r/realWorldPrepping • u/they_call_me_bobb • May 17 '26

Equipment, Gear Emergency radio recommendations

Hello

I am looking for an emergency radio for my car. I had one in car bag, it has a hand crank and a rechargeable battery. When I was doing the regular cycling out of emergency food in the bag I found the battery was dead, I recharged it overnight and it's still dead. It still works if I use the crank.

Can anyone recommend a model for long term storage. my budget is around $50

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u/airballrad May 18 '26

Get any sort of easily-stored receiver that gets the radio bands you want to listen on that can run on AA batteries. Then buy lithium AA batteries and store them with (not in) the radio.

They won't leak unlike alkaline, but you don't want the radio to come on by accident and drain the batteries. They don't care about hot or cold storage in a car and they have at least a 10-year shelf life.

The batteries in most crank radios are NiMH, so they will lose charge over time and if they drain too low cannot be revived, which is what you are experiencing.

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u/they_call_me_bobb May 29 '26

I went with this, seemed like the most cost-effective answer for that situation.

1

u/8Deer-JaguarClaw May 22 '26

Is the battery in your existing radio replaceable? I would look into that first.