American Red Cross FR500 Solarlink, White
from: Eton
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Electronics : American Red Cross FR500 Solarlink, White |
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Rating:  - * Great Idea - Sorry Product ... I would not reccomend the FR500 to anyone! The AM/FM radio is a joke - it will only recieve one station regardless of tuning it and changing the band. The solar panel will not charge the rechargable batteries. The dynamo will recharge, but requires a ton of cranking to do so. The FR500 will only work really if you put in regular batteries. I will I had not bought it! Rating:  - * Yet another great Eton product! ... I have had no problems with reception, even in the sticks. I really like the added solar feature which compliments the crank function nicely. Mostly robust, though some of the knobs feel weak, particularly the "mode" knob. Excellent backlight for the frequency/clock LCD display, easy tuning, plenty of bands to select from, and the built-in USB charger is a GIANT bonus. I now own six quality Eton products, and this one is *easily* my favorite. A directional antenna vs. the current vertical-only telescopic antenna would have been a nice touch. Rating:  - * For the price this is a let down ... I came back from hurricane duty and my wife had purchased this radio. It worked, but she had to buy too many batteries, as they only power the unit for 4 hours or so. My main issue with this is that it didn't even have it's own power supply included. Hello, this is being rather petty with a two or three dollar power supply. Gives me another reason to hate the Red Cross Rating:  - * RECEPTION FIX ... Great overall emergency radio. Read many reviews that indicated poor reception which almost prevented me from buying. Once purchased I tried the radio and was disappointed with the poor reception. Almost seemed like it was running low on batteries even though new ones were just put in. I learned that the multi-function knob (see manual) was set on "Alert". This seems to be a low power savings mode. Once I selected any other setting including "Off" the radio's reception was excellent (the radio is turned on via a different knob / see manual). I bought it at Radio Shack since it was on sale for $69. Radio Shack's site forgot to add that this radio also has Short Wave which is a plus in emergencies. Rating: - * WRONG ADAPTER ... Great Radio... wrong adapter. Amazon links the two but if you read carefully this adapter is for the FR up to 400 series and I got it for the Solarlink FR *500*. This is a 4.5 volt adapter and the FR 500 requires a 5 volt adapter. Customer service at the "store" that shipped it to me was EXCELLENT, full refund no questions asked. Amazon screwed the pooch on this one by linking two incompatible products. (Insert Jeff Bezos laugh!) :) |
