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What you need to know
about Emergency Alert (E.A.S.) Radios
A few years back, NOAA weather
radios were
pretty simple, and used primarily for warnings about severe weather. If you were within range of a National Weather
Service transmitter, you could receive an up to the minute weather report
and reports of dangerous weather conditions in the area covered by that
transmitter.
Since then, the system has been expanded
to carry the U.S. Emergency Alert System messages to cover other threats besides weather, including
biological and chemical hazards,
fires, toxic waste spills, and earthquakes among others. If the
government, from the President on down to your local government wants the
public to know something about a national or local emergency, they can set
off the alarm on these radios and send you a message. It's
the same system that puts the "This is a test of the Emergency Alert
System-this is only a test..." on your radio and TV.
There is a lot of confusion about the
capabilities of this system, and what it can do, so I called the Federal
Communications Commission and asked them. They Emailed me a federal
document that explains it pretty well. If you'd like to read it,
click below, I've included it in it's entirety.
Reference:TSR33,
ID# 02207555
Here is
what you need to consider to pick an alert radio.
Alert Selectivity: The
least expensive weather and emergency radios around generally have no alarm or alert
capability, they are radios that can be tuned to listen to EAS and National
Weather Service forecasts, but if you don't have it turned on, you will
not know that there is an alert. The more advanced alert radios come in two types, standard
alert radios and S.A.M.E. alert radios. A standard alert radio, when
left in alert mode, will sound an alarm whenever your National Weather
Service office broadcasts an EAS or weather alert. Since an office can cover a lot
of ground, you may find yourself receiving a lot of alerts that don't
concern you. This can get pretty old when an alert about a storm 60
miles away sets off an alarm that wakes you up in the middle of the
night. I didn't get much sleep in the spring with one of these
sitting on my nightstand in alert mode. The S.A.M.E. alert radios can be
programmed on a county by county basis to only alarm when there is a
concern in your immediate area. If you are in a stormy part of the
country, and want to leave the alert capability turned on, S.A.M.E. is
worth the money and the effort to program it.
Power: Some emergency radios plug into the wall. Check to see if they also have battery
backup. An emergency radio that doesn't work during a power failure is
pretty useless. All of my AC powered radios have battery backup
power. Some radios only run on batteries. If you leave those
on in alert mode too long, the batteries will die. They should not
be considered for long term alert monitoring. Some portables can run on
both, but may not come with an AC supply.
Portability: Consider
whether you are planning on leaving it on the table, or want to take it
with you. If you may ever want to take it with to work, on vacation,
or just to another room, you may want to get a portable and just leave it
plugged in on the nightstand most of the time. Some portables are
also weather resistant, for boating, camping, hiking
etc. |
emergency alert radios, oregon scientific,