The Midland HH50 radio has a sliding switch on one side with Off-On-Alert settings, and a Test button on the other side (just above the volume up/down buttons).

When the switch is slid to the On position the radio auto-finds the station with the strongest signal and you can listen to the soothing sounds of the radio. While on, pressing the Test button toggles between the radio station bands so the user can pick a different band.

While in Alert mode (when the radio listens for alerts), you can test the radio's alarm by holding the Test button down for 3 seconds, and then turning the alarm off by pressing the Test button again.

Of course this alarm test only checks the radio's alarm - it doesn't ensure that you'll get the alarm signal from the radio station. Turning on the radio and listening to see if the station is coming in strong should provide some confidence that your radio will detect a weather emergency alarm.

BTW, this radio does NOT have SAME alerting - which means it cannot limit alarms to a specific region. For my own use that is OK. At home I use other radios that have the SAME feature (Oregon Scientific portable radio).