Any of you guys have / use an emergency radio? Did a little googling around, found reviews for a few, and the Eton models seem to get good reviews.

Thinking this one makes most sense for a home-base radio:
http://www.etoncorp.com/product_card/?p_ProductDbId=915890 Solarlink FR600

Or this one for an on-the-road / bugout bag radio:
http://www.etoncorp.com/product_card/?p_ProductDbId=914953 Microlink FR160

Seems like S.A.M.E. functionality is a good thing for one kept at home, whereas portability would be higher priority of one were going road (and at the point of leaving home, an S.A.M.E. functionality wouldn't be quite as important.)

11/5/2010 1:29:20 PM

Midland is a good company... http://www.midlandweatherradios.com/

I have the Midland WR 300. http://www.midlandweatherradios.com/product_page.asp?mfgname=Midland+Weather+Radio&itmky=858&mfgno=9

It's not too expensive and gets a signal pretty far away from civilization. I was camping in Pisgah national forest and I was able to hear NOAA radio to get a forecast. It does use battery fairly quickly, so consider that if it's going to be unplugged for a while. I take it to the pool/tailgating to use as a portable FM radio.

I also like that you can silence the alarms for the alerts you don't care about (I silence every one but severe t-storm and tornado warnings), but I assume you can do that with any or most of them.

11/5/2010 2:27:15 PM

Go pick out a Handheld ham radio. Yaesu VX-5R would do the trick. It picks up skywarn channels (weather), local repeater stations that you can listen in on, and you can also listen to any and all police/fire/ems channels.

You have to have a ham license to transmit on it (not hard to get actually), but you dont have to have squat to listen.

11/5/2010 4:17:17 PM

Really? I thought you had to get the license to even purchase. That does change things a bit.

11/5/2010 4:21:45 PM

No, you can buy any ham radio, you just cant transmit. I had a Yaesu VX-8R and its the top dog right now for handheld ham radios, it has everything. But like I said, a VX-5/VX-6R would do just fine for around $100 less.

11/5/2010 4:35:13 PM

i have this one http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000EDIKVO/$%7B0%7D

it was cool back when tv was analog. i have no clue if that still works but i wouldn't think it would. i think it's the model prior to those solarlink ones. it's a solid little piece of equipment.

11/5/2010 4:40:09 PM

Quote :

"Really? I thought you had to get the license to even purchase. That does change things a bit."

The VX-5 is a pretty great little radio. I've got one that I've had for years. If I spent more time on the radio, I could justify the cost of something new.

Seems like an overkill if you just want to listen to/be alerted to weather situations. You also don't get SAME on the VX-5, so you'll have to actively listen to the WX stations. You can usually stream the SKYWARN stuff from their website, or on RadioReference.

11/5/2010 4:49:56 PM

^You do have a point. Since I have gotten the radio scanner app on my droid I havent hardly turned on my VX. Although I do have it this weekend for a backup radio while I am fishing.

11/5/2010 5:15:49 PM

I have a weather radio kicking around somewhere. I think it's a GE. But hell, if there is actually anything potentially severe going on chances are I'd be outside watching it anyways. Haha.

[Edited on November 5, 2010 at 8:16 PM. Reason : .]

11/5/2010 8:15:31 PM

Yall had to know I was gonna chime in here at some point


You can make the decision to go with a WX only radio. Benefit to going with one of those is that the radio is tuned for the VHF WX Frequencies only. Which means it should perform good no matter where you position the radio in your house.

If do decide to go with a ham radio like the VX-5R just be careful and only transmit on frequencies on which you are licensed.
Also, most ham radios don't have SAME capability.
However most midrange and higher scanners do have SAME.
Worse comes to worse when we do get severe WX here in the Triangle area the 146.880Mhz WB4TQD repeater is the local
"Central Carolina Skywarn" repeater where on the ground spotter reports are taken. That is what you will hear Greg Fishel and other WRAL meteorologists monitoring during severe weather.

Here is a recent pic from out at KRDU General Aviation of 3 of my radios:



In front is a Uniden HomePatrol-1. Back left is a Uniden BCD396XT, Back right is a Yaesu VX-5R.

I would also suggest reading up at the RR.com Severe WX/Storm Chasing forum:
http://forums.radioreference.com/severe-weather-storm-chasing/

Feel free to contact me via PM if I can help answer any other related questions.

[Edited on November 5, 2010 at 8:44 PM. Reason : duh]

11/5/2010 8:43:57 PM

I've always wanted to get one of these... but how do they actually work? Like a normal scanner with different frequencies for Wx? Are there frequencies for severe/emergency alerts only? Something that can be left alone and be quite until shit goes down?

11/5/2010 8:57:20 PM

^ you talking about the Home Patrol in specific or just any scanner?

11/5/2010 9:15:11 PM

any weather/emergency radio/scanner (something relatively inexpensive at least). home/stationary unit is fine

I mean, I'd love one of those nice scanners like you've got there... but I don't have that much money; I'm never around to listen to it; and my scanner knowledge is nadda

[Edited on November 5, 2010 at 9:22 PM. Reason : .]

11/5/2010 9:21:02 PM

Bill, the WX radios usually only monitor the NOAA WX Frequencies. There's only a few (7, iirc). You choose a station that covers your area and make sure you get good signal quality. If it has SAME (Specific Area Message Encoding), then you set that up as well. Then it's pretty much a waiting game. The radio goes off based on the alert types and counties you configure it for.

11/5/2010 9:24:34 PM

Basically you set the WX Radio on one of the VHF WX freqs that broadcasts WX 24 hrs a day:
http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Weather_Radio
Then for most WX radios you set a SAME Code for the areas in which you wanted to be notified about Severe WX:
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/indexnw.htm
The WX then mutes the audio until the NWS sends out an alert of severe WX at which point you hear the watches/warnings.
Some SAME radios even have a text display that will also describe The warning issued such as "TORNADO".

11/5/2010 9:30:40 PM

cool;

let me see if I'm reading this right... you can select a 24-hr WX channel (like we use in boating; just a typical WX channel). but you also set up SAME for alerts. So when I want alerts only, I just go into the SAME mode?


[Edited on November 5, 2010 at 9:36 PM. Reason : .]

11/5/2010 9:33:58 PM

^ Yep :-)

11/5/2010 9:50:08 PM

thanks.

yeh, the midland posted earlier (http://www.midlandweatherradios.com/product_page.asp?mfgname=Midland+Weather+Radio&itmky=858&mfgno=9) looks good enough and affordable.

[Edited on November 6, 2010 at 9:47 PM. Reason : .]

11/6/2010 9:43:20 PM

Heck I might pick up one of those Midlands....though I really don't need it with my other bedside rigs



But still might pick one up anyway just to add it to the collection.....

11/6/2010 9:58:45 PM

haha, so what happens when some big shit goes down and you've got 5 radios blaring?

sweet. got that midland for $48 with free 2 day shipping!

[Edited on November 6, 2010 at 10:13 PM. Reason : .]

11/6/2010 10:01:00 PM

^ That's when I use my years of experience monitoring 6-7 different scanners+traffic reporting two way radio+doing traffic reports....worked as the production director/traffic reporter for Traffic Patrol Broadcasting/MetroNetworks from 1999-end of 2003.
You learn to tune out the boring stuff and listen for the tell tell signs of shizz going down such as Raleigh PD "Hot Shot" Warble for a robbery/shooting or the rise in an officers voice during a foot chase....right now I am monitoring RPD D&V Investigators on one radio doing surveillance somewhere in Capital City while listening to routine calls dispatched out on another...always something going on

11/6/2010 10:13:19 PM

haha, I bet it takes a while. I can hardly keep up when listening to one channel (via scanner radio app).

11/6/2010 10:14:43 PM

From years past in the traffic reporting gig:

11/6/2010 10:16:13 PM

dang, didn't realize traffic reporting was so young in this area

11/6/2010 10:57:25 PM

So I've got the Midland WR-300, but I'm confused by the product literature.... it has a list of all the available alerts and the default setting (alert on/off). Also, several are marked with an asterisk (*); these seem to be all the warnings/serious shit! Well, just after this list is a paragraph stating that items marked with an asterisk have a default setting NOT to sound an alert, but just display a message. This is the exact opposite of what I would have thought/want. And I don't see a way to change these either. Got an e-mail into their support as well....

11/12/2010 8:56:06 AM

well it works. severe thunderstorm warning just woke up the roomies

11/16/2010 11:09:02 PM

I'd call that a successful test.

11/17/2010 11:07:04 AM

^^wdprice3 I am glad you were able to get up and running. Did not mean to leave ya hanging. I was gonna PM you back and try to help out. Yeah, the WX Alert Tones have the ability to wake the dead. But then again that is their purpose: To wake ya azz up in the case of severe WX.

11/17/2010 10:44:24 PM

haha yeh. and midway finally emailed me back and said it was a typo in the manual... they attached a copy of the new manual and that entire section was removed

11/17/2010 11:52:50 PM