S.A.M.E. Weather Radio

[corky52]

I'm a bit of a junky for weather radios, especially the newer digital versions that are quiet until the have a reason to make noise. I set up the weather radio for my location anytime I'm going to sleep and keep the weather radio on while driving, last time it saved me from driving blind into a sand storm.

Radio Shack is changing their line and has some pretty good closeout deals on their desk top models, which can be run from a 12v source with a cheap adapter, usually 12v to 9v.


Corky

 

[RVTravel]

Thanks. I need to get one of those.

 

[mockturtle]

How do you know where to find the frequency for your location? Just trial with the tuner?

 

[corky52]

MT,
The radios with S.A.M.E. usually scan and lock to the strongest of the stations on the seven channels. You put in a location code for the area you are in, the FIPS code, which I usually get from the net, but I can also find it on my GPS, just to many button pushes if net is working.

You also have to tell the radio which watches and warning you want it to sound off on when received. My radio has a button to push that turns the audio on for five minutes so I can hear the forecasts, then it goes quiet until a selected watch or warning comes in, then the dead get awoken!!! I sleep better knowing the radio is on and ready to wake me up!

Corky

 

[mockturtle]

OK. My radio is not a S.A.M.E. but does have a weather band. I can usually find the nearest station but it's by clarity & volume.

 

[corky52]

MT,
I'm an S.A.M.E. fan because it allows me to have the radio listening for problems but not making noise until it thinks I need to know. I travel in the Mid-West quite a bit, have the radio go off if there is a tornado warning has saved my butt at least twice. The warning and watch alerts can be enough to wake the dead if you set it for that, and I do.

A friend has a Cobra CB that has a tone detector mode for it's weather radio that I have to checkout, seems from the manuals to be a master override mode, one that works as long as it has power, even if it's turned off.

Corky

 

[bvanevery]

If you're touring fairly quickly, it's gotta be annoying as heck manually readjusting to local county weather codes. Did anyone come out with something that does the adjustments automatically, so you just get the warnings for where you're at right now?

I've never been thrilled about the idea of being woken up for false positives. When camping, I've just made it a point to camp defensively, i.e. on very high ground, no streambeds. I pay attention to Forestry Service warnings about supersaturated soils and the like. Floods and post-flood risks (the soils) were the biggest threats I thought I faced crossing the country a few years ago. It was a heckuva cold and wet season with record rainfall and late snowpack IIRC. When I went into Yellowstone I had to enter at a certain time of day by the eastern road IIRC, because any later in the day and the icepack risked being unstable.

 

[RVTravel]

The weather radio without putting in S.A.M.E codes will give weather for the larger area you are in. It just won't be dialed to a county number. There are no radios that automagically adjust to your current county SAME code.

 

[bvanevery]

I suppose listening to alerts for a large geographic area might not be totally annoying if you're driving cross-country, but once you're standing still, all those false positives from outside your immediate area have got to be annoying as heck. So stoopid, it would take a trivial amount of software to make this automagical.

 

[offroad]

have a SANGEON CL-100 radio which will only activate for the county I am in. You have to program that into it of course. But you can also program it for other counties in the area. its pretty cool to get the warnings for tornado really early. for just wind storms its quiet, but a nasty storm will cause it to start screaming.

 

[corky52]

I saw a prototype Midland at CES that had a GPS chip in it and it knew where it was and what code it needed. One button push and the radio was setup, neat, but not on the market yet.

 

[RVTravel]

Radioshack SAME weather radio on sale for $8.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007Z7KROK