Looking for a quality Weather Radio

[Ted S.]

I had a post here not to far back about a cross country trip where I encountered bad weather multiple times. I have since downloaded apps that connect with NOAA weather stations, well great, if you have cell service.

So now I am looking at weather radios, but radios are not my thing. I know I want a good one, I found C.Crane, but I can’t understand all the jargon, I could not pick one.

Anybody know these things?

[PKI]

The gentleman with which I discussed this issue maintained that his Ham Radio was the key to getting the weather warnings that he needed. That would seem to suggest, you need to be a radio guy.

Not ready to make that move as yet. So I'll continue to use the little portable that came from - https://russellsformen.com/search?query=weather+radio. It's the yellow one. Convinced your thread will wring out some other options, so I'll keep a watch to see if I can learn a bit more. Pat

[rmkrum]

Any weather radio will work reasonably well. You don’t really need to be a ham radio operator to utilize the NOAA weather warning system.

Admittedly, as a ham in Huntsville, Alabama, I found using ham radio does give you a somewhat earlier warning assuming you are listening to a local weather net during bad weather. Typically we heard of approaching dangerous weather 2-3 minutes before the tornado sirens went off. We had a radio operator at the NWS radar site looking over the operators shoulder. He would ask for ground spotters in the area of a suspicious radar return and let all of us know what was going on.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by Ted S.

I had a post here not to far back about a cross country trip where I encountered bad weather multiple times. I have since downloaded apps that connect with NOAA weather stations, well great, if you have cell service.

So now I am looking at weather radios, but radios are not my thing. I know I want a good one, I found C.Crane, but I can’t understand all the jargon, I could not pick one.

Anybody know these things?

I have had a Sangean DT-400W in my trailer for almost ten years. It works great, it's small, and I recommend it. Runs on AA batteries, which I've been removing every fall to prevent leakage.


The DT-400W is still in production, and they cost just under $50.

[malinois38]

Not this one! Bought this off Amazon, and it is worthless. Not sure where all the great reviews came from. Maybe I just got a bad one. But I will be following this thread, as I’m in the market also.

[Upgraded Version] RunningSnail Emergency Hand Crank Self Powered AM/FM NOAA Solar Weather Radio with LED Flashlight, 1000mAh Power Bank for iPhone/Smart Phone

[turk123]

I have a marine radio from my sailboat days. You can drop them in the water and they float. We use it sometimes when on the coasts to listen to the ships.

They are not cheap but you can throw them across the room with no damage at all.

[DKB_SATX]

I bought a C.Crane CC Skywave before my long trip through tornado country this summer. The only things I've found I dislike about it are that a) you have to turn on the "Alert" feature every 16 hours, and b) when the alert feature is on, the display backlight blinks on and off which is a bit annoying.

I place the radio face-down on the nightstand when it's in alert mode so the blinking light doesn't interfere with my sleep. It's not the cheapest option, but has a ton of nice nerd-features.

[crispyboy]

When the radio in my trailer went out I replaced it with an AM/FM/CD with NOAA radio reception. I can always find a NOAA station to pick up. The only negative is that this is not an ALERT radio.
There are many good tabletop portable radios with NOAA reception and alerts available. I would look for one that is easy to operate and can fine tune the alerts to your immediate area.

[rsementi]

Originally Posted by Ted S.

I had a post here not to far back about a cross country trip where I encountered bad weather multiple times. I have since downloaded apps that connect with NOAA weather stations, well great, if you have cell service.

So now I am looking at weather radios, but radios are not my thing. I know I want a good one, I found C.Crane, but I can’t understand all the jargon, I could not pick one.

Anybody know these things?

Try using the app called Dark Sky. It uses your actual gps location to give you by the minute forecasts, plus the normal 7 day, and a time machine for weather from years past on any day that there were records kept. Even warns you when it’s about to rain.

[Mollysdad]

I had the C. Crane CC-Radio for years and absolutely loved it. Until the display faded out and C. Crane wasn't interested in helping me. It was a common problem.
I don't know if they solved it in the CC-Radio 2, but the biggest problem for me is inside the Airstream, radio reception is terrible. I have a nice Sangean, and almost never use it. I miss late night talk radio while I sleep.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

If you run a weather radio in tornado country "in the season" you do indeed get some of the information you need. In addition to that you get a bazillion pieces of information you have absolutely no use at all for.

There is no "real time" information on the NOAA system. It is all alerts. That means that while you get a hint that something *might* happen, you do not get information about what *is* happening. There are other more modern ways to get real time info *if* you can get a cell connection.

The alert process covers a wide area. The number of alerts can be huge. They are phrased in a fashion that assumes you have a detailed knowledge of the landmarks for a couple hundred miles in any direction. "A point 2.3 miles south west of the junction of Uncle Bob Road and County route 3357" ..... right back to needing a cell connection to look things up.

Any radio that will get any NOAA station gives you the full set of data. There is no advantage to or need for multiple stations. They are spaced out around the landscape. Being able to get at least one of them is not super tough.

Bob

[mike28]

Oregon Scientific on Amazon. Portable and easy to use.

[Hans627]

Tagging along to see what I can learn from the experience of others!

Thanks!

[absteen]

C. Crane is one of the best. Located in Fortuna CA, he designs most of the radios he sells. I have several of his radios, and they all play well with very good reception.
Andrew, K6STN
2017 27' Signature FB
2017 F-250 4x4 Diesel Lariat crew cab
One each Cavalier King Charles Spaniel

[K3ors]

Being a Ham I like that idea. However, you should be able to find an inexpensive scanner that would fill the bill. If it’s just a WX Radio you want go with least cost. You don’t need any bells and whistles I assume.

[Ted S.]

Originally Posted by rsementi

Try using the app called Dark Sky. It uses your actual gps location to give you by the minute forecasts, plus the normal 7 day, and a time machine for weather from years past on any day that there were records kept. Even warns you when it’s about to rain.

Yes, I have that app and several more but the issue is, they need cell service. So I am going to a radio.

This has become a fascinating thread for me, I need to educate myself more before I buy. I like the C Crane radios, the hard part is picking one as there are so many.

[DougHart]

Get a radio with the alert function so you will be notified of impending weather as long as it is powered up.

[carmelo]

We have used the CRANE radio for decades, have two of them, and do not leave home without one.
CCC

[rowiebowie]

I'm a visual person. We at least were through a town every few days so we had cell phone or tv reception. Radar maps helped us know in advance of storm fronts, hurricanes, or dust storms. Most importantly, where they'd be in the day or two ahead. We sometimes had to divert hundreds of miles out of our intended path, but not sure radio reports would give the information needed to avoid such bad weather.

[jdalrymple]

I have a Sangean CL-100 that has been the best I have found.

Though, I have not tried the C Crane models.

To work well any brand will require a bit of setup for each location one wishes to monitor.

The NWS uses a system called Specific Area Message Encoding(SAME) to send alerts. This allows the NWS to contain the alerts to a single county.

This is an improvement over the old days when the system set off all the radios within the range of a given radio transmitter which could be a thousand square miles or more.

Setting up a SAME radio to work correctly would involve finding out what county one is in, looking up the SAME address for that county, tuning the weather radio to a transmitter that covers the area, and then programming the radio for that SAME code. All this info is readily available on the web.

If that sounds like a lot of work, the old signal that triggered all radios in range of a given transmitter is still sent by the NWS during any weather warning. Most new weather radios can be set to alert to it instead of the SAME message. Much more simple, but one might be rousted from a sound sleep for a storm 100 miles away.

For those of us who live in "tornado alley", being alerted to a entire county seems a bit much some times. The storm could be across the county, 30-50 miles away and no threat.


I do carry a SAME radio and I do take the time to set it up on nights that could be concerning.

There are voice forecasts transmitted to these radios that can be a little old, but the watch and warning alerts occur in real time and can allow one to sleep without watching the weather all night.

As I like to say, not coming to Oklahoma because of tornados is like not going to California because of earthquakes, or the beach because of a tsunami.

But one should be aware...


Regards,

JD