Quest

Initial observations: Good rugged appearance. Simple to use, intuitive knobs and buttons. I plugged in the battery, turned it on, tuned in a few AM and FM stations with no problems, switched to the NOAA band and verified that I could receive my local station with no problems. I tried out the flashlight and hand crank. I then cranked it for a few minutes to verify that the charging does work with the hand crank. I have not tried the tiny solar panel yet. Since it was displaying 2 out of 3 bars on the battery, I attached the included mini-B USB cable to a nearby charger and let it charge for a few hours. When I returned, it displayed full bars. I have not tested the runtime yet. Radio sensitivity seems fine, but I haven't tested any far away radio stations yet. Purchased 10-2023. The battery shows a mfg date of 2021. I noted that this can be charged by hand crank, solar panel, or USB only. If I interpreted the instructions correctly, it can also run the radio when the USB is plugged into an external source of power if the battery is dead. The radio is supposed to run for four minutes for every 1 minute of cranking. Downsides: The instruction manual is pretty sparse and a bit poorly written. They valued style over substance, and the print is extremely tiny. The battery uses a proprietary connector. It will require some soldering or cutting and crimping when it's time to replace it. (The battery is a single standard 18650 rechargeable.) This version of the radio lost a feature that I liked on the earlier radios. It no longer takes AA/AAA batteries as a backup in case the internal rechargeable battery fails. I consider that to be its largest shortcoming. For an emergency radio, you want to be able to run off of any source of power available. However, many people carry a USB power bank and it will run off of one of those for a good long while. It would have been nice if it had a standard 12V charging port (such as a 5521 jack) and a "wall wart" 110V adapter and a 12V cigarette lighter adapter to charge it. You can use the included USB cord, but they did not include the adapters to run it from your car or your home's 110V. We all have those things around, so no big deal. They've simplified the design and made it a bit cheaper, but the reliance on rechargeable batteries and USB is a bit unsettling for an emergency radio that won't get used much. For something like this that would be put into an emergency kit and not touched for years at a time, putting some AA/AAA lithium batteries in the box and forgetting about it would be fine. Instead, according to the instructions, you have to charge it every 3 months, or the battery life will be lessened. My plan is to leave it in a sunny location so that it will trickle charge on the solar panels. It would have been helpful to include a place to put the USB charging cable, since it is an uncommon USB Mini B (not Micro B). I will have to find a carrying case for it so that the cable doesn't get lost. Total fail on the part of the mfg... why did they make the jack the oddball size of USB Mini B? That hasn't been a standard in probably over a decade. Why not USB C? All in all, pretty solid so far. I am not detracting from the score for these shortcomings.

The Quest is the latest (and most expensive) emergency radio yet from Eton. It has AM, FM with DAB+ (supposedly), Shortwave, and Weather band with alerts. The weather radio works great. I pick up our local station perfectly clear, and most of my other weather radios (an old one from RadioShack and several from Midlands) are hit and miss. It has alert functionality, but not S.A.M.E., so the alarm will go off for EVERY alert in the broadcast area, not just your county. FM has excellent reception as well. The radio claims to have DAB+ capability, but that is worthless in the US, since we use HD Radio instead of DAB, which is used primarily in Europe. It also claims to have RDS capability, but I went through the entire FM band and never found a station that displayed any data. The FM radio has the ability to scan and automatically set up to 20 presets, but you cannot set your own presets manually or delete ones you don't want. AM reception is pretty terrible. I'm not sure if there's some kind of interference nearby, but nothing was what I would call listenable. I could only pick up a few stations, and all had interference. The AM antenna is an internal ferrite bar, so you have to rotate the radio to pick up the strongest signal. Shortwave was even worse. The tuning knob only moves 5 kHz at a time, and it has a range from 3.2 to 22 MHz, so it's going to take a LOOOOONG time to get anywhere. I tried tuning in WWV, which broadcasts on 2.5, 5, 10, 15, and 20 MHz and I was just barely able to pick up a signal on 5 MHz. It was so garbled as to be nearly useless. I'm about 500 miles away from the transmitter in Ft. Collins. It was still daytime, so it presumably will work better at night, but I should be able to get something during the day. There is no provision for an external SW antenna. The radio also has Bluetooth and Aux input capability. Setting up Bluetooth was a piece of cake and it probably took me longer to type this sentence than it took to pair my phone. The Play/Pause button works as you'd expect, and the tuner knob works as a forwards/backwards control. Pressing the light button cycles through the side flash light, which is pretty bright, the rear ambient light, which isn't quite as bright, and a red ambient light. There's also a dedicated "SOS ON/OFF" button, which flashes the red ambient light and sets off a rather loud siren. You're probably going to hit this button by accident at some point, since it's pretty close to the power button. They should have made it so you have to long-press it to turn it on. The instructions in the manual for setting the clock are incorrect. In standby mode, long-press the Menu button, select 12/24 hr time using the tuning knob (not the buttons), then press Play (the manual says to press Menu, this is wrong). Use the tuning knob to adjust the hours, then press Play. Then use the tuning knob to adjust the minutes, then press Play. The instructions for setting the alarm are similarly wrong. The input charge port is USB-C, but the output charge port is USB-A. The radio comes with a (short) USB-A to USB-C charge cord. It does not appear to support any sort of fast charging in either direction. This model has a 5,200 mAh lithium battery, which appears to be the biggest one Eton has used yet and double the capacity of the Sidekick. The lithium battery is user replaceable, and it appears to be a pair of standard 18650 cells, but they are soldered together into a battery pack; in the future you're either going to have to buy a replacement pack from Eton, or break out the soldering iron. It can also use 3 AAA batteries, and like all Eton emergency radios, has a solar panel and hand crank. The battery door does not require a screwdriver, and appears to be better designed than previous models. Switching off the unit using the main power switch under the protective cover kills power to the internal clock, but does not appear to erase the FM presets or the Bluetooth pairing. It does not appear to be able to charge the battery when the main power switch is off. All the buttons are on the front of the device (except the light, which is on top of the handle), they're not hiding under the handle like the Sidekick or FRX3+, so it's a lot easier to see what you're doing. Overall it appears to be the best, most capable radio Eton has made yet. The only things that appear to be lacking are S.A.M.E. support on the weather band, a faster way to move through the shortwave band, a provision for an external SW antenna, and for the love of God, make it so you can't turn on the blasted siren by accident!

Nice emergency/weather radio. Living along the coast where tropical storms/hurricanes and sometimes just bad weather can be an issue, one of these type of radios is must during power outages. This is a nice radio, seems well built, a little larger than some but still very easily carried to the pool, beach, camping, etc. It has AM/FM/Shortwave/NOAA weather channels plus Bluetooth capable. I have another smaller compact radio that's another brand. The plus on this radio is has a little larger speaker so better sound. The minus, and why I docked one star, the reception of this radio is noticeably not as good as my other one. Living in a more remote with a small city about 40 miles away, it does not pick up AM/FM stations very well. It does pick up the NOAA channel adequately. I did just recently buy this one to carry to the beach, pier, etc so it should better reception in open areas. I read a similar review on the Midland brand emergency radio and why I did not buy it. Overall I am pleased with the purchase.

Once you connect the battery in the back this unit works perfectly. You can charge it with the hand crank. The radio is reasonable and has the emergency stations. Great well made unit.

I had to go to the temple on the hill in palamalai in eastern ghats area for two days. The equipment was very helpful when the area was not in power

Mein Sohn hatte sich dieses Radio gewünscht und ich habs ihm bestellt, weil es in der Artikelansicht wirklich toll aussah und eine beeindruckend große Menge an Funktionalitäten aufwies. Der Artikeltext impliziert, dass es das amerikanische rote Kreuz im Einsatz hat, woraus ich schlussfolgerte, dass die Qualität entsprechend hoch ist. Auch der durchaus hohe Preis ließ mich das glauben. Aber die Ernüchterung ließ nicht lange auf sich warten. Schon am zweiten Tag lösten sich die oberen Gummitasten. Und das bei ganz normaler Verwendung ebendieser. Also eigentlich sind diese Tasten eine durchgehende Gummileiste, welche die eigentlichen Tasten schützt. Sie ist einfach etwas größer als der Ausschnitt im Gehäuse und rundherum ca. 1-2 mm daruntergesteckt. Wenn man die Tasten nicht jedes mal gerade nach unten drückt (was man nicht immer macht, da diese unter dem Griff positioniert sind) verrutscht die Gummileiste immer etwas und kann so leicht herausrutschen, was bei uns eben passiert ist. Ich musste eine ganze Weile fummeln, bis ich sie wieder auf jede Seite im Gehäuse hatte. Dadurch gelangt ich aber auch zu der Erkenntnis, dass diese Tasten nicht sonderlich gut geschützt sind. Wasserspritzer können trotz dieser Gummitasten ins Gerät gelangen. Ich weiß - es steht nirgendwo etwas davon, dass das Radio wasserfest ist, aber ich habe einfach die Erwartung von einem "Notfallradio", das ich auf Rucksackreisen mitnehmen kann, dass es einiges aushält. Den "hervorragenden Sound" kann ich leider auch nicht wirklich bestätigen. Von einem Notfallradio würde ich mir das auch nicht erwarten - da möchte ich primär die aktuellen Nachrichten verständlich wiedergegeben bekommen. Und ja, das ist gegeben. Vom Handy abgespielte Musik... nun ja... da nehme ich stattdessen lieber meinen Anker-Bluetooth-Lautsprecher auf die Strandparty mit. Der hat besseren Sound und schafft auch die notwendige Lautstärke. Grundsätzlich finde ich das Gerät nach wie vor geil. Die ganzen Funktionen, vor allem die Kurbel um damit den Akku zu laden, ist ein wirklich tolles Gimmick. Aber es hat Schwächen, die man angehen müsste. Oder man ändert den Artikeltext um die Erwartungshaltung der Kunden etwas herunterzuschrauben.

I bought this radio for my personal space at work and I love it. Only downfall I find is if I don’t have it plugged in then the battery does die rather quickly. Usually get about 1 hour before the battery dies when playing the radio. I will be taking it along this summer on out ATV adventures I might have to come back (if I remember) and add to my review? All in all I am happy with my purchase.

There's nothing positive to mention. It's a radio, that works. But let's look at the things that make me frown, enough for me to give it 1 star. 1. Low battery capacity. (Even my tactical flashlight's battery holds more juice.) 2. Battery is connected via cable that is attached to the battery. 3. The integrated flashlight is extremely weak. It has such a low lumen that your cellphone's light has better performance. 4. Can't turn off. Once you've attached the battery, it stays on forever. There's a "Power" button, but that's just turing the device to a standby mode. It's not completely turned off. 5. It uses Mini-USB. (Seriously, which contemporary device user/owner still uses Mini-USB?) 6. Not water resistant. The following will be my elaboration the aforementioned points. This radio is designed to be an emergency radio. Now, which part of it looks like it is truly designed for emergency situations aside from the weather channel, hand crank and solar charging? The low battery capacity ain't helping. A smart design will allows user to change a 18650 lithium battery with ease. But no, you got to use their poorly designed battery. And if the battery is faulty in an emergency situation, that's it. The instruction manual even mentioned to contact them if the battery is faulty. What a dumb advise. And that's not all, it uses Mini-USB to charge. Do you carry a Mini-USB cable around? Not me. My phone uses USB-C. My wireless earphones uses micro-USB. My powerbank supports USB-C. My Motorola Evolve uses micro-USB. No one. And I mean NO ONE, uses mini-USB these days! What era is this radio designed for? Year 2000? I have my USB-C cable and just 1 USB-C to Micro-USB adapter to use with all my devices. And now I have to account for this radio that uses mini-USB? Now, let's talk a bit about saving power. Yeah, saving for rainy days. Lterally. Guess what? You can't turn it off. You either let the battery slowly depletes, or you unplug the battery, while hoping that you will not break the attached wire or port by doing this frequently. The designer can't even get something so simple done right. It truly bugs me that it is designed as an emergency radio with bad weather in mind. Yet, it's not even water resistant. What sense does this even make? So, which part of this radio is truly emergency friendly? I don't know. Smashing it into the aggressors face when he breaks into your house? It's amazing how it can even get the endorsement from the Red Cross. I truly advise everyone to just stay away from this.