Bluestraveler
01-15-2013, 07:44 PM
Happy New Year to all of you!
Hubby and I would like to buy a weather radio. We had my husband's Black and Decker Storm Station, which was better than nothing. However, after using it, we found that we need something better. We would like to find a NOAA weather radio that will alert us to storms that blow in at night, so that it will wake us. We found with the B&D that we had to HEAR the bad weather, wake up, and turn on the radio to listen for warnings. Sometimes, we'd sleep pretty heavily and not hear anything until it was a full blown storm. It would be nice to hear an alert before the storm actually hit us! It would probably also be a good idea to have an AM/FM radio band so that we can listen to local broadcasts, in the event of an emergency. We have looked at several models, and we're just not sure.
So far, we think the following features would be good to have:
SAME coding-would limit alerts to county we're in and surrounding counties
Alert mode-so that it would wake us up at night
AM/FM radio
Lit display for nighttime viewing
Base unit that plugs into wall and charges it
Battery powered -for when power is out
Hopefully small enough or handheld to be portable to go into truck or storm shelter, if necessary
Are there any other features that we should be considering? We've seen models with cranks, lights, charging outlets, TV bands, etc. We just don't know what's great to have and what's unnecessary. We saw a handheld model from LL Bean that looked like it might be a good one to get. We also saw a small base unit on a website that looked like it had good features. Do any of you have a NOAA weather radio that you'd highly recommend, or can you suggest "must have" features that you've found useful through experience? We know a good one probably won't be cheap but we are willing to pay the price for a DEPENDABLE unit.
Thanks for any advice/help you can give us!
Hubby and I would like to buy a weather radio. We had my husband's Black and Decker Storm Station, which was better than nothing. However, after using it, we found that we need something better. We would like to find a NOAA weather radio that will alert us to storms that blow in at night, so that it will wake us. We found with the B&D that we had to HEAR the bad weather, wake up, and turn on the radio to listen for warnings. Sometimes, we'd sleep pretty heavily and not hear anything until it was a full blown storm. It would be nice to hear an alert before the storm actually hit us! It would probably also be a good idea to have an AM/FM radio band so that we can listen to local broadcasts, in the event of an emergency. We have looked at several models, and we're just not sure.
So far, we think the following features would be good to have:
SAME coding-would limit alerts to county we're in and surrounding counties
Alert mode-so that it would wake us up at night
AM/FM radio
Lit display for nighttime viewing
Base unit that plugs into wall and charges it
Battery powered -for when power is out
Hopefully small enough or handheld to be portable to go into truck or storm shelter, if necessary
Are there any other features that we should be considering? We've seen models with cranks, lights, charging outlets, TV bands, etc. We just don't know what's great to have and what's unnecessary. We saw a handheld model from LL Bean that looked like it might be a good one to get. We also saw a small base unit on a website that looked like it had good features. Do any of you have a NOAA weather radio that you'd highly recommend, or can you suggest "must have" features that you've found useful through experience? We know a good one probably won't be cheap but we are willing to pay the price for a DEPENDABLE unit.
Thanks for any advice/help you can give us!