. I've had it for three days now and tried everything on it out. The weather radio comes in just fine AM and FM come in fine too. The sound is not bad, considering the size and price. The light has three settings, low, not so low, and an "SOS" blinking light. The light is not super bright, but it works good. I haven't heard the alarm yet, ill keep it with me at work tomorrow for the weekly test, just so I know what to expect. I can't tell anyone yet about the battery life, as I've only had it for a few days, but it has a battery life indicator on the screen, which is a good feature to have for an "emergency" radio. This little radio works good. I think everyone should have an emergency type radio, especially in today's world. I would say that if you can't afford, or just don't want a larger radio, this would be a really good choice. It's not big, so you can take it with you if you want. I bought a second one just so I would have a backup on hand in case something happens to it. Really, I did. Also I've had no problems with reception anywhere I've taken it. Just as a suggestion, I would keep three spare AA batteries handy, as there is no solar or hand crank on this model. Really impressed with this.

I bought this little radio for my work office to listen to the news while at my desk...PROS; looks and feels high quality...Great volume and has a flash light that l found came in handy...Cons;...I found the settings difficult to navigate and went through too many batteries after only a few days of minimal use...Also the batteries were very difficult to take out as you cant pull them out with just your fingers..I think this product would be great on a hiking trip or a day trek but not for regular home use...