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.