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#178550 - 08/04/09 02:39 AM Re: A Weather Radio that Does Not Suck [Re: MartinFocazio]
JohnE Offline
Addict

Registered: 06/10/08
Posts: 601
Loc: Southern Cal
Ok, thanks.
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JohnE

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tryin' to sound like Charlie Manson"

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#178581 - 08/04/09 01:49 PM Re: A Weather Radio that Does Not Suck [Re: MartinFocazio]
Eugene Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 12/26/02
Posts: 2997
Originally Posted By: martinfocazio
Originally Posted By: JohnE
What's wrong with using a radio that receives the NOAA weather channels?


Here's what's wrong.

The NOAA weather channels provide TOO MUCH information that is IRRELEVANT. In many areas they are too quick to issue a "Watch" for BS conditions like a "high heat advisory" or a "Snow Event Potential". Even with S.A.M.E. these alerts tripped my S.A.M.E. equipped weather radio at all hours of the day and night and eventually became "the radio that cried wolf".

Now, there are newer radios that let me fine-tune the kinds of alerts I actually WANT to get down to a level of detail that is almost adequate, but the user interfaces and controls for these radios are so poor that it requires a not insubstantial level of time and effort to be able to program the radio to provide useful warnings by suppressing the garbage alerts fully.

What's more, the radios themselves lack even the most rudimentary control over how and when alerting should be done. At 3:30 AM, I don't need a screaming siren, a strobe light will suffice to wake me. Or maybe I DO want a screaming siren at 3:30 AM but a strobe light while I'm at my desk in my office.
The point is that a radio that accepts a standard text file - like an XML file - for the complex - but typically one-time - programing is miles better than a plain ht tuned to 162.xxxx


So what I'd like to see is a radio that lets me use a web site and ANY computer to build my config file, plug in the radio, copy the config file and have it work the way I want it.



Here we get thunderstorm alerts, and we have thunderstorms all the time. Or the Amber alerts, though I hate to say it because someone will say what if its your kids, but they always alert them when I'm at home so I'm not out driving anywhere that I could see the car that the kid is beleived to be in, let me filter those on the home radio and just get them on the mobile.

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#178720 - 08/05/09 08:05 PM Re: A Weather Radio that Does Not Suck [Re: Eugene]
thseng Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 03/24/06
Posts: 900
Loc: NW NJ
Hmmmm... How about a dongle that plugs into the earphone jack of a weather radio?

You could get all the functions into one microcontroller chip, I bet. Too bad I'm not an analog guy. I know how to decode the SAME signals in theory but it would take me a lot of fiddling to get it right.

Instead of dumping text config file, I'd make the device a tiny web server. Perhaps bluetooth instead of USB - program it from your iphone...

Too many ideas, too little time.
_________________________
- Tom S.

"Never trust and engineer who doesn't carry a pocketknife."

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#178729 - 08/05/09 09:23 PM Re: A Weather Radio that Does Not Suck [Re: thseng]
PureSurvival Offline
Member

Registered: 02/21/09
Posts: 149
Loc: UK
WR is quite a useful system for you guys but I am surprised technology hasn't moved on (maybe it has).

I would have thought that the main organisations that issue the alerts don't have a subscription sms service that text messages to subscribers phones. Alerts could be sent to the phone mast within the alert area only.

It could be set up to the cost of a normal text plus a small annual fee to subscribers. Most people have mobile phones and have them with them most of the time.

I suppose the only drawback is network coverage.

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#178734 - 08/05/09 11:26 PM Re: A Weather Radio that Does Not Suck [Re: PureSurvival]
Eugene Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 12/26/02
Posts: 2997
SMS and subscription services won't work when your away from cell signals, thats where I use the WR, state forests or my farm where I can't get cell signals. Also WR is in three other radios/scanners I have so no need for a dedicated device.

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#178770 - 08/06/09 10:26 AM Re: A Weather Radio that Does Not Suck [Re: Eugene]
7point82 Offline
Addict

Registered: 11/24/05
Posts: 478
Loc: Orange Beach, AL
Old school tag.

I've got an Oregon Scientific weather radio with SAME that works OK but I honestly only use it at night. "The radio that cried wolf" is right. During a significant thunderstorm outbreak that radio will wear you OUT with flash flood warnings, flood warnings, severe thunderstorm warnings, high wind warnings, and on and on and on. Honestly if it isn't a tornado warning for my immediate area I don't care.
_________________________
"There is not a man of us who does not at times need a helping hand to be stretched out to him, and then shame upon him who will not stretch out the helping hand to his brother." -Theodore Roosevelt

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