Be Ready

The government has asked every UK household to be ready for three days. This is the item on the list most homes still don't have.

Water, food, a torch, some cash. Most of us could find those tonight. But one item on the new checklist is quietly missing from most homes, and you only notice on the evening the power and the signal both go.

Storm Austen left around 18,000 homes in Wales and south-west England without power on 23 October. Illustrative photo: Trygghetslagret

The lights go out. The router's little green light dies with them. Your phone still works, for now. You check it: is it just your street? Is there an update? The page won't load. And this is the moment you realise you've never had to ask yourself a simple question: how do I actually find out what's going on?

Until recently that was a thought experiment. Not any more. On 22 October the Cabinet Office launched Be Ready, the first stage of a three-year national campaign. The message is simple: every household that can should be prepared for three days of disruption to power, water, phones and the internet. Within 24 hours, Storm Austen arrived, followed by Storm Boelo, and thousands of homes found out what that means in practice.

Security Minister Dan Jarvis told MPs the campaign is not a response to a "specific or imminent threat". It is about having "an honest conversation" with the public, and bringing the UK into line with almost every other European country, many of which run similar campaigns every year.

Why your mobile won't get you through it

Most of us think: "I've got my phone." But a phone is only as useful as the connection behind it. Your broadband router needs mains power, so the moment the power goes, your Wi-Fi goes too. Mobile networks need electricity as well, and Ofcom's own research shows that mobile sites vary in how much backup power they have.

Then there's the phone itself. With no socket to plug into, the battery that felt fine at teatime is a worry by bedtime. Without power and a signal, a smartphone is, for practical purposes, a very expensive paperweight.

Government Emergency Alerts? They need a working 4G or 5G signal and a phone that's switched on and charged. The news? Behind a connection that isn't answering. In exactly the situation where information matters most, the channel we rely on every day is often the first one to falter.

However new your phone is, it can't help if it's flat or has no signal. Illustrative photo: Trygghetslagret

The one item on the list built for exactly this

Look at the Be Ready checklist and you'll find it under Communication and information: a battery or wind-up FM radio, and a charged power bank. Not a tablet. Not a smart speaker. A radio that works without the wall socket.

One question comes up again and again when we talk to customers: "But if the power's off, how is the radio station still on?" The answer is that broadcast transmitters aren't plugged into your house. Radio reaches you over the air, from a completely separate network to the one in your walls, and it doesn't need your Wi-Fi password, an app or mobile data. All your radio needs is its own power.

That's why this is the item most homes are missing. And it's why, in the days after the checklist was published, retailers reported wind-up radios selling out, with at least seven models out of stock at four outlets by Saturday 24 October.

There's a whole category of radio made for this: emergency radios with a hand crank and solar panel. The idea is simple. About 60 seconds of winding gives you around 45 minutes of radio. No mains cable, no charger, no subscription. Just information, when you need it most.

The emergency radio built for long, dark evenings

The emergency radio keeps you updated and charges your phone from its built-in power bank. Photo: Trygghetslagret

The Trygghetslagret emergency radio ticks both boxes on that line of the checklist. It receives FM as well as DAB/DAB+, and it works when the power is off. It charges four ways: hand crank, solar panel, USB-C and ordinary AAA batteries. One small, honest detail we'd rather mention now than later: the AAA batteries aren't included, so pop a few in the drawer next to it. The USB-C cable is in the box.

And it covers the other half of that checklist line too: a built-in 4,500 mAh power bank, enough to bring your phone back to life on the evening it would otherwise be a paperweight. How much charge you get depends on your phone.

See the emergency radio — save up to 48% →

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"I'm not a prepper. But I'm not naive either."

Those are the words of one of our customers, and they sum up who actually buys an emergency radio. Not doomsday types. Ordinary families who've read the same headlines as you and decided to spend ten minutes being sensible.

Perhaps the easiest way to think about it is this. You have a smoke alarm on the ceiling and contents insurance on the house. Not because you expect a fire, but because the consequences are big enough that it isn't worth the gamble. An emergency radio belongs in exactly that category. You hope you'll never need it.

Customer reviews from our Norwegian store, translated into English.

"But I've already got a DAB radio in the kitchen."

Most of us have. But an ordinary DAB radio stops the second the power goes. It depends on the plug just as much as everything else in the house. An emergency radio is a different category: it's built to keep working after everything else has stopped.

Most wind-up radios on sale are basic analogue sets. Ours combines DAB/DAB+ and FM with a 4,500 mAh power bank, a torch and four ways to charge, in one unit you keep in the cupboard. And you're buying from an established Scandinavian preparedness shop with English-speaking customer service and genuine, verified reviews.

Being ready isn't about fear.
It's about looking after the people at home.

Or, as the government puts it: alert, not alarmed.

Make sure your household is ready — see the radio →

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