Weather Radios

[RCLOUD9]

As we are new to the AS family we have thoughts about what is needed on the road. One item is an Emergency Weather Radio. I would appreciate any feed back and or recommendations from those that have them in their AS.

RCLOUD9
Toledo, Oh

[wxbuoy]

We carry one, and had relied on it for the intital few years we camped. However, now with smartphone we set it up for severe weather alerts. The issue with the majority of the NOAA WX radios is they need to have the local county code put in that you want to monitor for severe weather reports. This is easy at home since you only do it once, but when traveling can be a pain. The smartphone (we have iphones) uses the internal GPS to track where you are and what alerts you need. We still keep the wxradio in the camper (but it's days are numbered) and I will take the time to put in the codes if we are in tornado alley. It is also nice to hit the button to hear the wx broadcast if your cell service is crappy and you want a weather report. We are going to transition to a portable radio with wx radio that is hand cranked. That way we always have power for it and the batteries wont turn green between uses! We already use it at home for hurricanes and such. Just need to add it to the packing list. http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/85368...-weather-radio

So there is good and bad. If you want the back up and the off cell service service they are worth it if you are willing to spend the 10 minutes it takes to set up.

[Cannonball]

We have a small hand held battery weather radio that we carry in the truck. It is much like an old fashioned transistor radio. You do not ha e to put codes into it.


Cannonball, Deep in the Heart of Texas!

WBCCI #4387, Air #84080

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[Tincampers]

Our Motorola FRS radios have weather bands on them and will pickup the local WX reports and alerts. No programming required.

[OldVwHunters]

I installed an old Subaru am/fm/cd/weather band radio in our trailer. Subaru ran with the weather band equipped radios for many years. Aside from Subaru's amazing stomp and go traction, the weather band was one of my favorite items. No need to program, and you can pick them up pretty reasonable on the old e-bay, I gave $30 shipped for mine.

[NavyCorpsman]

I prefer a grab and go portable radio. If the big black spinning rain wrapped cloud is upon you, the Airstream is no place to be.
I am reluctant to use an "app", because cellular phones are dependent on battery for all of their functions. Murphy's Law
A little radio with hot batteries will get the needed information to you before, during and after the storm. My favorite is an obsolete Radio Shack "weather cube". It's small, light, and tunable for the best NOAA reception. Midland makes some nice portables too.
There has been more than one time when our power as out and a Tornado producing storm was headed our way. Scary stuff.

[Twinke58]

I have a small radio flash light windup combo that works good for me. It's also good for small spaces.


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[mrfrank9]

We have one midland in the rear bedroom, but dont use it much since our new radio-dvd player has wx band built-in.

[DreamStreamr]

We have, in both truck and trailer, wx alert fx provided from Kenwood 12v mobile ham radios. Tried a portable battery-powered wx-alert radio with a northwest state name. Battery didn't last, reception inside trailer was horribly inadequate, and required programming SAME codes each time we moved. We found ourselves looking up new county and four touching counties - what a pita!

Exterior antenna is great! Always have good signal. Automatic wx alert works well, although alert tone scares the pants off us. Too, if must leave truck and trailer behind, can carry Cobra WXST portable CB/WX handheld radio. Not good for automatically scanning because always turned off. But good for handheld, in a pinch.


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[garry]

I also have a Midland however, the warnings are always by county.
I never know what county I'm in or the surrounding counties so it is not much good on the road.