Weather Alert Radio
Saves Lives

Yes indeed! A weather alert radio will alert you of impending severe weather, giving you time to react and take preventing measures to avoid personal injury, even save your life and that of your loved ones too, help you reduce or even prevent damage to your property.

North American Standard

The US and Canadian weather radio networks are completely compatible.

Emergency Planning

However, to take full advantage of the forewarning capabilities of weather radio, you should know how to react to the alerts it is designed to relay to you!

• Listen to the regular forecasts. Don't wait for the alarm to sound before taking preventive measures. Be proactive.
• You should have an emergency plan.
• You should rehearse your plan at least once a year.

You and everyone around you, be it family or employees, must know what to do when your weather alert radio sounds the alarm.

Yes, weather radio can forewarn you of impending dangers and hazards. But, you must be prepared to take appropriate measures to protect yourself, your loved ones, and your property.

As a minimum, you should have everyone participate in a "dry run" rehearsal of individual and collective prevention measures and reactions to impending dangers and hazards.

You do know (hopefully) what preventive measures to take in case of hazards.

When the weather forecast for your area starts to include the possibility of severe weather, you should turn on your weather radio and prepare to take safety measures.

What Is S.A.M.E.

Ideally, you should choose a weather alert radio model capable of receiving and decoding Specific Area Message Encoding (S.A.M.E.) codes.

S.A.M.E. enabled weather radios help shield you from false alarms! How? By only alerting you to hazards and dangers that might affect the area where you live and/or work!

But, in practice, you will seldom be alerted to severe weather that does not concern your area.

Why? Because ...

Adjacent weather transmitting stations usually transmit on different channels. Your weather radio receiver can only be tuned to one channel (or station) at any given time. Under normal radio propagation conditions, your weather radio receiver will not likely pick up signals from transmitting stations located more than 60 kilometers (40 miles) away.

Even if you do pick up an alert that does not "immediately" concern your area ... the alert might eventually apply, a few hours later, anyway! It's better to safe than sorry.

Conclusion? Unless you live in an area where tornadoes occur every year, you are not likely to need S.A.M.E.

However, you should be aware that S.A.M.E. technology is also designed to alert you to hazards, other than severe weather.

S.A.M.E. could eventually be used to alert you to other forms of life threatening hazards.

Here are but a few examples of hazards other than those associated with severe weather:

• toxic chemical spills,
• natural gas leaks,
• flash floods,
• bomb threats,
• smog, etc.

Power Modes

Obviously, if you leave your weather radio on,

• have it run on electricity, when available, to save batteries
• make sure you can hear it at all times, especially in cases of impending severe weather
• have at least two fresh sets of batteries on hand

Be aware that if you own only one weather radio, and if it needs to be plugged in, it might be damaged by power surges during thunderstorms.

For that reason, you should own a battery powered unit, or a crank powered radio.

When you are not using your weather radio, remove the batteries. Batteries may leak and damage your radio beyond repair.

About Battery Power

Always store spare batteries right next to the radio. If you have kids, explain to them why they should not take these batteries ... to power their toys!

Check your emergency stock often! It has happened to me once. The batteries and the emergency candles were gone. One of my children had used them.

If you use rechargeable batteries, cycle them regularly (use to discharge, then recharge). Rechargeable batteries do not keep their charge forever.

The Ideal Weather Alert Radio

A crank radio eliminates the need for batteries ... and external power source! This feature makes it the ideal weather radio for emergency use.

There are even models on the market that can work under multiple power situations. Some let you switch from one power mode to the other.

• crank (wind up) mode (no extra alkaline batteries required)
• battery powered (internal rechargeable and/or alkaline batteries)
• electrical outlet (using an A/C power adapter)

Some crank radio models even have a USB port to let you recharge your cell phone!

Test your weather alert radio
and your emergency preparedness regularly.

Why should you consider a Midland weather radio?

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