I have one of these, and I am not a fan of it. Charging the radio either involves cranking, using the solar panel on the top, or plugging it into an outlet using an AC adapter.
The solar panel is barely serviceable at best, cranking becomes tedious, and it doesn't come with an AC adapter. That will cost you an additional $10. The dial for tuning radio station is also inconsistent, with the station sometimes jumping backwards or stuttering in place when turned. It's also a very short crank, and kind of uncomfortable.
There is a newer model, the FRX3, which I would endorse over this. It has been updated to acknowledge the realities of living in 2012, as instead of using an AC adapter, it has an mini USB port, that is used with many modern cell phone chargers, making it easy to juice it up from more places in an emergency. I do wish that it used a micro USB port instead, which is what cell phones are moving to now, which would mean that the same cable could be used to both charge the radio, as well as charge phones, but let's face it, USB cables are vastly easier to source and plug into, say, a car outlet using an adapter, as opposed to needing to find an inverter.
Still, at the time, it was a pretty good purchase, although I've never had to use it for its intended purpose yet. Hopefully, I never have to.
