Why you need a radio in your emergency kit

Do you need a radio?

The simple answer is yes. 

You might be thinking but I have one on my phone, or I can use an app to listen to a radio station if I need to.

But what happens if in an emergency situation there is no power. There is no way to charge your phone, or the internet goes down.

A physical radio might be less common then they once were, but for an emergency kit and for people wanting to have good preparedness a radio is a must.

In the context of this post I am talking about a radio where you can listen. Not a 2 way radio like a ham radio.

The Importance of an Emergency Radio

The importance is that the radio might be your only source of information during an emergency.

You’ll be able to find out the latest that is happening in your area, in your country or around the world. Broadcasts will be able to tell you about weather conditions, alerts about closures, evacuations etc. 

Radio has the benefit of being able to reach a lot of people easily. There will be multiple stations or frequencies you’ll be able to pick up.

They are easy to use, can be cheap to buy and can come with a bunch of other features.

The importance of having a radio became obvious to me when some parts of NZ experienced a cyclone that caused destruction and mayhem to a lot of people. The news reported that a wide range of people had no radios and were relying on their cellphones for information.

This was problematic in a couple of ways. Modern cell phones don’t usually have the ability to pick up radio stations anymore like the older handsets could. If you did have a phone that had this feature, the aerial was made by using earbuds you plugged into the phone. Something a lot of new phones don’t even have a port for.

The bigger problem was the cell phone towers went to emergency battery backup as the power had been knocked out. With increased demand they eventually died. When generators were brought in later to power them, they were stolen by people that were not prepared.

A lot of people wish they had a radio available to them. No doubt many people went and purchased one only after going through this ordeal.

Selecting the Right Emergency Radio

Like every item there are many different types of radio you could include in your emergency kit as you make sure your emergency preparedness is fulfilled.

While these options are great at the bare minimum you want a radio that works and doesn’t rely on plugged in power.

There are radios under $20 in price and radios that are over $100 +

Look at all the features and work out what works for you and your budget.

Features you can find in emergency radios

I will say that there are radios that are marketed as emergency radios. They may have extra features or it might be a marketing ploy to get you to buy it.

Here’s a list of features that can be found on radios in general and radios marketed as emergency ones.

• Manual tuning with a dial
• Digital tuning
• Extendable aerial
• Uses replaceable batteries
• Has a built in battery
• Solar powered
• Hand crank to power the radio
• Built in torch
• Built in siren
• Noaa weather alert capable
• Phone charging capability during power outage
• Weatherproof

You probably don’t need all the features

You’ll have to decide on what you want to spend your money on when it comes to a radio for your kit/s,

I used to be the type or person that really loved items that had multiple purposes. A radio combined with a flashlight, a hand crank and solar panels. Hell yeah.

Over time my thoughts have changed. 

It could be that I’ve only seen cheap products that incorporate all these things. Over time I’ve seen them not hold their charge or performing badly.

I like a good reliable radio and flashlight that runs on batteries.

That’s not to say there aren’t good products out there that have multiple uses and multiple ways of powering it. I’m sure there are. I’d prefer to have a tool that does one thing really well.

Weather alert radios

I’ll be honest here, I had to look up what a NOAA capable weather radio was. It’s a foreign sounding acronym to me.

This is what Wikipedia tells me:

NOAA Weather Radio (NWR), also known as NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards, is an automated 24-hour network of VHF FM weather radio stations in the United States that broadcast weather information directly from a nearby National Weather Service office.

Which sounds like a great service. Especially if the area you live in in prone to hurricanes or other natural disasters. 

Radio’s with this ability can alert you when there is an emergency broadcast.

This is a great service and feature to have. If you live in the US. Of course radios with this feature are more expensive. 

Other radio considerations

By now you should understand just how important a radio is for your emergency supplies. 

Other areas to look at are the power sources the radio requires, how many and what type of batteries if it uses batteries. The physical size of the radio and how easy it is to use.

I like the idea of an emergency crank radio. A small amount of cranking will give you a bunch of power to listen to the radio. This combined with the for some radios to also help charge devices like phones this could be a good idea for some.

But at the end of the day if I am busy sorting out other things I don’t want to be cranking away on a radio, I just want information.

You might need more than one. For me I am going to have one for the household emergency kit and then another one for the grab and go bag.

In Conclusion

A radio might not be something that first comes to mind when thinking about making an emergency kit.

But it should be high on your list as the benefits it can give could inform what you do next, where to get help from and in some instances save your life.

What do you look for in a radio for your emergency preparedness kit? Are there any features that are a must have and how do you feel about radios that offer many different functions?

Let me know by leaving a comment.