weater alert radios

[ProstheticWeasel]

Not sure if this is the right forum for this question but I am sure someone here has the answer.

What do you look for in a weather alert radio? I want one that will listen for the tones for severe weather. one that I can leave on all the time but have it come on when an alert happens. Lots of radios have SAME and other acronyms. I saw a midland radio on clearance at walmart for $30 that sounded like what I wanted. Not sure though.

We just moved to iowa and the SO is worried about tornados.

[KJ4VOV]

S.A.M.E., All-Hazards, and Public Alert are the buzzwords to watch for. S.A.M.E. stands for Specific Alert Message Encoding and is a versatile system that allows you to choose exactly what kinds of alerts you want to hear, and even when to hear them.

I have a couple of the Midland WR-300 models around the house, and one in each vehicle and I'm quite pleased with them.

This link gives a pretty good amount of information on the Public Alert system: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/nwrrcvr.htm

(edit: fixed typo in model #)

[ProstheticWeasel]

Thanks! I picked up a midland wr-120. Seems to have what we want and it was really the only choice.

Now I just have to wait for an alert to see if I have it programmed correctly.