Patreon member Nancy M-R "I've watched your BOK series three times now and I learn something new every single time. Now I am seeing these wonderful radios. I have been trying to choose among the dozens and dozens of them that I've seen or read this will help! I trust you Lt. Col. Nutn! Thank you for this recommendation!" Thank you Nancy, I appreicate you being here. I do my best to provide no nonsense real info for preparations. I show ya'll the stuff I use and incorporate into my systems. No TPA here!

2003. Pre iraq invasion and traveling across the country..... our PLT SGT had a little crank radio that we would listen to the BBC when we could. It was a morale booster- and a good source of information.

Patreon member: Todd S "I used to sell consumer electronics at Circuit City in Florida in the late 1990's. We'd sell out of those Grundig shortwave radios before every tropical storm or hurricane. They're excellent."

As a ham operator and SW listener and having been in the professional/broadcast communications industry for 50+ years I can recommend the Tecsun PL880. The main reason, it covers just about everything you may need to cover and it uses a lithium rechargeable battery, the 18650. You can use ANY cell phone charger including a small solar charger designed for a cell phone to keep it charged. Next I do recommend some kind of two way radio system for both short range and long range. The list of gear available is very long, but for short range the TYT UV380 can be had for about $100 per unit. This covers VHF/UHF, uses a rechargeable lithium battery and you can feed any 12 volt DC source to the charger to charge the battery. It also covers 136 thru 174 MHz and 400 thru 480 MHz. This range covers all public service and ham frequencies on VHF/UHF. The radio is also analog and digital (DMR) capable. Programming is not as simple or as easy as many other radios, but once you learn the programming steps or get the radio programmed, there is nothing more to do but use it. Long range communications is where it gets more expensive and complicated. Radios are going to start at about the $500 mark and go up from there. The knowledge needed to use the radio effectively also increases and the knowledge to construct and maintain an antenna system also increases but it can be done with a little work and dedication. Once in place the system only needs a 12 volt power source (solar/battery/dc power supply) of sufficient current capacity and one can communicate with the rest of the world much of the time. Search the web, there are list of SHTF emergency com frequencies circulating to standardize where to listen and talk in such situations. Just search for SHTF frequencies and you'll get plenty of hits. I disagree with you on staying with AA non-rechargable batteries. One of the first things that will disappear from store shelves will be batteries of all types. With a rechargeable setup you do not rely on what you can buy. Get a small portable recharging system (solar panels for 5 volt Lithium and one for a 12 volt system) that is light weight and packable and you will not need to look for or store batteries. Lithium rechargeables will last DECADES if you take care of them. The 18650 is/can be used for just about anything if you know how to built a battery pack out of them for your particular device. Generally you'll only need 5 volts and 12 volts for most everything.

I have loads of shortwave radios as well as ham gear (since I am a ham) A great trick I came up with for these small shortwave radios is an external antenna, and you can make one cheap. I get a roll of wire (Smaller roll) and solder an alligator clip on the end. Clip the clip to the partly deployed antenna, and roll out the long wire into a tree or any place you can get it up decently high. Works great and costs pennies.

Living in long island NY iv always said if theres an emergency your not going to be able to evacuate bcs traffic would be so bad. Videos like this and water/food prep are great. Thanks for all you do

I got a shortwave/am/fm/noaa, that is battery/solar/crank powered. Great idea for hearing news about your disaster from afar.

Hurricane michael was a real eye opener I definitely found the holes in my system. Thanks Nutn for the advice and videos!

ROTPS138 "Anyone else find the photos is Amazon absolutely hilarious? Every single person in the stock photos is at least 85 years old! Lesson to learned, "Only old people use radios, not meant for young whipper-snappers"

Good video. I am a HAM guy, two things to remember, no radio is worth a crap without a VERY good antenna. Expensive HAM radios are very expensive because of the quality of excellent receivers. We can't expect great things out of small units but then again we cant carry 70 and 80 lb radios with us. Everyone needs to consider one of these

I would suggest watching OH8STN's channel on building man portable radio systems that can transfer data over long distances. It can be done, but it will be very specific. He will go out and test his equipment.

Normally don’t comment. County Comm is fantastic. I’ve bought many things from them and have been on the fence with radio. Perfect review/video for me. Thanks TNP!

I wish more channels would put more importance on communications. To many people want to depend on their phones, but old school frequencies should be the standard for all. Communication should be have just as much attention to your plan as food/water, shelter, and defense

Ham radio is the ultimate prepper communication mode. Hams build QRP systems that fit in Altoid tins. Someone below recommended a prepper ham operator, another guy I recommend is the radio prepper here on KZfaq. Get a ham ticket then you can transmmit ARRL.org is the place to go at first. Also most counties and or cities have ham clubs that have classes for free or cheap.

I always prefer radios with knobs for tuning. You can pass over a weak station and then slowly back up into it and it sometimes comes in much clearer. Also scanning radios only hit strong stations, passing over weaker ones.

Were talking WROL here. You need a baofeng UV5R and rig it up to charge the batteries with a hand crank and have a few extra batteries hooked to a quality portable roll up solar panel.

Cool man. But idk, The Baofeng UV-5RTP is 8w and like $30. The battery lasts a long ass time, but also I have a USB charger and a solar USB charger. 2way! I do also have a crank radio as well. But.. 2way is cheap these days and easy to charge with the sun.

During hurricane last year, all but 1 of the fm stations were out, and the final remaining station ran out of diesel for their generators. A.M. was the only option.

I still have my Grundig Yacht Boy 400...and yes, it did come with the Shortwave Listening Guide! Man, that takes me back....

Excellent review. I have a couple of TECSUNs. I really like the TECSUN PL-380. Small capable package, AM/FM/SW/MW/LW with digital keypad. Uses 3 AAs.

I still believe in having two way radio communication, I use the Boafeng UV5R dual band and the tri band BFF8, were you can communicate via FRS, GMRS and Ham, also having the capabilities to listen to AM and FM radio frequencies. That batteries have long power capacity especially in standby mode, and with a small solar cell panel, have means of recharging the batteries in the unit.

Guess I'll have to rethink some things. I still have my "Prepper Rdio" and still can't figure it out. This really makes sense. Loving this Series . Thank you Lt.Col. NF

My 2ways, which I have 4 of them, are USB rechargeable. All my spare batteries are also usb rechargeable. The reason I choose usb rechargeable items for my BOK is i can charge them with solar. I also have solar powered power banks as well for storage of power to charge all my things. Even my flashlights are recharged via usb and even my headlamps are directly recharged with usb. My EDC watch is a casio pathfinder with solar power. That thing has been running nonstop since 2005 when I bought it. Invest your money in solar and usb rechargeable devices.

Anyone knows where I can get a radio exactly like the one they had on Gilligan's island? It was robust, got great reception and lasted 3 seasons! Lol Great vid

I'm an amateur radio operator, and for my portable, I have an Anytone AT-D878UV radio. It does analog and digital. It can transceive all the 2 meter and 70 cm bands, along with receiving FM (87.5 - 108 MHz), the FMS/GMRS, MARS, Marine, and some local law/fire frequencies. Excellent radio for the price.

Anyone can use ham radios during an emergency and you can also monitor and listen on a ham anytime. The only thing the FCC doesn’t allow is broadcasting on the Ham waves during non emergencies.

Why are you ignoring DC charging options? portable solar, wind/hydro generators, thermoelectric.... that along with a portable lithium battery bank is a very viable option... been using them for years for emergency field ops. I agree with not using devices with internal proprietary batteries but saying "you will not have recharge capabilities" is frankly pretty outdated at this points... for less than $100 one could have a portable solar panel with at least 20k mAh bank... pleanty portable and affordable.

It's all about HF. We got the ionosphere, it's free, and excells in daytime. Low-signature, and you can make many different types of field expedient antennas using just about anything. I've gator-clipped an ejection port cover on a M4 to turn the rifle into an antenna, but claymore wire is easiest and works well. MRE spoons, transistors, and 550 cord and you can make it happen if you know what you're doing. In Afghan I'd weave coax cable in the molle of my plate carrier, and with a PRC148 I could get some reach. Lots of things are possible, good video.

EXCELLENT video, Nut'n! I have several SW radios, but the County Comm is my go-to for emergencies. SSB feature is a real bonus on HF ham bands, in particular 40 meters. Range during the day is roughly 300 miles, so you can pick up emergency nets for "local"updates. Beginners may find tuning SSB a little difficult, but it is easy to learn. Very good info here, and enjoying your bunker vids!

Thank you Nutn for doing a video on this kinda gear. And as a family we ALL need to practice using this equipment to.

I would have bet the farm that a BaoFeng ham radio was part of this review...

Get your Ham radio license the Tec is easy and you have access to the repeaters

Amateur (Ham) radio is where it’s at y’all if you are serious about having emergency comms capabilities. Like everything else worth doing it takes a commitment to learn, but the rewards are great abt it could save your life or the lives of others...73.

I can't remember who it was that popped the idea of bugging out. They focus on a get home bag, and the ability to secure their home for extended periods of time. But I agree that being able to leave your home during a natural disaster is important IF you live in an area that is prone to them. I live in an area where the worst thing that can happen is you lose power we don't really have extreme weather in the Northeast (away from the coast). Edit: I definitely see what you are talking about, when we lost power during a major snowstorm I stuck by a crank radio for most of the duration. It was entertainment as well as a way to get updates on what was going on in the area.

I really pondered the question on how this would affect my family during a disaster. So my wife and I went and earned our Ham license through the FCC and bought a couple Hand held Radios and receiver location book.

How about a video on two way comms, for those of us "bugging in"? When SHTF, we(our neighbors) will man two road blocks, guns blazing. Nobody giving us *beep*.

It shouldn't be this refreshing to see bug-out kit videos that focus on real disasters, and don't frame it as "how to survive the zombie apocalypse" or some nonsense.

Patreon member: TheTopMostDog "Are you kidding me? I was looking at radios YESTERDAY and decided it's all too hard, and gave up my search."

Off topic but I finally get to check out Gunnies today. On a family road trip from California!

Nutn, I’m kind of a radio geek and I’m obliged to mention “RTL” Software Defined Radio here. Despite the name it is actually very affordable. All it takes is plugging a tuner with antenna into your laptop, download some freeware real quick (it’s all very safe, created by enthusiasts) and you can receive 30MHz-1.7GHz. “SDR Sharp” is a virtual radio program That allows you to listen to anywhere in that freq range in NFM, WFM, AM, LSB, USB, DSB, CW, and raw modes. What’s more, there is a host of software available capable of decoding data burst transmissions as well and digital voice and 4FSK pager Tones. Computer speak stuff that would be unintelligible noise on any analoge receiver. I can decode pager traffic, listen to digital uhf radio (unencrypted police/fire), downlink from NOAA satellites, and receive data from IoT devices like home weather stations and car fobs. And the software for doing so is ALL free. There’s a bit of a learning curve, so I recommend checking out RTL-SDR on reddit, as well as TechMinds KZfaq channel. The hardware for SDR is well under $50, like this one: www.amazon.com/NooElec-NESDR-Smart-Bundle-R820T2-Based/dp/B01GDN1T4S One major drawback with this system is that the lowest the R820 chip can go on its own is 30MHz but you can get an up-converter to listen to shortwave for about 50 bucks. Now you not only have a shortwave to millimeter wave capable radio, but you have a free software suite to monitor all kinds of analogue AND digital transmissions, all for under $100. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Hay Nutn, I live in Puerto Rico, proud TNPr, i lived the natural phenomena of Hurricane Maria ( cat 4-5 hurricane), we had no power for about 3 months months, we had generators diesel and propane ( reserves were key), no cell towers for about 2 months, no internet for about 2 months, food was scarce, Gasoline was scarce (imagine miles of cars waiting to just get 20$ of gas) there was basically no bugout option... let me tell you your spot on on on what to do, comms relied on radios (am,fm, cb), gas relied on reserve tanks prepared before the hit, and food also relied on prep before the hit... key note, be prepared guys, you never know when dodo will hit your fan.

FYI; the GP-5/SSB is almost a direct copy of a tecsun PL-365. Google has more info...

Been thinking about buying a receiver for a long time. Good suggestions here spurred me to finally pull the trigger.

Never buggin. Live next to no active fault limes, 700 miles from ocean, next to 60% of the worlds fresh water and at 800 feet of sea level. Only thing to worry about is a trister

Taking a local CERT class is good and free. Program is switching a more community focus. Getting know ARES and AMRON operators is essential. AMRON has their channel 3 program. Having transcevier radioes CHIRPed with common local frequiencies.

Extra Class ham operator here: all of those radios looked good for what they are. I would look at building a foxhole radio though, you can only listen to AM but it does not require batteries at all. SSB/shortwave are nice to have but I think there are enough of the big powerhouse AM stations that goto high-power at night to get info.

An interesting point might be too have one or two of the smaller radios available to replace broken systems or even for use in bartering. Small units in an extended WROL scenario would be worth their weight in gold.

I run my Elecraft KX3 portable. It will run indefinitely with solar. My crew regularly practices in the field. It's so nice to have 2 way ability. A lot of shortwave broadcast stations have gone off the air due to the internet. You'll end up getting alot of your news listening to us hams. Better have single side band capability. Using digital modes, we have amazing range with very little power.

I like my Sangean (sp?) about the size of the first radio you showed. That's my portable unit. Takes AA cells, but it uses them quickly. So, it's rechargeables or lithium on the rode. It was especially good for astronomy trips if we got clouded out. I'd lay in the tiny tent and listen to news from Vietnam or Australia (relayed). It has a reel-in wire antenna. The speaker is all right, but head phones are better. Also have a Grundig Sat. 800 I got for a reduced price because they were discontinued. It's harder to use SW now without the annual Passport station guide, but there are phone applications now that can provide station information.

Good overlooked topic. Love my kaito voyager, used it for years, have one in every bok.

Love it! I bought a Sony 7600 similiar to this Grundig in 2001. I listened to a lot of interesting stuff, especially HAM guys around the East...even got the late Art Bell on 3853khz, upper side band, after he had signed off from his commercial AM program one night. WBCQ is also interestin, BBC, Radio Japan, etc. Only problem is the volume control has went haywire on it.

Great vid nutnfancy!

Ear bud/headphones help make battery last longer.

Dont have the time to watch right now. Added it to my watch later. Thanks nutn

Couple things: first, I think writing off two way radio comms completely isn’t always the way to go, there are ways now to charge handhelds via usb and a little solar panel. If that becomes too heavy, pitch it. Second, if you do not want transmit capabilities, having at least one person among your community who can is definitely an asset, especially if they have their general or amateur extra license. Lastly, I think a basic education for your team or community on how radio works is important in case your radio man isn’t available. I have listened to your high quality content for a long time and would love to see you delve into comms. Thank you

I would get both; one of those RECEIVERS (it's simple to operate), AND a ham HT radio programed for the local repeater stations and local emergency stations. Plus a small PV charger.

Used to hear radio Moscow, voice of America, and more. Brings back memories!

keep your portable radios and batts stored in a metal trash can with metal lid. Makes a great Faraday Cage so that an EMP can't take them out.

One important aspect of a SWR is whether the tuning is digital or analog. Digital tuning will last longer and is more precise than analog without signal drift. Also, don't get confused with an analog tuner that has a digital display... this is not a digital tuner just because it has a digital display. A radio with a digital tuner will specify whether it has this capability or not.

Everyone with any intention of being prepared should at least look into amatuer radio and getting a license. Great knowledge, can even grab a baofeng UV5R and an additional AA battery pack for $30. - KD9MUW.

I want to add my recommendation to check out CCrane for radios I recently purchased 3 different radios from them. One small pocket radio, one medium, light weight radio that has battery, plug in, solar and crank re-charge capabilities, and a larger table sized model. They have SW, Ham, Weather, AM/FM, etc. Really good quality and lots of accessories available. Great reception.

Really all you need is AM band. In Germany we would skip AM across the ocean to USA. AM can travel very far at times. AM is all over and the easiest to transmit and receive.

Great as always Nuttn. I had been on the fence with radios for a while. Picked one up from Countycom. Great website!

I feel like another angle on the information topic would be good LOCAL information. I'd be interested to know your opinion on local information sources, perhaps like CB. I know it kind of carries a geek rap, but I think there's a lot of potential there for good, up to the minute information there that also reaches if you have to bug out to another area. No phone, no frequency information, just local real time information. What do your think?

CCrane makes good stuff...have the Retekess for at work out in the field...My old Grundig100 is wrapped up and stashed away for major emergency...looking to get a tecsun to add to the stable now...clipping on some long copper wire, like speaker cable works really well, especially if elevated...good stuff...don't listen as often anymore, but it's a world of communication essential in a crisis...great video.

Dude awesome I've been waiting for this vid!

Tecsun PL606 is also very awesome in a small package

Dang-it, Nut'n. Haven't been able to follow you for awhile and the first vid I watch you make me get the Maratac radio! It's just too expensive watching your stuff! Seriously, I got several Baofeng radios but wanted a good shortwave and looks like Maratac has improved their portable model. Thanks for the vids!

You can get USB rechargeable lithium batteries(in the common sizes) on eBay. Combined with a solar USB chargsr, you're good to go.. I got a 60w solar USB charger. Folds up and is light. On a sunny day it'll charge 2 devices quickly and DEPENDABLY. There are solutions out there. Adapt and overcome..

That Jameson is the radio equivalent of a Jennings pistol.

I had a ghetto blaster with a cassette tape deck in the 90s, and it also had shortwave on it as well as am/fm radio....I could pull in England, France, Australia even a few times......even Russia...and this is from San Diego....shortwave is really amazing...

I have the exact same radio, bought in '99, and it still works perfectly - no reason to dispose of it.

Nicely timed, boss o7 Ive carried a hand crack am/fm radio in my kit for years, but my bugout van is coming along nicely and I just started looking into adding a s/wave receiver.

Love the Grundig FR200. Bought four used on eBay. My new purchase was the compact Tecsun you reviewed here. All work great.

I like that GP5 for size, features, and on-the-move carry-ability, but I hate the push button power switch. Guaranteed to be dead when you need it because it turned on when you didn’t know (unless protected...more weight/complexity).

Believe it or not, there are still some Radio Shacks around. I also heard back in the 90's that Sangean radios were supposed to be the shiz and they also had one that was wind-up powered with no batteries required. I see some on Amazon and they're rated really good.

Got a little crank power radio awhile back from goodwill. Just checked and it’s a Grundig. I know that’s not cool, just kinda funny.

Nutn covers the basics to monitor broadcast audio signals . In unstable times having vhf/ uhf and hf radios for monitoring all those ham frequencies is great...covering different local or regional distances of individual communications...given various band antennas... ....frs, gmrs really for neighbor hoods....Cb also shorter range coverage of person to person monitoring

Very good video pretty informative

I saw an obviously broken shortwave radio in a Dollar Store in 1992 and offered them five bucks for it. I took it home and fixed it then started getting better and better ones. I have a Tecsun PL-660 now for SSB and a lot of other regular shortwave radios including the 310et. A very good and very inexpensive shortwave radio is the tiny Tecsun R-9012. Very good AM and shortwave reception but FM sucks. It`s a true analog radio (no DSP chip) with great battery life and it covers the good parts of the shortwave band. Amazing value. Everybody should have one of these. The little Sony ICF-P26 AM/FM radio is also true non DSP analog with over 100 hour battery life. Most of the cheap "analog" radios sold now are DSP and battery life is bad and they`re subject to damage from static discharge. DSP makes for a better FM tuner but is usually terrible for AM and shortwave for a variety of reasons related to tuning and reception. The best regular AM/FM radio for power outages? The Sony ICF-19. Excellent reception on both bands, loud speaker, and it runs 400+ hours on three D-cell batteries.

Great vid as usual, and yes the CountyCom GP5SSB is awesome! I'd recommend a radio with weather band as it could be helpful especially if you're bugging out due to ongoing severe weather. The Retekess PR15 is a good pocket am/fm radio which also has weather band & costs about $20 on Amazon.

*Thank you! Its about time you make a video on this cause this is what most preppers forget about!*

I barely have any person I want to talk to now, would be nice to have an EMP blast or something to stop it from ringing all together 🤔🤣 lol Do have few of those radios left over from my dad, plus the whole Ham setup and with the big att. up on the roof too. Really need to list that stuff up on Craiglist, just been sitting there for 10+ years now.

Love the CountyCom.. CutleryLover turned me on to them loooong ago. Picked up a good watch and a bunch of other stuff at a good price.

for a long term thing a basic portable ham kit might be a choice - a qrp (low power) cw (morse code) rig, straight key, a couple 7 amp hour batteries, and a 35 watt solar panel - the whole set up for a couple hundred bucks. You can listen, and talk, around the world. Will be plenty of wire laying around to make antennas, just learn how prior to the event. A well tuned and thus effectively radiating antenna is essential and the most complicated part of the equation. And don't worry about cw speed, with a long term thing, plenty of time to plod along at 10 words a minute. Best to learn how to do it yourself, cause if zombies are chasing me around I intend for a 20 word message to charge two roasting chickens or a decent sized hog.

ETON has a multi-band that has both internal rechargeable and 3 AA’s. It also has a crank dyno handle to recharge it. It was like $50 back in the day.

Also, some .mil traffic is still in the clear. But you MUST get sideband capability.

Is receive-only really keeping in touch? Come on. Cheers! Chris - NI7I

I love to see a vid from you talking about the military coms and how to go about listening to what’s going on in case if an emergency

I use a SANGEAN PR-D9W myself. It's a very good and durable digital am/fm radio with NOAA WEATHER ALERT. It's a little expensive but it takes 4 AA batteries that you can charge in the radio through AC while its plugged in so for me it's always charged (I do have AAs in my bug out though). It's not in my bug out bag as I always have it plugged in for the weather alert function. It's definitely going with me if I bug out though (I know it's a no no to not have it in the bag..so I guess I should get a cheap one for the bag). It also sounds fantastic for a mono speaker. It doesn't have shortwave but i'll take a radio like this that has an extremely good AM/FM receiver over ones with crappy shortwave IMO. Don't get me wrong there are really good shortwave/radio receivers out there but I find the NOAA alert much more useful and I haven't found a shortwave I liked that has this feature. My only downside with it is that its glossy white so dirt shows up easy on it. Otherwise I like that its white as its high vis so it's easy to find in the dark if you have dimmed the lcd light to off. WARNING ABOUT GRUNDIGS. Older models are great but quality has degraded sharply since they went to Chinese Manufacturing for the electronics (basically since they joined up with ETON). Do your research on Radio forums before you purchase one. This led me to the Sangean instead of a Grundig.

No reference to crank radios? I did have to use a crank radio (AM station) and extensive usage of HAM radio in the wildfires because the power was out for a week, didn't want to use disposable batteries for a radio when they were used for lighting.

What another Nutn video about emergency comms. Love to the west.

Sangean also has some decent SW radios.

Nutnfancy, I think it would be beneficial if you help us with some human psychology during a bug out/SHTF situation. Obviously we are not going to want to engage in a firefight with every person who comes our way while we're in the bug out shelter. A lot of the people carrying weapons might be doing the same thing we're doing, but just happened to wander upon our hideout during the process. So how can we better perceive who is a possible friendly verses who is a possible risk to our safety? What should we watch out for? Food, water, weapons, ammo, communications, first aid kit, extra cloth, etc... all good things to have. What can we do to better prepare for human interaction at such a point in time?

Great video that open to my eyes to having a receive only Radio. How do these radios do when they get wet. Being from Florida I haven't had a simulated bug out event where I did not get Wet.

Get a small SDR ( software and connectors for your cell phone or tablet ) and a couple decent antennas and you have room for plenty of batteries. SDR will take a bit of research to set up but is far smaller and superior as you can pick up all shortwave, ham radio, can act as police scanner, receive FRS/GMRS aircraft, trains basically if its on radio and not encrypted a SDR can pick it up and their the size of a USB stick ( excluding antennas) If you insist on going with a shortwave radio's then good the Kaito KA1103 Worldband Radio is a good choice. CountyComm GP5 is $90 how about the Tecsun PL-360 which is the same radio for $50 on Amazon.

Thanks Nutn! But why no radio with a hand crank? You’d be totally free from batteries. Not sure if it exists with short wave, but I think so.

Kaito KA210 is the BOK home-run. Kaito WRX-911 if you need shortwave.

“Nut n fancy yacht boy” I like the cadence

I uses Boafeng UV5R Radios that i can charge with a cord and portable solar panel. The assumption that you need to bring a bunch of batteries is false.