C Crane CC Skywave AM, FM, Shortwave, Weather and Airband Portable Travel Radio with Clock and Alarm

I love my Skywave! This radio has been awesome. It goes with me everywhere. In the evenings, I can even get shortwave in the house.There were a few requirements I had as I started looking for a portable radio.1) Rechargeable. It's a true bummer to be left with dead batteries and a dead radio.2) Weather (WX). I think weather is our most immediate threat. Plus, any other emergency will probably be covered by NOAA. The NOAA website had this to say:"Working with the Federal Communication Commission's (FCC) Emergency Alert System , NWR is an "All Hazards" radio network, making it your single source for comprehensive weather and emergency information. In conjunction with Federal, State, and Local Emergency Managers and other public officials, NWR also broadcasts warning and post-event information for all types of hazards – including natural (such as earthquakes or avalanches), environmental (such as chemical releases or oil spills), and public safety (such as AMBER alerts or 911 Telephone outages)."3) Weather alert. It's nice to be able to turn the radio off, yet be alerted to a tornado in the area. God forbid we ever have another national disaster, but I'd trust my Skywave to keep me informed.4) Shortwave. I wish the Skywave had side band. But, shortwave will most likely be the communication standard during an extended disaster. Plus, shortwave is fun!5) Radio alarm. This is a great feature for everyday convenience!6) Small enough for daily carry.So, a few notes on my experiences so far.The rechargeable option works! But, I was under the impression I could power the radio from a USB battery charger. This is not the case. The radio draws so little current that the USB battery pack shuts off. I believe a USB battery pack would charge the Skywave batteries, but once you turn the radio on the charging stops. And so does the battery pack. Basically, you will be left without radio until the batteries are charged. This isn't a fault of the Skywave, it's just the nature of most USB battery packs.The weather alert is a tone. It doesn't turn the actual radio on. You get a beep, beep, beep, and need to turn the radio on to hear the alert. It dose work though.I'm a first time shortwave listener, and I can tell you that it is a blast! It's a thrill to pick up radio stations in Tennessee and Cuba with great clarity and regularity. I live in Texas by the way. Other stations depend on the weather, etc.. But, I've heard Chinese and Japanese so far. And a lot of Spanish. Which, living so close to Mexico it's pretty easy to pick up.I use a 23ft piece of wire at times to really reach out there. I attach it to the antenna with a binder clip. There's portable reels designed for this that are available for around $15. Note: The one from C. Crane is "capacitor loaded." From what I understand, a capacitor is used to make the 23' act as a much longer antenna. Not all shortwave reel antennas have this. I'll probably pick up a Crane antenna in the future.The radio is well laid out and intuitive. Coming from a HAM radio background, intuitive on a radio is impressive! There's nothing worse than trying to set up your radio and not remembering how to. The Skywave makes it easy to remember!As far as reception, I don't have any other shortwave radios. But, I can tell you that the Skywave is the best radio in the house for AM! It even rejects noise from the fluorescent lights, where other radios buzz. Note: AM uses the internal antenna. So, no need to extend the telescopic antenna.I've been real happy with my Skywave. It goes with me everywhere! I like that I can lock out the buttons while it's in a bag also. No worries of it coming on and draining the batteries. Speaking of which, the batteries last forever! Even if I was buying regular alkaline batteries, I wouldn't hesitate to leave the radio on all day at work.

I am a radio aholic. I am very very hard to please.Generally, thanks to Amazon's generous return privileges, I return about 80%of the electronics that I buy. For whatever reason, if they are not spot on, they go back.I am extremely careful with packaging and try to return in 100% perfect shape.Having said that, this radio exceeded all the positive reviews and the few negativeones were more of a particular persons own lack of knowledge or willingness to "work around"certain inherent issues.Example: You would not go off road racing in a Ferrari.My use of the radio is perhaps the reason for my high ratings.I use the radio in conjunction with one of Ccranes FM transmitters ( the $50 one )I plug it into an Amazon Kindle FIre, A Uniden Home Patrol 2, and an Ipad mini.I then can use the radio in my neighbors yard to listen to whatever with perfect clarity.The radio is quite intuitive. I did not need to read the manual to operate it.A few features require reading. ( how to reset, how to have certain features default etc )The size is stellar. VERY small and yet quite acceptable reception. I live in a remote areaand it picks up the 2 fm stations that I can get perfectly.AM reception .. it gets the 5 am stations that I can get in the daytime with acceptable reception.VERY easy to remember how to run the radio. If I go to a new town to visit, I can program it in less than3 minutes with all the AM and fM and weather frequencies.My only disappointment is the lack of an ability to scan ( even slowly ) between air frequences that are stored.Not a big deal as this is not sold as a "scanner". I have 3 unidens that do the job nicely.What IS fun is to use it on a flight. Do a little homework and find out the airlines company frequency, the tower frequencies and "center" frequencies and program them in ahead of time. You can then plug in the earphones and listen to your flight as it transitions from Ground Control, to the Tower , and then to Departure, and then Center.The earphones are outrageous. I will be buying them from now on to replace Apple earbuds that fail. I mainly listen to audible books etcand the sound is almost as good as my Bose earbuds.Hope this helps. I have been acquainted with Ccrane since the original LED flashlights. ..in the 1990's and the company is over and ablove in support. I did purchase a 4 year warranty in case I drop spill etc but the radio seems rock solid.Cheers