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Old 11-21-2019, 11:31 AM   #1
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Name: Henry
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Anyone use a Weather Radio?

Looking for recommendations for a weather radio. We camp for many days outside cell phone range and would like a NOAA weather radio, preferable with SAME technology. When moving we use various apps on the iPhone. But when camped outside of cell tower range I am thinking I would like a weather radio, with alerts and what not.

I would like to have both good reception and good sound in a weather radio unit, or a radio that can access the NOAA. It will stay in my travel trailer.

I had an Eaton wind up, but the soft rubber parts degraded or rotted after a few years so I chucked it, and it was not very useable anyway; the solar charger did not work well nor did the wind up mechanism. I have an Oregon Scientific WR8000, but it does not bring in the stations well and the speaker/sound is not good. I also have a Optimus 12-797 (Radio shack), which has been acceptable but the speaker is weak.

Do you use a weather radio or do you just rely on the apps on your phone?

I did a search on this forum but could not get anything to come up.
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Old 11-21-2019, 11:36 AM   #2
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If you're gonna buy a radio, might as well get one that serves double duty.
https://www.amazon.com/Uniden-SX327-.../dp/B06XJKWXC6
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Old 11-21-2019, 12:33 PM   #3
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I gave up trying to use my old style weather radio because it would wake me many times a night for warnings that were too far away from me to be of concern.

And I'm not the only one.

That is why they created the Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) system which allows you to program a radio to receive only alerts in a smaller geographic area.

I have no first hand experience with a SAME capable weather radio but I'm quite sure that if I were to buy a weather radio, it would be SAME enabled. Apparently the Uniden mentioned above does not fit that bill.

The cell phone alerts work well if you are in cell range, but as you said, you want a radio for when you are not. The drawback of the SAME system is you need to change the code(s) on the radio when you move. Receiving all the alerts within radio range when actually on the road is likely the thing to do.

BTW, I also found that the internal batteries on the weather radio would die pretty quick since the radio was actually on (but silent), when it alert standby mode. Maybe a concern when boon-docking.

SEE:
https://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/info/nwrsame.html

and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specif...ssage_Encoding
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Old 11-21-2019, 01:45 PM   #4
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Thanks Glenn I do have: Midland - LXT630VP3, two way radios. I will see how well they work. The problem there is we use them every time I backup, so I don't want the battery to run down. It appears many NOAA radio's are relatively inexpensive, so I may get a dedicated NOAA radio. Range, quality of the speakers and an external antenna jack are the main features I would like. Since posting I am looking at radios that also pick up short wave, FM and AM. It would be nice to find one that does it all, but no Luke so far.

I will check out those websites, thank you Gordon2.
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Old 11-21-2019, 03:00 PM   #5
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WX and broadcast radio

[QUOTE=Rzrbrn;

I would like to have both good reception and good sound in a weather radio unit, or a radio that can access the NOAA. It will stay in my travel trailer.
Do you use a weather radio or do you just rely on the apps on your phone?

I seldom have phone service, three years ago, this was the best I could find. It even has a dog whistle.
[url] https://www.amazon.com/Midland-Emergency-Multiple-Flashlight-Ultrasonic/dp/B015QIC1PW [/url]
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Old 11-21-2019, 05:05 PM   #6
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I have a Sangean AM FM Weather radio that I've had for years. It runs all season on 4 D cells. It has very good reception. I often listen to NPR on the FM and sports mostly on the AM band, especially at night. I check the weather often and have used the weather alert when dangerous weather conditions are predicted. It has a clock with an alarm and a sleep function. It also has an aux input that allows me to connect my mp3 player.

It's good to have an atlas with counties as that's how NOAA issues its warnings. At the very least, it's good know what county you are in.

This is an updated version.

PR-D14 : FM-RBDS / AM / USB Portable Receiver
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Old 11-21-2019, 06:57 PM   #7
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Have you thought about installing one that has a longer range, amplified, external antenna? The little hand held emergency units do not have all that terrific of an antenna.
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Old 11-21-2019, 07:17 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Raz View Post
I have a Sangean AM FM Weather radio that I've had for years. It runs all season on 4 D cells. It has very good reception. I often listen to NPR on the FM and sports mostly on the AM band, especially at night. I check the weather often and have used the weather alert when dangerous weather conditions are predicted. It has a clock with an alarm and a sleep function. It also has an aux input that allows me to connect my mp3 player.

It's good to have an atlas with counties as that's how NOAA issues its warnings. At the very least, it's good know what county you are in.

This is an updated version.

PR-D14 : FM-RBDS / AM / USB Portable Receiver
I have the same model; the reception is fantastic.
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Old 11-21-2019, 07:41 PM   #9
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Not a weather radio, but I'm pleased with my Sangean AM FM personal radio.
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Old 11-21-2019, 08:54 PM   #10
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I have installed this Jensen weather radio in at least 3 Escapes and my EggCamper. Great reception and it will warn you of upcoming bad weather https://www.amazon.com/Jensen-JHD910...4391203&sr=8-7
come in blue tooth model also
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Old 11-21-2019, 09:16 PM   #11
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Thanks Jim I will check it out.
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Old 11-21-2019, 09:25 PM   #12
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Why does it need all those buttons?
Seems a couple should do it. On/Off and Scan.
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Old 11-21-2019, 09:43 PM   #13
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I have an Eton that I’ve had for 10 years. In our non camping season ( like now) I listen to it every night for a few minutes at bedtime and always in the morning for the daily forecast. We keep it in the camper all summer and have it on standby about half the nights. I use rechargeable batteries ( 3 AA) and once in a while I crank the dynamo just to make sure it still works when the batteries get low. I then install 3 regular AA’s and charge the others overnight. I’d buy another one but don’t see any just like the one I have on the current market.
Some nights I am by a dying campfire by myself and put it on the AM band and tune it slowly to get the whine and squeal till I find a far off station. Then I’m 12 again with my crystal set and cat whisker.
Iowa Dave
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Old 11-21-2019, 10:33 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Glenn Baglo View Post
Why does it need all those buttons?
Seems a couple should do it. On/Off and Scan.
Looks like this one has AM/FM and Weatherband. 6 buttons across the bottom are for station presets, just like a car stereo. top row of buttons is power, mute, display, am/fm, aux in, weatherband, and timer. middle cluster of 'arrow' style buttons looks like volume +/-, tune +/-, menu, seek - and seek +

not unreasonble IMHO.

here's the manual,
https://www.jensenheavyduty.com/down...ers_manual.pdf

I don't see any SAME support, just the that it auto switches to WB if it hears the NOAA alert tone.
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Old 11-21-2019, 11:28 PM   #15
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Some nights I am by a dying campfire by myself and put it on the AM band and tune it slowly to get the whine and squeal till I find a far off station. Then I’m 12 again with my crystal set and cat whisker.
Iowa Dave
My dad had a shortwave radio in the late 50s which had what was called an "eagle eye" tube tuner. The eye tube visibly changed as you homed in on a transmitting frequency. Loved to listen to BBC news, and ham radio chatter back than.
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Old 11-21-2019, 11:53 PM   #16
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Originally Posted by tractors1 View Post
My dad had a shortwave radio in the late 50s which had what was called an "eagle eye" tube tuner. The eye tube visibly changed as you homed in on a transmitting frequency. Loved to listen to BBC news, and ham radio chatter back than.
I've always seen those called 'magic eye'.... they were pretty popular on electronics test gear in the 50s/60s.
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Old 11-22-2019, 02:35 AM   #17
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Name: Henry
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The Eaton I had was armored in a soft rubber like material. After about five years or so the rubber like material rotted. Same thing happened to a very expensive pair of binoculars. I threw the Easton away, but donated the binocs to Goodwill after I tried to scrub the rotted rubber. The scrubbing was not really successful but it was good enough to give away. Nowadays I try really hard not to buy anything armored in soft rubber like material.
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Old 11-22-2019, 02:52 AM   #18
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my wife's folding laptop mouse, the last of the bunch of Microsoft Arc Mouse that I bought about 10 years ago rather recently got all gooey, I think it must have been in a bag with some kinda volatile solvent that attacked both the rubber and hard plastic parts and left it a mess, and it stopped working too. This was my favorite laptop mouse of many I've used, and now its wasted. sigh. they've been out of production for many years now.
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Old 11-22-2019, 05:51 AM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Glenn Baglo View Post
Why does it need all those buttons?
Seems a couple should do it. On/Off and Scan.
There are 5 NOAA weather channels and am/fm vol up/down and tuning buttons...
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Old 11-22-2019, 05:56 AM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Iowa Dave View Post
I have an Eton that I’ve had for 10 years. In our non camping season ( like now) I listen to it every night for a few minutes at bedtime and always in the morning for the daily forecast. We keep it in the camper all summer and have it on standby about half the nights. I use rechargeable batteries ( 3 AA) and once in a while I crank the dynamo just to make sure it still works when the batteries get low. I then install 3 regular AA’s and charge the others overnight. I’d buy another one but don’t see any just like the one I have on the current market.
Some nights I am by a dying campfire by myself and put it on the AM band and tune it slowly to get the whine and squeal till I find a far off station. Then I’m 12 again with my crystal set and cat whisker.
Iowa Dave
Yes, at night you sometimes get far away radio stations where the signals skip off the night sky. I would listen to KDKA in Pittsburgh and WLS out of Chicago, WKBW in Buffalo and every now and then the Wolfman Jack on his pirate station.
Ever notice the "K" stations are on the other side of Mississippi and the "W" on this side except for the first stations mentioned since it they were the first stations before they needed to organize the signal letters.
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