I recently picked up a small Midland NOAA weather radio and it was pretty much dead out of the box. Because of the circumstances I bought it under, returning it will be very difficult (damn me and my bargain hunting!)

While trying to think of a replacement, I came up with all sorts of ideas for something more practical ranging from scanners to CB radios with NOAA to GMRS radios with NOAA built in but then I thought of something. NOAA is dependent on there being a station broadcasting in your area. When I'm on a road trip or on my way to camping, there could be many places or stretches of highway which don't have coverage. Even in most of the national parks the emergency channels are AM because there are no NOAA stations.

My Sirius Satellite radio on the other hand has access to a 24 hour weather channel. If any severe weather warnings were around, I'm sure they'd say something sooner or later. Plus I'd have access anywhere. The downside is that there would be no 'warning' and it's built into my jeep...not exactly backpack portable unless I buy another radio portable radio.

Has anybody used satellite radio this way and had any success?

The Inno that I use (via XM Radio) is portable and comes with ear phones so that it can be carried in your pocket (about the size of a pack of cigarettes).

I haven't used it in that mode yet but now that you've brought this subject up, I will carry it the next time I go out hiking/camping.

Is the weather channel on the Sirius system geographically-specific? The NOAA channels are area-specific. I'm guessing the Sirius system isn't.

Sirius and XM both give regional forecast along the lines of the Weather Channel. It is useful in the format that they give it in.

MoBOB: It's not region specific which is one of the down sides. I assume in Canada it's the same as it is in the US but I know that the same channel in the US goes from weather to emergency status any time there is a disaster or an AMBER alert to report on evacuations routes and what not.

On the flip side the NOAA channels aren't completely area specific here as they aren't as dense as they are in the US and many use the same frequency...unless I had a radio with SAME then reports would be area specific...but so far I've only been able to find one portable NOAA radio with SAME built in.

I'm guessing that the Midland you got is the yellow, model 74-250. I have one and I like it. Another portable I have is the Oregon Scientific WR103N. Both have SAME and each has its pros and cons. I bought both on sale for about $35 each over the years.

On a road trip, where there is no coverage, or very spotty broadcast radio coverage, I think satellite radio would seem to be a useful option. I don't know if satellite radio is as susceptible as satellite TV to bad weather, though, but if you're already stuck in nasty weather, the signal could be very significantly degraded. One thing I've long wondered about is how often XM or Sirius get updates.

It's a little worrying sometimes when I will see a weather alert, say, on TV, but when I turn on my NOAA radio, there's no mention of it, or vice versa. Then there are the alerts announced by a local TV station, but the cable provider itself doesn't make the annoucement. Sometimes the alerts "catch up" with the other providers, but sometimes you never get them. Anyway, so I wonder about the timing and distribution of such alerts. Trying to get area-specific weather alerts from NOAA to a service with such a wide coverage area, like satellite radio, would seem to be the slowest, you would think. <shrug> Anyway, any info is better than none, although I'm not sure how reliably you can get info that pertains to your particular locality in a timely fashion, say a flash flood warning or something like that, through satellite radio.

It's not the yellow one. It's the ultra cheap HH-50. The main reason I got the satellite radio built into my jeep (and my previous radio in our previous car...now in my beater) was for camping and road trips...but I've never used it for the weather channel because it's a national forecast and you have to listen to an hour of radio to hear a brief forecast for your current area.

I haven't heard that weather radio is going to digital Izzy. The Canadian system was just upgraded as of last year to include SAME capabilities. It seems odd that they'd switch to completely digital and make so many emergency devices obsolete. Do you have a link with any documentation that has dates? If it's soon then there's even more reason to not buy another one to replace this broken one.

I question this. Where did you hear this? Weather radio (NOAA) are on 162.xxx MHz. this band is mostly all analog. (The Secret Service uses it and is digital) There is no reason I can think of for it to go digital like the government is pushing for the TV spectrum.

Is there a link to any info on this?

I never heard of this either. I double-checked the NOAA weather radio website and there is no mention of an impending switch to all-digital.

There already is a digital signal embedded in the normal VHF analog signal as part of any Emergency Alert System activation--that burst of static at the start and end of alerts. Among other bits of info, that's what allows my weather radio to display a brief description about what kind of alert is coming through and when it expires.

I have NOAA channels on both of my cb's and scanner. I get coverage on the mobile just fine when traveling, just have to switch from one channel to another.
XM and others require yet another monthly subscription so I find them pretty much worthless.