Saturday, May 28, 2011

WEATHER RADIO

I'm looking to buy a weather radio and wondered if this would be a good buy.  Any suggestions?
 
First Alert WX-150 NOAA Public Alert Weather Radio with SAME 
 
First Alert WX-150 NOAA Public Alert Weather Radio with SAME

7 comments:

  1. When I was that close to the tornado while parked in Lamar Colorado, I searched and found a Weather Alert App for my Apple "iStuff" gadgets. That would mean I don't have to have another gadget. The downside is that the iGadget would have to be turned on to get the alert.

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  2. No clue! But that's a great idea! Added to the ever growing, never ending list.

    Cyndi & Stumpy @ RVly Ever After

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  3. Gypsy, that is the radio I use and it works well and is easy to program as I move around. You know I consider a weather radio a must have for anyone traveling in an RV, especially in the Midwest.

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  4. Thanks for the input Wandrin, Cyndi, and Joe. I agree that a weather radio is a must have for me these days.

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  5. About 10 years ago, I did a bunch of tests on wx radios. The data are far out of date but First Alerts did pass and the SAME function was reliable whereas some other brands were not, including the one that I had bought. Unfortunately, there is no on-going reliability testing for the wx radios sold. NOAA only provides the radio signals and the forecasts/warnings. The radio receivers are entirely manufactured and sold by independent companies.

    Go to: http://www.weather.gov/nwr/indexnw.htm to find the SAME codes for wherever you are. The only downside is that a traveler doesn't always know the names of the counties and cities that the warnings are put out and you have to look up the esoteric codes to program the unit to do an automatic alert. You also have to move around the 7 frequencies to find the stations for whatever area you happen to be in.

    If you do find yourself in a tornado situation - get out of your vehicle and either get into a local tornado shelter or barring that, get into a ditch, cover your head best you can and stay there until it is over (but don't drown). Vehicles are death traps in a tornado.

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  6. Tesaje... thanks for the info and I will check out that website.

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  7. I need one of those. Do they rely on WiFi to work? I ask because we often camp in places that don’t have a cell signal or WiFi so I wonder if we’d get the alert?

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