Buy Green Solarlink Radio Review

With all the nasty weather happening around the world we are encouraged to have an emergency supply/survival kit made up and ready to go. You just never know if your area is next. What should we put in this kit? Aside from food and water, you should include a first aid kit, matches, candles, flashlights w/extra batteries, a whistle, manual can opener, a tarp, duct tape, and many other necessary items. What a lot of us may overlook is including a solar-powered device like a multi-purpose radio.

Buy Green is one of my favorite green companies and it’s their mission to provide consumers with optimal eco-friendly products. Solar power is an extremely versatile and renewable resource and Buy Green is consciously aware of this. They have included numerous solar-powered products on their site and the Eton Solarlink ARC FR370 Radio is one of them.

The Eton Solarlink radio is more than just a simple radio. It has umpteen admirable and unique attributes that really impressed me. The solar panel is on top of the handle and it must be recharged in the direct sunlight. Recharging through a sunny window is not adequate enough. The power switch must be set on the SOLAR position to recharge. There are several other ways to recharge this radio. You can use the hand turbine crank located on one side of the radio or you can use a DC-IN 5V AC adapter (not included). You can also plug the radio into your computer using the USB cable power cord. Lastly, you can also use 3 AAA batteries so make sure you have extra on hand. All ports are located at the back of the radio protected under black rubber flaps.

Features:
 – Digital tuner with AM (520-1710 kHz) & FM (87-108MHz)
 – NOAA weather band all 7 channels plus Alert
 – SAME Technology (Specific Area Message Encoding) for location-based weather alerts
 – Built-in 4 white LED light source
 – 1 flashing red LED

We like to go hiking way into the mountains so we brought this Solarlink Radio along on our last trip. First, it’s compact and very lightweight so you can easily put it in your backpack. It offers 7 weather alert channels, AM/FM radio, weather alert button, clock with alarm, and a snooze button. Importantly it also features a LED flashlight on the side of the radio. You can use it simply as a flashlight or set the switch to the SOS beacon where it will flash the SOS code using a red laser light. Another great feature is you can recharge your phone using the USB port.

We found this radio easy to use and handy to have. It did require moving and manipulating the radio around to find a signal and a weather station. You must have the antenna up in order to find a weather channel or any of the FM stations. There was some static but we were able to discern what the announcer was saying so we would have been able to receive direction if needed. We were really pleased with its performance and all its options. This is one imperative item that should be in every emergency survival kit. For other solar devices check out the Buy Greens site.

Disclaimer: I received product to facilitate a review. All opinions are my own, yours may differ.