a good weather radio

[garmp]

Just returned from a trip to Oklahoma and while on the trip I broke out our old crank style weather radio/flashlight. Cranked my bloody arm off and barely got static. Long story short am in the market for a new one.
A complication to the issue is that we were in a dead zone. No cell service nor wifi at all. No radio or tv, nothing, just wind.
So with all this in mind I really doubt that a cell phone app would work. What is out there that is effective, but reasonable price wise, and doesn't rely on cell signal nor wifi or 110?
thanks

[DJcoh]

I spend a fair amount of time outdoors and I think I need a solid 2-way radio pair that I can use to talk and I guess a shorter range radio works for me. However, looking for these reviews https://www.whollyoutdoor.com/best-shortwave-radios-reviews/ and need expert recommendation which one to choose also is there any way to use 'em without a license.

[CavemanCharlie]

DJcoh wrote:
My wife and I live in an area where Tornadoes are a thing. I would love to have an alert radio that turns on and starts giving out information. Willing to spend $100 or less to get one. Would like it to be wall and battery-powered at the least. Obviously, reliability is important.

Your just going to have to look around on-line at the reviews and purchase the one you think is best. There are so many of them out there that it's just a guess, and a personal preference, to which one you want.

[DJcoh]

My wife and I live in an area where Tornadoes are a thing. I would love to have an alert radio that turns on and starts giving out information. Willing to spend $100 or less to get one. Would like it to be wall and battery-powered at the least. Obviously, reliability is important.

[mobeewan]

I have a small hand held Oregon Scientific weather radio and 2 Midland FRS/GRMS radios with weather bands.

[CavemanCharlie]

thomasmnile wrote:
Always carried a 110v/battery weather radio in our trailers. Never a reception problem as long as it was positioned in front of a window. Guess we weren't sufficiently removed from civilization. That said, that radio passed on to electronic heaven last year. Replaced it with a Midland 110v/battery model for about 30 or so bucks on Amazon. Works great and will absolutely raise the dead at 4am when the alarm goes off.

If you get one with a alarm, and it would be a good idea to do so, get one with SAME installed in it. This allows you to set the alarm to only go off for your area. I've have had a regular weather radio without the SAME in my house and I got tired of it waking me up for a storm that was 40 miles past my home already.

I live in the upper midwest. In the spring in my area there are a lot of storms that car cause the radio to alarm , again and again all night long. Even when it is no where near me. The SAME feature blocks out most of those false alarms.

[thomasmnile]

Always carried a 110v/battery weather radio in our trailers. Never a reception problem as long as it was positioned in front of a window. Guess we weren't sufficiently removed from civilization. That said, that radio passed on to electronic heaven last year. Replaced it with a Midland 110v/battery model for about 30 or so bucks on Amazon. Works great and will absolutely raise the dead at 4am when the alarm goes off.

[dedmiston]

Gdetrailer wrote:
OP NEEDS to check there current radio in a location that they KNOW it should work BEFORE BLAMING THE RADIO.

Kinda preachy there, big guy. Dial it back a couple notches.

(And BTW - There, their, and they're...)

[CavemanCharlie]

Radio Shack is back in buisness and I recently bought a crank weather radio from them. Might have been able to get the same thing on Amazon cheaper though. I didn't check.

[BarabooBob]

Try checking the NOAA radio coverage map at https://www.weather.gov/nwr/Maps. It shows what areas are covered. My marine radio can scan all of the NOAA channels so if in doubt we leave it on all night. If any of the channels sounds their ALert tone, we hopefully will hear it.

[Gdetrailer]

Deb and Ed M wrote:

2oldman wrote:
So a weather radio will work with no signals of any kind?

Mostly? They pick up radio wave signals from the various NWS stations. That being said, my very good quality Midland weather radio quit picking up a signal because our house sits low on a lake; and not that the surrounding hills are dotted with cell towers, it's like the NWS signal is blocked 😞

For the most part, a battery-operated weather radio will always work. Personally, I like the ones with a volume control for the alert signal, because they can be loud enough to raise the dead inside an RV!

I think 2oldman was eluding to the fact that if you CAN'T get ANY TV/RADIO broadcast signals of any kind then the odds are pretty slim that ANY "weather radio" is going to be received either.

While NOAA does a fantastic job of trying to cover as much area as possible, they DO have limitations and there ARE places with no coverage at all.

NOAA tends to "share" towers with broadcasters and even local county governments. I have one local NOAA frequency that the transmitter and antenna is located on a REA (Rural Electric Act) power company Co-op communications tower.

You can spend $1K on a Ham radio rig and antenna and it may work only slightly better than a $10 portable weather radio..

There have been times that my local NOAA station has been "off the air" or severely reduced service area due to antenna or transmitter issues.. Not even my $1K worth of Ham equipment will pick that station up when that happens..

OP NEEDS to check there current radio in a location that they KNOW it should work BEFORE BLAMING THE RADIO. Spending money on a new radio without checking the old one is not going to be helpful, especially if where they are camping does not have a NOAA transmitter close enough either.

Since OP did not give details on where they were camping, I am not able to determine IF there was ANY NOAA stations close enough, if it is farther than 50 miles, chances are that NO weather radio is going to work..

That information IS on the NOAA page I linked above.

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

2oldman wrote:
So a weather radio will work with no signals of any kind?

Mostly? They pick up radio wave signals from the various NWS stations. That being said, my very good quality Midland weather radio quit picking up a signal because our house sits low on a lake; and not that the surrounding hills are dotted with cell towers, it's like the NWS signal is blocked 😞

For the most part, a battery-operated weather radio will always work. Personally, I like the ones with a volume control for the alert signal, because they can be loud enough to raise the dead inside an RV!

[Wiscampsin]

Same as BarabooBob above but I also program the codes for the surrounding counties next to the one we are camping in. You never know how the storm will track and I like a little heads up.

[BarabooBob]

I have a Midland WR100 that we carry with us. It has the SAME system which we program for the county that we are in. We print out the SAME county codes by state before we leave. If that radio does not work (sometimes it does not) we have FRS radios with weather bands. I also have a marine radio that I carry on my boat wih weather. These are over the air receivers, no internet required.

[Gdetrailer]

garmp wrote:
Just returned from a trip to Oklahoma and while on the trip I broke out our old crank style weather radio/flashlight. Cranked my bloody arm off and barely got static. Long story short am in the market for a new one.
A complication to the issue is that we were in a dead zone. No cell service nor wifi at all. No radio or tv, nothing, just wind.
So with all this in mind I really doubt that a cell phone app would work. What is out there that is effective, but reasonable price wise, and doesn't rely on cell signal nor wifi or 110?
thanks

Chances are good if you are not within OTA TV/radio stations you WILL be out of range for the NOAA Weather station frequencies.

Retry your weather radio at home..

NOAA weather radio systems are low power transmitters at 1Kw or less, they often depend on agreements with existing tower owners like TV and radio stations to place their transmitter and antennas.

1 KW in VHF on a good day and depending on the terrain may get you about 50-60 mile area of coverage around the transmitter antenna.

I would recommend you review what transmitters are available, you can find that info at https://www.weather.gov/nwr/station_listing before condemning your radio.