August of last year a thunderstorm took our power out a little after dark and kept it out about nine hours. Nothing bad happened. I sat in the dark with a phone showing 11 percent and no idea whether the worst of it was still coming or already gone. That was the night I quit treating my phone as a plan. In September of last year I bought a Midland ER310, and by November it was on the kitchen table, where it sat all last winter.
I am not going to tell you to throw your phone away. Mine still gives me alerts when it has a signal, and I want those. The trouble is that a phone needs a charged battery and a working tower, and a bad storm is exactly the kind of night that takes both. The Midland needs my arm or six AA batteries. Below are ten plain reasons I keep it, in the order I would explain them to a neighbor standing in my driveway.
The radio that sat on my kitchen table last winter
The Midland ER310 runs by hand crank, a small solar panel, or six AA batteries that come in the box. AM, FM and the weather band, plus a built-in flashlight. It is not water resistant, so mine lives indoors.
Amazon Check Today's Price on Amazon →The crank works when the battery does not
The evening the ice storm hit last January, the power went out around six. I put the Midland on the kitchen table and turned the crank by hand and got the forecast out of it. That is the whole idea. A phone needs a charged battery and a tower still standing. A crank radio needs your arm, and your arm works at 11 percent, at zero percent, and in the dark. Mine will not fill a phone. Cranking keeps the radio talking, and that is all I ask of it.
Your phone's alerts only arrive when the tower is up
On the Wednesday morning of that ice storm the cell signal went weak and then quit for most of the day. My phone did nothing wrong. It had no signal to work with. The radio stayed on the kitchen table and kept playing through the middle of that day, and it never asked anything of a tower. If you want alerts, keep the phone. If you want to hear what is going on after the phone has gone quiet, you want the radio.
The forecast comes out of a speaker instead of a screen
I do not have to unlock anything, hunt for an app, wait on a page to load, or read a paragraph on a screen I cannot see without my glasses. The weather band talks and I listen. My hands stay free for a flashlight, a candle, or a pot of water. At my age, and at two in the morning, that is not a small thing.
It will run on three different things
The Midland takes a hand crank, a small solar panel, or six AA batteries. I tried the solar panel once on a windowsill on a gray day and it did little, so I have not leaned on it since and it played no part in the ice storm. But it is there, and a bright afternoon is a bright afternoon. Three ways to make the same box talk is two more than my phone has.
The batteries that came in the box outlasted the storm
The six AA batteries that came in the box ran the radio from Wednesday through Friday of the ice storm and did not run down. I have never changed them. I keep no spare set because I have not needed one, and I keep the crank for the day they finally go. That is the whole maintenance plan: a crank and a drawer I do not have to think about.
The six AA batteries that came in the box ran the radio from Wednesday through Friday and did not run down. I have never changed them.
There is a flashlight built into it
The same box that gives me the forecast gives me a light. It is not going to light a barn, but it will get me down a hallway and across a room, and it is already in my hand instead of in a drawer somewhere I would have to remember. One less thing to hunt for in the dark is one less thing to hunt for in the dark.
AM and FM come with it
The radio does AM and FM as well as the weather band, which matters more than people expect. When the weather band is repeating the same line every few minutes, a local station is often saying something different and closer to where you actually live. I like having both in one hand instead of one in my hand and one in the truck.
It sat on my nightstand on the tornado night
In March we had a tornado warning in the middle of the night. Before bed I carried the radio to the bedroom and put it on the nightstand, because storms were forecast. About two in the morning I took it to the hall with us, the one inside space in this house with no windows. The warning passed north of us and we had no damage, and the power never even blinked. But I knew what was happening while it was happening.
It weighs about a pound and fits in one hand
The listing puts it at 16 ounces and about 9.61 by 2.95 by 6.85 inches, and that is accurate enough for a hallway at two in the morning. I can carry it in one hand with a cup of coffee in the other. A thing you cannot pick up and move in the dark is not much help in the dark. This one gets picked up.
It asks nothing of you that you cannot do
No password, no account, no update at the worst possible moment, no waiting on a page to load with a wet hand. You turn a crank, or put in six AA batteries, or set it in the sun, and it plays. It behaves the same way every time, and it does it without asking me to remember anything. That is worth more than it sounds like in a house where the power has just gone out.
What I'd Skip
Three things I would skip. First, I would not build a plan around the solar panel. On a gray day it did almost nothing on my windowsill, and I have not counted on it since. Second, I would not use the radio as a phone charger. The USB connection can give a phone a small top-up, and I have done it once or twice, but it is not a charger and cranking it will not fill a phone. That is a power station's job. Third, I would not leave it outdoors. The radio is not water resistant. Mine lives indoors, on the kitchen table from November through May and on the hall closet shelf the rest of the year, and it has never once been rained on.
The forecast is still there when the signal is not
If you already have the phone and the flashlight, the radio is the piece that tells you what is actually coming. Mine has earned its spot on the kitchen table. It might earn one on yours.
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