Home > Consumer Reviews > Midland ER102 Emergency Radio

I found this product disappointing. The price is moderate and it would be better than nothing in an emergency, but the controls are not ergonomic - it's difficult to operate some controls without moving others, the cell phone charger (which was my main reason for buying it) works poorly when it works at all, and cranking the radio for minutes provides only 5 to 10 minutes playing time, maximum. It's very difficult to tune it accurately, and the maximum volume is very low. It works well on alkaline batteries and they hold up well. I would suggest you buy a good battery-powered radio and keep extra fresh batteries on hand (they last years in the freezer), and find some other means to charge your cell phone. I forgot the LED light. It provides a surprising amount of light and even the rechargeable battery lasts a long time for just the light; However, LED flashlights have become readily available and are more convenient. I would suggest buying this radio only if you are too scatter-brained to prepare for emergencies. Even then, my experience with rechargeable batteries has been that if it lies around for years, the rechargeable battery probably won't be any good when you need it.

This radio is terrible for fine tuning. For example, if you're in am mode and want to tune to say 1240am, (it could be any frequency) it's almost impossible to hit it exactly. Just the slightest turn left or right could land you in 1220am or 1270am.

It works good in fm and weather band mode, but am is a joke. It receives but getting to that exact frequency is just overly difficult. If you want a digital radio get one that can have the digits directly entered in.

If you're looking for a radio with good volume and high sound quality, look elsewhere.
If you're looking for an emergency radio that performs as advertised? Look no further.
Very happy with this radio, only problem I've had with it is the times I have it on "Weather Alert" and forgot it's on that setting. Just about gave me a heart attack, but that's my fault, not the radio's
Good looks, good function, and a bargin at $36. Very happy with this purchase!!

This radio works great so far. It has so many buttons and features. It can be hard to figure everything out but it certainly prevents you from going through menus or anything to set it up the way you want it. If you want to keep it charged I suggest you just leave it plugged into the wall because if you're like me you won't realize you haven't plugged it in in a while until it starts going on the fritz and sputtering out. I haven't tried the crank out. The alarm siren is REALLY loud so be warned. It really gets a good signal too.

Don't buy this radio for a good AM tuner. It looks like a digital tuner, but it may be a simulated digital tuner, or a really bad digital tuner. The crosstalk (overlap) of stations can run as much as 60KHz. In other words, if you tune to a local station at 730KHz, you can hear it loud at 650-820KHz, or so. This blanks out the other stations in this range. Also,if you are listening to a station at 730KHz, you probably can hear 3-4 other stations in the background. You would think that the unit would be s a good radio first. My free analog AM radio I got with a purchase as a promotion, is perfect. I thought the digital AM would be too, but it's not even close. Otherwise, the unit is OK.