MIDLAND XT511 2 Way Radio with Dynamo Crank Power

Use has been limited to two farm trips but worked excellent so far, seems to have little to no problem on transmitting over hilly terrain. Battery charge use time was limited first time but since has expanded.

works great took on to deployment with me was great to listen to radio and not have to be battery dependant just crank and go

I really like this item. We use the frs & gmrs radios when our fellas go hunting or working on our farm. This one is especially great with the AM/FM, weather radio,flashlight,& crank power source. This will really come in handy also when the electric goes out. I like to communicate with my inlaws who live just over the field down the road. I got them one for a Christmas gift. Then we can keep in touch when there's storms and we loose our phone.
I would recommend this item.

I purchased this radio for this years hurricane season. Figured it would be nice to have an NOAA radio and the ability to charge cell phones in the case of a loss of power. Decided since Midland has been in the business for awhile, this would be my best choice. Unfortunately, this radio just didn't perform as expected.

I'm not sure how others are able to get the advertised run time on the crank feature. You have to charge it with the crank (powered off) and hopefully you don't mind cranking for a while. A couple of minutes doesn't cut it.

The light is pretty weak (it's an led light, so I didn't expect much). Reception with our NOAA station was decent and radio stations seemed to be average. Scanned the area's UHF and didn't pick up anything, so I'm not sure what kind of range it has (didn't really purchase it for the UHF anyways). The backlight is nice, but if you are running off battery you can't afford to use it (hopefully, you aren't in the dark or still have power). Haven't tried out the cell phone charge. It's also not very user friendly.

In the end, I regret buying the Midland radio.

This radio is a cheap piece of @#!%*&!!! The way it's advertised as a base radio for a sportsman's outing??? No way!! I wouldn't trust this thing to talk across the street no matter trust my life to it! If I had to rely on it in the event of an emergency I'd feel very nervous. Its construction is very light plastic that feels flimsy in your hand. Reception is mostly static. Range is even worse. The hand mic is a plastic joke. I was so disappointed when I received it I boxed it back up in the very same box it came in and returned it that very same day! For the price(100$), I expected a radio of similar quality as the C Crane C.C. Radio. This is a receive only radio but of great quality in the same price range(125$). I was expecting something similar because I have Midland two way hand held radios that I love and they work great? I can't even imagine that the same company made both of these products! My recommendation is to bring extra batteries and use a 5 watt hand held radio as your base radio and leave this radio at the store. Save your money and get an extra set of Midland GTX hand held radios that can be used at base camp or in the field. I've never given a review this bad ever but this product is so bad I thought people needed to know. Especially sportsmen like myself that rely on technology like this.