"Weather Alert Radios"

[Mark Danzl]

Hi everyone, just curious what type/brand of weather radio you bring with camping. What to look for and what maybe to stay away from. Any help from the experienced would be appreciated. Thanks a ton.

[C130Av8r]

Any weather radio will do. However, when my brother and I go, we used to use a Radio Shack brand weather radio, but we now use a Cobra Mini Handheld CB Radio with weather frequencies, also from Radio Shack.

[LadyWindrider]

Hello, Wife and I take a pair of Motorola FRS radios, with the weather channel. We use the walkie-talkie for getting the camper parked in the right spot mainly. They come in handy if one takes a walk around the campground and leaves the other behind. We just have to make sure we tune the nearest weather station whe we travel very far.

[acadianbob]

We bought slightly more expensive, but less the $50, Midland 2-way radios, for backing, that have the weather radio built into them.

[tomkaren]

We bought a weather radio from Winn Dixie Supermarket. It is an AM/FM radio too. It has worked well for us even letting us know of a thunder storm warning.

[Radio]

There are some features you should look for:

1. MUST HAVE: S.A.M.E alert system...Specific Area Message Emergency (or some such...) This listens for messages that affect your local area and sets off a siren and plays out the message from the NWS for you. I would not own a weather radio without this feature. The others will give you weather info but these wake you up in the middle of the night with lifesaving info and the others will let you sleep right through an F5 tornado! Also if you set the SAME code to 999999 it will respond to any alert it hears. Can be annoying. You have to tune to the local weather station each time you move. You can look them up in a book or just tune to the loudest/best signal.

2. Get the kind that require a 12 vdc wall-wart power supply. Then run the radio off the 12 vdc system of the RV. The 12 vdc is always there, but 120 ac may not be.

3. I also like ones that have the external antenna port. This can be fed from your roof top antenna. The weather bands are near analog channel 5 so that antenna works great. Be sure not to use this set up when hooked to cable! The built in antenna on mine has always been sufficient for me. My RV has fiberglass skin. An aluminum skinned rig maybe not.

My radio is a Midland which also doubles as an AM/FM clock radio. But Midland, Oregon Scientific, Radio Shack and others are also good. I send people to Radio Shack because I know they are always in stock and close by and some managers are smart enough to show you how to use the radio.

[JimChow]

We use one from Radio Shack with the S.A.M.E. feature. You can download the specific frequency for the area you are in (from NOAA) or let it Auto tune. You can also set what type of alert you want to what type of event. We like it. 120 vac or batteries or 12vdc.

[Mark Danzl]

Thanks everyone for all the responses, we appreciate it.

[fourwalls]

Great info. i will now head out to check out the local possibilities. I had been thinking of a weather radio but had not made the choice.

[Leaf-Peeper]

Here’s our S.A.M.E. Midland weather alert radio. Instead of powering it with the OEM 110v to 12v DC adaptor, I used an old salvaged adaptor with the same style input jack and cut off transformer, then wired it to the 12v system in the camper. Now it easily works when we’re dry camping and find it draws very little power. We keep it Velcro-ed to the countertop. It’s got an external antenna jack, but we find the telescoping antenna pulls a decent signal for the areas where we camp.