Emergency Alert (EAS) / NOAA Weather Radios
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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

Emergency Alert (EAS) / NOAA Weather Radios Please scroll down to see the radios

Emergency Alert (EAS) / NOAA Weather Radios
Please scroll down to see the radios