Home > Consumer Reviews > American Red Cross FR150 Microlink Solar-Powered, Self-Powered AM/FM/Weatherband Portable Radio with Flashlight and Cell Phone Charger (White)

I like to listen to the radio in the shower, and outside. I bought this thing as a radio that can float between the bathroom, and that I can carry outside and listen to. I liked the idea that it has a solar panel, and can be charged by cranking, as I hate needing to change the batteries when my radio goes dead and I'm all soapy. This radio is probably not very waterproof, but it will hold up to getting splashed pretty well.

The radio has great reception. I can even pick up the local college radio station that is fairly underpowered. The built-in telescoping antenna works properly, and folds flat into the unit. This is loud enough to be heard over the water flowing in the shower. This is not at all a hifi, and sounds kinda like the early transistor radios. Great for news, not really all that good for heavy metal or hip-hop.

The solar panel is weak, but convenient for leaving on the window sill in the bathroom, which somewhat charges the unit during the day. There is an LED to indicate that it is charging. The crank works fine, and you don't have to crank the crap out of the thing to get it to play for a while, though it does help.

The plastic shell and rubber fittings are well designed. Compared to other plastic shells of other products, this is a joy to use, and I have not been disappointed in its use. The crank handle snugly fits into its closed position via friction. There is a rubber gasket over the power and earbud connectors which also fits snugly. There is also a black rubber fitting around the flashlight portion. The unit is flat enough on every sides to stand on its own, which I've found useful for orienting both the speaker and the solar panel at the same time.

For $30, this thing is very much worth every penny.

I bought this for a Christmas present for my husband, thinking that it would be a really good product since it is an American Red Cross emergency radio. I should have paid more attention to the reviews that claimed it didn't hold a decent charge after the initial charge wore down. My husband says the radio worked great until the charge wore off. Now he can spend hours charging it and get just a few minutes of poor quality radio. Although the flashlight does work he says the the product STINKS overall! Save your money. Buy a different brand!!!

I don't know what radio the other reviewers got, but they certainly couldn't have gotten the same model as I did. What a super disappointment...especially since this radio is supposed to be for emergencies (...see my comments near the bottom of this review). Sure, when it came fully charged from the factory it played (out-of-the-box) 13 hours. BUT, this was probably a charge via 'AC', which, unfortunately, you won't be able to have for a while since there is no AC adapter yet available for this radio. But when it fully dis-charged, and I cranked it for the 90 seconds recommended, I got a whole 20 minutes of 'play time'. (By the way, one of their support guys told me NOT to go much over 90 seconds of cranking, 'or else'...whatever that means.) And, according to that same Microlink tech support person, you'd better be in DIRECT sunlight if you expect it to 'fully charge' in about 5-6 hours...and, according to that same tech support person, going over 6 hours in direct sunlight won't add to the play time, which, according to that same tech support person, is about 2 hours. He also warned me AGAINST 'charging it up' via the sun, and then 'cranking' to try and charge it more. So it seems that a high level of play time is only available via the, as yet unavailable, AC adapter. I was going to try and charge it via the USB port, but according to the manual, you have to leave your computer on for 8 hours! So I didn't even bother. This is supposed to be a radio for emergencies. During most emergencies...which generally means no electricity in your house...who would have 8 hours of computer battery time to charge it up? And even if you charged it up prior to (let's say) a typical "weather emergency", what would you do after the radio plays and then discharges on 'day one' of the emergency? During weather emergencies, it's usually pouring rain for SEVERAL days, so, you're unlikely to get direct, daily sunlight that, if available, could give you a whole 2 hours of play time. If your only other option is the crank, that means you'll get only about 20 minutes of play time from this radio. If this radio accepted batteries, it might have given you an additional, viable, power option during weather emergencies.

I listened to AM and FM news stations on it during my 6-hour evacuation ride from Houston to Dallas. Tuning in stations was easy and the signal was clear and powerful throughout the trip. The bright flashlight is a nice addition and proved useful several times. I'm back home now and the radio is sitting safe and dry in a box with my other hurricane supplies.

I haven't had an emergency yet to use this radio in, but everything worked nicely out of the box. My "complaint" is that the tuning wheel for the AM/FM stations makes it hard for me to get a station dialed in exactly. The scale showing the frequency is small and a small twitch of the tuning wheel moves you over quite a bit of frequency ground. So if you're trying to dial a station with a narrow frequency, you may find it hard to get a good lock. The flashlight is rather anemic as are all LED-based flashlights that I've tried so far. Is it better than nothing? Absolutely. Is it perfect? Not a chance. I did find this radio/flashlight to work better than the Eton FR500 Solarlink. This one is also smaller, but has fewer features.