Midland® - XT511 - Emergency Radio - 22 Channel Two-Way Base Camp Radio with 5 Power Options, 121 Privacy Codes, 3-LED Flashlight & NOAA Weather Scan + Alert - Gray/Black

Wonderful product. Used as a base radio since it can be powered by AC. High range of volume that allows people to be heard from other rooms to low enough to sleep to the radio. Unfortunately could not find a radio sleep function. My mother is not radio savvy so setting it up, locking button input and having her just use the included mic with transmit button. It worked perfectly and she preferred it greatly over using a handheld. Alarm clock works but not as intuitive as I'd like. It's more difficult than necessary to verify the alarm time. But alarm is loud enough to wake us up when camping. Great transmission distance and antenna is sturdier than most portables. Used the privacy codes which worked better than both my differently branded handhelds, they sometimes squelch off for the first half second of another radio on the main channel before understanding the sender is not using the privacy code. It can be annoying to repeatedly hear that static in an otherwise quiet setting. This radio doesnt do that. Camping-wise having the FM radio was awesome but you can use receive or transmit when in FM mode. Spinning the fairly loud handcrank a minute charged the included rechargeable batteries from dead to enough power for transmitting and receiving once quickly. The only problem is the battery level indicator shows full or almost full when it wasnt leaving us outside with only the crank. Luckily we had some spare non rechargeables that worked fine. Remember not to crank with standard batteries installed! Overall a great unit, small and light and you can choose to use the speaker/mic or the mic built into the unit. The removable shoulder strap made it easily accessible while carrying a pack. Also came with car charger. Wish list: built in compass, monitoring multiple channels, built in solar charging.

I love Midland's products. This is an awesome emergency radio. However, I am disappointed in Midland - crank handle is too thin and seems easy to snap off. No one, in my good opinion, should purchase this radio with thoughts of using it as a daily base camp CB-type radio. It could definitely be used for camping, for such use, and intermittently at home, but the two-way radio option appears to be made for intermittent use only. However, the weather, FM, and AM bands can be used on a daily basis. Love the flashlight option. Does have an alarm option with snooze feature for those who might want to use it as a bedside alarm clock radio. It is small, measuring 4 1/2 inches tall (6 1/2 inches tall when measuring to top of handle) and 7 1/2 inches long; it is 2 inches thick. The small size and great features and sound make it the perfect emergency radio, great for camping or day trips, and easy to take just about anywhere. Takes 4 AA batteries or comes with a rechargeable battery pack (charge with crank or included AC wall charger or DC car charger), and crank option allows charging devices, like a phone, that can plug into a USB outlet. Get one before the next storm hits.

For the money, this product is excellent in every way. I purchased two of these so that my friend and myself could communicate while photographing in the woods. The radio worked when our local cell phone coverage did not. Testing the range of operation with my friend, in MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN, I was amazed that in the woods we had overlapping coverage in excess of 10 miles, with excellent signal strength and audio fidelity. Living on the Pacific Coast, accurate weather reporting is essential. This radio does a wonderful job with NOAA reports and those of the U.S. Coast Guard. The AM/FM receiver did a passable job, though it could stand to be a bit more sensitive to signal. Now for the negatives: The unit is delicate and will not withstand physical abuse of any kind. I dropped one of the units on the floor from a distance of two feet, and though it works alright, the crank mechanism has frozen in place and will not crank. I will have to repair or replace the unit. I suggest that some kind of durable case be obtained to protect the radio from accidental abuse. It would be a nice feature to have the display so that it stays on for more than a few seconds, in other words, user selectable. The fidelity is excellent on the main unit, but the speaker/microphone is not, and could stand to be improved. Like most rechargeable batteries, these take way too long to charge (12 hours), and useable time (with transmitter on, at full power) averages about 60-90 minutes. I have solved this problem by using an external battery pack, that I normally use for my other Ham radios. I gain up to six hours using the external supply. Of course the combination of using the crank, and alkaline batteries will extend the time. All in all a very good radio provided that the consumer is aware that it is not built like an ICOM or KENWOOD portable with the much higher price tag. But bearing that in mind, you get a lot of radio for very little dollars, built by an old-line (MIDLAND) company with decades of experience.