Eton Quest Hand Crank NOAA Weather Radio, All Band Emergency Radio, AM/FM Shortwave Storm Radio, Bluetooth, Ambient Light, Phone Charger, RDS, Solar, Flashlight, Camping, Hiking

Over view:Out of the box - you get the Main unit, USB - micro cable, carry strap, unconnected 18650 Cell. They shrink wrap it with laser printed details. These detail would indicate that the cell is an ICR 18650-26F, but I highly doubt it. They cover the terminals as well to hide the identity of the cell actually being used. IMO, this is a red flag regarding the power source.Operation - Honestly, the manual is not needed for this, it is very intuitive as far as the operation is concerned.Band Selector - Touchy, easy to skip over the band you want, softer touch required for selection.AM - My local broadcast channels came in clearly, and easy to tune to, Sound quality good, Volume range good.FM - My local broadcast channels came in clearly, and easy to tune to, Sound quality good, Volume range good.WB - My local broadcast came in clearly, and easy to tune to, Sound quality good, Volume range good.Flash Light - Good for emergency needs, but not much after that.Flashing Beacon - Honestly, they should have left this off as a feature. There is no chance in hell a rescuer will see this and know someone is in trouble, especially from any great distance.Phone charging - This is a sells point item, not really functional. I mean, 4 minutes of cranking for 1 minute of talk time. I cranked on this thing for 10 min just to try it, and unless things are really desperate, you will not be charging your phone with this. Honestly your best option for charging your phone with this would be via solar charging, and the output of the solar cells on this means it will take one hell of a long time to charge up a phone. But at least you won't be cranking on it.Controls - Easy to access and operate, the back lighting of each button on the top is very helpful. Wish the back light included the forward facing buttons. In the dark you will have to feel around to turn the unit on.Back Light - Very Bright, and makes everything very easy to read.Speaker - Gets the job done. But don't expect to be jamming out with it.Construction - Seems to be durable, and is attractive. I wouldn't drop it though.Manual:Overall you basic manual and mostly good. However, the setup of the clock instructions are wrong. The manual says to "Press and Hold" the set button until the display flashes. This is incorrect. Double click activates the setup function. IMO, you don't get something like this wrong on your own Company branded unit. If you do not know how your own unit functions, then it more than likely isn't an ETON product, but one that just has their logo on it. How Sad, and very misleading.Final Verdict:I just got mine this week, and really haven't put it through the paces, but honestly it performs all the basic functions you will need in an emergency situation. I wished I would have had this when the Tornado of 2015 hit my neighborhood and the power was out for 8 days.Recommendation - Good Buy!

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!

This is a great, well thought out emergency radio. It is a bit on the complicated side, with many options, so definitely read the manual and keep the manual with the radio for future reference.The only issue is the battery. It's a rechargeable lith-ion. This radio should come with the option to use regular batteries!!! In an emergency situation, these could be easily sourced. Plus you'll need to remember to charge up the battery every 3 months or so to maintain it's health. Kind of a PITA.Otherwise a seemingly well-built, well laid out radio with plenty of options.