Hurricane Preparedness Part 1: Weather Radios/Public Alert Devices
By Chuck CageSelecting a Weather Radio: Our Recommendations
Luckily, weather radios are available from a variety of sources – both online and brick and mortar — so you should have no trouble locating one. We recommend that you follow
- Select the best form factor for you. Deciding between desktop and portable will eliminate a lot of radios from your list of potentials.
- Decide whether or not you want SAME decoding capability. Though we highly recommend selecting a radio with SAME decoding capability, some uses (specifically travel where you constantly move from place to place) render SAME capability not that important.
- Decide how much you want to spend. Simply select the radio with the best feature set within your price range.
Where to Buy
As with most electronic gear, there are deals to be found online, though many local brick-and-mortar shops carry them as well. (Radio Shack is always a sure bet, though they tend to be expensive and — of course — they only carry their own few brands.) To simplify your search, we’ve gathered together a list of manufacturers (many of whom offer their units for sale directly or link to local and mail-order retailers) and common retailers:
Midland Radio
Radio Shack
First Alert/SIMA Corp
Ambient Weather
MTS Communication Products
C. Crane Company
HomeSafe, Inc.
Reecom Electronics
Oregon Scientific
The Weather Radio Store
Weather Connection
Note: We’re also currently testing a couple of the most promising units we discovered while researching this post. Look for hands-on reviews soon.
January 21st, 2007 at 12:06 pm
[...] About Weather Radios/Public Alert Devices [...]
June 13th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
While waiting fo the testing and reviews, the list of providers could have contained more discrimination as to features and capabilities.
I’m not interested enough to scroll and poke through their websites.