Customer Product Reviews

Midland XT511 Base Camp Emergency Radio - Silver

Communicate with members of your party in the field, monitor news and weather information, keep track of time and light your way in the dark. This single unit does it all. It's an AM/FM/NOAA weather radio receiver, and the emergency alert feature lets you know when severe weather and other emergency situations develop in your area. The alarm clock displays accurate time, and an integrated three-LED flashlight will come in handy around camp after dark. What's more, this unit has a built-in 22-channel GMRS radio with 121 privacy codes, channel scan, auto squelch, high/low power settings, and the ability to switch between PTT to VOX transmitting options. Channel scan picks up any emergency messages from outdoorsmen using a GMRS radio nearby. Don't worry about losing power. The XT511 comes with a rechargeable NiMH battery pack and it can be operated or recharged using the included 120-volt outlet charger, an included 12-volt charging adapter, or use the crank power option to eliminate the need for batteries. A charge indicator in the backlit LCD screen shows current charge level. This radio's battery pack is identical to the AVP7 battery pack used in many Midland and Cabela's brand GMRS radios, so the XT511 could also be used to recharge those. The XT511 comes with a handheld microphone and has a USB port for recharging newer cell phones, iPODs and similar electronic devices. Convenient carry handle on the water-resistant plastic case. Dimensions: 7-1/4"L x 2-3/4"W x 6-1/2"H. Weight: 3.25 lbs. Color: Silver

Average Customer Rating:

3 out of 5

12 of 21 (57%) customers would recommend this product to a friend.

Customer Reviews for Midland XT511 Base Camp Emergency Radio - Silver

Overall Rating:

1 out of 5

Woefully Disappointed, September 2, 2009
By DrewSolo from MN

"I had high expectations based on previous experience with other Midland products. Unfortunately, the 'base camp' radio fails to deliver even the most basic functions let alone any of the 'advanced' features.

I used another pair of Midland GMRS radios as well as a Garmin Rino for testing. Here are the results:

GMRS TX Fail. Sporadic, usually non-existent, even though the display indicated TX status.

GMRS RX Pass.

WX RX Pass. Able to receive/hear Weatherband.

WX Alert Fail. Received alerts on frequent (3-4 in an 8hr period) basis when no inclement weather was present. Other reviews state that the WX alert is actually for all bands, regardless of region. While I never looked into this it seems to be a plausible explanation.

AM Band RX Fail. Unable to tune in any local AM channels.

FM BAND RX Pass… sort of. Only able to receive small handful of local FM channels.

Lousy product. Don't waste your time or money."

Would you recommend this product to a friend? No

Review 2 for Midland XT511 Base Camp Emergency Radio - Silver

Overall Rating:

1 out of 5

Just plain doesn't work, June 12, 2009
By Campdavid2 from Chicago Illinois

"While very cool in concept, the performance of this product is very poor. It does not pick up AM/FM stations at all. I have several small battery powered radios that pick up stations really well....this one picks up nothing.

The speaker quality is poor and while the hand held mic is a neat idea, in practice it's useless.

Power is way too low for a base unit.

I don't know what happened with this product. Midland makes some nice hand held radios and other good stuff. This one really falls short."

Would you recommend this product to a friend? No

Review 3 for Midland XT511 Base Camp Emergency Radio - Silver

Overall Rating:

4 out of 5

Midland XT511 Base Camp Emergency Radio, May 12, 2009
By LandOLakes from Tampa, Fl.

"The Midland XT511 has worked very well for me. I have used all of the features and found them all to work well. The two way feature has worked fine for me, however, I have only used it within a 1 mile radius.

The only problen I have with this unit is the rechargeable battery. It needs to be recharged more often than my other rechargeable appliances, however, with the backup batteries I haven't lost any air time."

Would you recommend this product to a friend? Yes

Review 4 for Midland XT511 Base Camp Emergency Radio - Silver

Overall Rating:

5 out of 5

Small radio...huge performance!!, January 12, 2009
By Recondog37 from Spokane, WA

"What a great little multi talented radio. Me and my freinds will be ready for any and all future communication issues.OH-RAH!"

Would you recommend this product to a friend? Yes

Review 5 for Midland XT511 Base Camp Emergency Radio - Silver

Overall Rating:

5 out of 5

Midland XT511 Base Camp Emergency Radio, January 5, 2009
By arizonamafia from Live in Alaska

"This is a great emergency radio. I hope to use it on my next trip. Maybe I can even talk to the semi-trucker ahead of me who is riding his brakes down the mountain to tell him to gear down before he burns out his brakes. Love the weather reports. We can use our walkie talkies to contact the radio. What fun....."

Would you recommend this product to a friend? Yes

Review 6 for Midland XT511 Base Camp Emergency Radio - Silver

Overall Rating:

5 out of 5

This is the best Idea ever and I love it so far!, December 3, 2008
By TheGeneralLeeCNH320 from Barre, VT

"I have had none of the problems that any of the rest of them seem to be happening to other people and I believe it is that when they tune the am/fm radio they are pushing the dial to far and getting the auto tune and I just push enough for manual tuning and I get more stations then with my car radio and it comes in a lot better then I ever thought it would!

It also gets all of the am stations that are in my area that I can't get where I am on my other radio's too. I have had no problems with transmitting with it cause I have a scanner and I do not have another radio that is GMRS so I can test recieving on it, because I have a CB Radio only in my car.

I have been using it constantly since I got it the other day and have had no problems once so ever with it, nock on wood. I hope I can get the set of 2 GMRS FRS Radios for XMas so I can truly test it and see how well it works and how far and will post another review when I can test it fully This is just a quick review and I definitely reccomend it to anyone and everyone! I love It! I love it!"

Would you recommend this product to a friend? Yes

Review 7 for Midland XT511 Base Camp Emergency Radio - Silver

Overall Rating:

1 out of 5

pass on this one, October 13, 2008
By username from Livermore, CA

""I bought one of these thinking it would be the best of both worlds (a 2-way radio and an AM/FM) I live in a densly populated area with radio stations on almost every channel. This would not pick up any. AM or FM. I did not use the GMRS and I do not plan on it.. (On my way to the dumpster)""

Would you recommend this product to a friend? No

Review 8 for Midland XT511 Base Camp Emergency Radio - Silver

Overall Rating:

5 out of 5

Excellent, August 25, 2008
By DJA5

"I like that you can use the push to talk and the mic and that you can use the car charger and the home charger and the crank"

Would you recommend this product to a friend? Yes

Review 9 for Midland XT511 Base Camp Emergency Radio - Silver

Overall Rating:

5 out of 5

Midland XT511 Base Camp Emergency Radio, May 28, 2008
By McDLB from Alberta Canada

"Multi-power source including crank, easy to use."

Would you recommend this product to a friend? Yes

Review 10 for Midland XT511 Base Camp Emergency Radio - Silver

Overall Rating:

2 out of 5

SparkyV, February 26, 2008
By SparkyV from Johnson City, Tennessee

"This unit does have a lot built into a small package but it really does not do any thing very well. The FM/AM radio does not recieve very well and really needs a better antenna. The GMRS radio is very lacking in range, I could not get very far out of sight before it lost communication. I have seen toy walkie-talkies that could out perform it. It states that it is water resistant but you can see some of its printed circuit board through the holes in the backplate that houses the batteries which has no kind of gasket. The sound from its very small speaker is almost annoying and the hand held mic is even worse. I don't see much of a reason for even having the hand held mic. Can not leave unit plugged in to charge when transmitting unless you can get use to hearing a bad background hum. Though this unit was not very expensive I don't mind paying more for something if it will deliver what it was designed to do. This unit falls very short of that."

Would you recommend this product to a friend? No

Review 11 for Midland XT511 Base Camp Emergency Radio - Silver

Overall Rating:

4 out of 5

Midland Emergency Radio, January 31, 2008
By JoeZac from Denver, CO

"A great little radio. only drawbacks are battery life is short & my radio makes a bad noise when cranking that concerns me that it may have a short generator life as far as lasting a long time for me."

Would you recommend this product to a friend? Yes

Review 12 for Midland XT511 Base Camp Emergency Radio - Silver

Overall Rating:

3 out of 5

Great Features-Questionable Quality, January 8, 2008
By kevbo37 from Salt Lake City, UT

"I bought this unit because of the features; battery pack, 2-way radio, weather radio, hand crank. I am not crazy about the mike for the 2-way radio being the speaker also. I gave it a good testing because it is going to be an emergency radio that will not get used until it is really needed. The unit worked fine for a couple of days, then when I used the hand crank it started to make some horrible sounds. It still worked but I am not sure how long the crank would have held out. I returned the unit and I may buy another one, it could have just been an anomoly."

Would you recommend this product to a friend? Yes

Review 13 for Midland XT511 Base Camp Emergency Radio - Silver

Overall Rating:

1 out of 5

Midland xt511 Base Camp Emergency Radio, January 8, 2008
By Roonie from Titusville PA.

"Product was Defective when I received it, I could not turn the Tuner Dial in either direction.
Would not Reccomend to anyone to Purchase."

Would you recommend this product to a friend? No

Review 14 for Midland XT511 Base Camp Emergency Radio - Silver

Overall Rating:

2 out of 5

Poor AM reception, January 7, 2008
By AKDoug from AK

"I bought the radio primarily for AM reception and was disappointed. Poor AM reception and lots of AM overlap between strong and weak stations. Therefore, I returned it."

Would you recommend this product to a friend? No

Review 15 for Midland XT511 Base Camp Emergency Radio - Silver

Overall Rating:

4 out of 5

Lots of extras, January 7, 2008
By md4046 from Minotola, NJ

"This little radio has a lot of extras and with the crank handle power, it can used when the batteries die. I found it nice to have am/fm, weather and gmrs all in one unit. The light is a nice feature as well. The one thing I would change on the unit is to enable another antenna to be attached. I think the radio range would greatly increase if I was able to hook into our stationary antenna at our base camp."

Would you recommend this product to a friend? Yes

Review 16 for Midland XT511 Base Camp Emergency Radio - Silver

Overall Rating:

1 out of 5

Pass on the Base Camp, November 15, 2007
By PittsburghPAHunter from Pittsburgh, PA

"Two way radio or Weather alert radio? Good idea, but falls way short.
1.) AC power is only for charging only not continuous power (there is a warning in the manual concerning this). I wanted the Alert radio to be on at all times and this prevents it from being on at all times.
2.) NO weather alert zones. Receives NOAA alerts for the entire broadcast area.
3.) The radio has to be on for the alerts.
Midway has better products than this; I recommend getting the individual products."

Would you recommend this product to a friend? No

Review 17 for Midland XT511 Base Camp Emergency Radio - Silver

Overall Rating:

5 out of 5

Handicapped Hunter, November 15, 2007
By handycappedoutdoorsman from I am a handi capped outdoors man. Montana

"Enjoyed product. Light in weight. Weather report capability was very useful on a recent Montana hunt. Alarm worked well and was used. Transmitted and communicated with Rhino 520"s in field. Transmission for our group was about 6 miles; good clarity. ??? Not sure the overall transmission and reception distance. Light worked very well. Excellent for coordination and tracking our group, and group safety. We stayed in touch with Monday night football even in the wilderness. That was a first. Good value.
To buyer: Have vendor add short wave raido function. Important to have."

Would you recommend this product to a friend? Yes

Review 18 for Midland XT511 Base Camp Emergency Radio - Silver

Overall Rating:

3 out of 5

Midland Base Camp Radio, November 14, 2007
By CTAnderson from Vermont

"Pros:
The radio is user friendly, compact and comes with useful accessories.
Clear and quite audible transmission when using straight channels, such as 1 - 22 (no privacy codes, no charging cable).
Good reception on GMRS, FRS and NOAA freq.
Offers two modes of power, alkaline batteries and rechargable NiMH battery pack. Both go in the unit at the same time, user selectable switch on unit. This provides immediate backup if NiMH pack dies.
Cons:
Being a base radio it should offer 5 watts of output power (on GMRS freq.) (radio is only 2 watts). This is offered on some of Midland's higher end portable GMRS/FRS radios.
Use of the CTCSS (privacy codes) works very, very poorly. It can take up to 8 - 10 seconds before unit transmits/receives on any given channel when using the privacy codes.
Can not leave unit plugged in to charge when transmitting unless background hum is desired, need to unplug to clean up transmitting signal.
Reception on FM, AM freq. poor."

Would you recommend this product to a friend? Yes

Review 19 for Midland XT511 Base Camp Emergency Radio - Silver

Overall Rating:

4 out of 5

Basecamp Radio--Nice, November 13, 2007
By Lumos from Franklin, NH

"I purchased the basecamp radio as a 3rd radio--added to the two hand-helds that I already have. I like it with one (minor) exception. When the speaker/microphone is plugged in, there is a significant drop in the volume (listen-ability) of the radio.
In this configuration, it is necessary to crank up the volume.
That said, I would buy the radio again without hesitation."

Would you recommend this product to a friend? Yes

Review 20 for Midland XT511 Base Camp Emergency Radio - Silver

Overall Rating:

1 out of 5

not satisfied, October 9, 2007
By cockett from phelps, ny

"didn't pickup fm. radio stations !!!!!!!!!!!"

Would you recommend this product to a friend? No

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