Portable Weather Station

Reviews

Now that my ears are permanently ruined by loud guitars, cars and garden equipment I finally got noise protection. These most definitely block out the noise. While the radio works, it's less than stellar. I live in a NYC suburb and the AM tuner is pretty bad. Improve the tuner section and they have a great product. The Amazon price was less than I saw it for elsewhere.

They can be used for noise reduction or to use to listen to music while doing chores around the house..

I love my new hearing protectors, I should have bought these long ago. They do a great job in reducing the noise levels I encounter on a daily basis in my line of work (Construction), there so much bettor and enjoyable than ear plugs.

I'm very happy with this product. I had an older version of these hearing protectors that I used for almost 10 years. The digital tuner doesn't drift like the old manual version - good update. I don't mow without them.

did not get it for some reason amazon will not deliver to the po box and usps will not deliver to our house

Reviews

Not only do I use this radio/cd player in the shower, but I will walk around the house with it because of its portability. I have read other reviews stating that is isn't water proof, but my radio/cd player sits under the shower head (it gets a lot of water on it) and still no problems. I have also read that it will stop working when you move it. Mine only stops for a few seconds when I accidentally hit it. Pros: It's portable Easy to use Sound quality is excellent Being able to know what time it is (very visible) It still works after six years :) Cons: The battery life isn't the best ( I have to change the batteries every month / requires 4 C batteries).

I bought one about 3 years ago and really enjoy it.. Now we have finished our basement I am going to get another one for the basement bathroom.

I cannot believe I am considering buying a 3rd one of these...the first died after about 5 years...not too bad...the second died in a little less than a year...was this one made in China ? All I know it suddenly stopped working, its display indicating I needed new batteries... I put new batteries in, display didn't change. Nothing worked. I bought new batteries and tried again....same response....never been dropped, just sits there on a shower shelf...but I DO love Sony Products and Sony quality...maybe this second radio/cd was a fluke as it gets such good reviews (could the be written by Sony? - sure...but ALL of them? Ah well, searching the web people still say this is the best out there...sad because its been 'out there' for a number of years...don't people want to hear the news or music when they shower any more? Maybe people have stopped showering....but why hasn't research and development changed the style if for no other reason than for people to think they don't have a 7 year old warehouse load of these things....

This is the second unit of the same model I have purchased. The first is used in a shower, so it is completely battery-dependent. The sound quality and battery life is quite frankly remarkable for what the radio is. The second unit was purchased for my kitchen, though, and upon receipt, I learned that Sony has discontinued the AC adapter that is compatible with this model. So I'm having to use batteries (again, long life) instead of plugging it in to an outlet while I try to find an adapter. A bit frustrating.

I bought this radio to use in my bathroom and it has worked out great. The sound is perfect for the space. It has good weight; doesn't feel cheap. My only caveat is I'd like to have a remote maybe so I can change songs/stations without having to go over to the unit. I love it, however, and would definitely recommend it!

Reviews

Excellent CD still funny after all this time.Little chatty snipits too.Couldn't get away with it now in this era of political correctness.

If you enjoy comedy, and you haven't had the pleasure of hearing Michael Flanders and Donald Swann's hilarious act before, then this is a good candidate for you. Although, I would say that you may want to pick up "The Complete Flanders & Swann" instead of just the best of, because you will miss out on some very funny stuff if you purchase this instead of the complete collection. Nevertheless, this is a good starting place and certainly a less expensive option than the other. Flanders and Swann were Michael Flanders (actor and singer), and Donald Swann (composer, pianist, and linguist) and together they wrote, and sometimes performed their marvelous songs. Known best for a series of Animal songs, the most popular was probably "The Hippopotamus", they also wrote many songs commenting on popular culture, "Song of Reproduction", and the oddities of life, "The Gas Man Cometh", and even occasionally politics, "All Gall". All of them are delightful and funny, as is Michael Flanders commentary between each number. Sadly, neither Michael Flanders nor Donald Swann is with us any longer, but they will never be forgotten as long as their music and their humor stay with us. This best of retrospective consists of 10 songs from their 1960 album "At the Drop of a Hat", and 10 songs from their 1964 album "At the Drop of another Hat". It closes with an encore of "The Wompom", which appeared on their album "The Bestiary of Flanders & Swann" from 1961. If you appreciate English humor at all you are going to love this CD, and if you are anything like me you will pick up on new things each time you hear it and grow to love it even more. Your only regret from buying this would be that you will likely realize that you should have bought "The Complete Flanders & Swann" box set, but you have been warned.

This takes a careful listening, but as one's ear grows accustomed to the delightful English diction, mirth grows. I found myself laughing out loud, and I haven't done that in a long time.

Combine John Stewart ("The Daily Show") with cabaret and set it in 1950's England -- you've got Flanders & Swan. Funny. Insightful. Cutting. Wise. Fun. How can you go wrong? The singing duo were a delight and their humor feels as timely now as it must have forty years ago. Highly recommended.

Flanders and Swann were brilliant, witty songwriters who wrote acute but subtle satire (among other things). In spite of the title, this record is not a "Best Of" collection, but a repackaging of their two best-known albums, "At the Drop of a Hat" and "At the Drop of Another Hat." A lot of people don't realize that there were two recordings of "At the Drop of a Hat": the first, produced by George Martin for Parlophone, was recorded during its original run at the Fortune Theatre in London in the late '50s, and is much better than the Angel Records version recorded on Broadway. This reissue, unfortunately, uses the Broadway version, in which Flanders seems a little bored with the material (or perhaps unsure that the American audience will get some of the jokes) and tends to rush the punch lines. This collection also omits one of the best songs from "At the Drop of a Hat"(which certainly belongs on any CD with this title), the conscientious-objection allegory "The Reluctant Cannibal." While this is well worth listening to, your money would be better spent on the original "Hats" in their complete form (with "Cannibal"), preferably the Martin-produced version, if it's still available.

Reviews

My brother out-law hooked us into this by giving us the Bestiary album. We enjoyed the songs so much that we went looking for more. The humor is very English, the historical references are sometimes dated (and therefore educational) and the music is first-rate. I must also add that the lyrical complexity is something that bears more than one listen. Flanders manages to squeeze so much meaning out of so few words, that one picks up new insights even after many listens.

First heard this when I was in grade school and 50+ years later am still singing the songs on it. We used to listen to it when we came home from school for lunch and with the family after dinner. It never lost it's appeal.

I count myself a rare American who appreciates this recording. My uncle sent it to me on tape when I was quite small. my mom, ever handy with the censor's razor blade, let it go--untouched--in spite of the song about madeira, which I now know is about an old man doing the nasty to a young innocent lass. back then, of course, I thought it was about cake! with both mom and uncle passed on, I wanted to buy up what music of theirs I could locate, and I fortunately found the Complete Flanders and Swann, apparently no longer available. i bought up the copy and didn't get scalped, somehow. 45 years after the songs were sung, "Transport of Delight," "Soung of Reproduction," and "reluctant Cannibal," and yes even "Song of the Weather," still reverberate in my mind. i used to sing "The Gas Man Cometh," from the "At the drop of Another Hat" show album, in performances as a teen-ager, and sometimes even got good results. any of their albums are money well spent.

For those of you who grew up with the UK recording of "At the Drop of a Hat" be warned - in spite of what it says on the box this is NOT the recording of the 1959 show at the Fortune Theatre. This is the Broadway show. The identity of the recording can be determined in the first minute from Flanders' introduction of Swann as "noted composer, pianist, linguist, also contains lanolin" - in the Fortune Theatre recording he is introduced as "noted composer, pianist, linguist, and all round egghead". There are substantial differences in the two performances, not least of which the pace which is a lot quicker in this recording, lacking the elegant timing which characterised the UK performance and which is comparable to the available CD of "At the Drop of Another Hat" (which WAS recorded in the UK). Many of the jokes and asides are different - for instance in "Have Some Madeira", the Fortune Theatre recording includes an aside "He slyly inveigled her up to his flat, to view his collection of stamps [aside] All unperforated! ha ha ha ..." clearly this was regarded as too risqué for the US performance. The songs are the same vintage and hilarious Flanders and Swann but the presentation, to me, is nowhere close to the quality of the earlier performance - it sounds to me like they were by this stage tired of the material and "going through the motions" for an audience that they did not relate to in the same way as an English audience. Incidentally - Too Many Cookers, Vanessa, Tried by the Centre Court and The Youth of the Heart were not on the original LP recording and judging from the acoustics these were recorded elsewhere. The sleeve notes identify these as being recorded in 1957, 2 years prior to the Fortune Theatre performance.

My father used to work in the kitchen, cooking or cleaning, with music playing in the background. One of his favorites was this album by Flanders & Swann. He had seen the show and loved the record. I sang the songs through my childhood and now I sing them to my children, my co-workers, my friends! I only just realized that I can get the original album on CD. WHAT JOY!!!

Reviews

Unlike 1967's Report from Hoople, the talk in this one is really annoying. Had it just been the Professor talking I would have liked it, but his co-hosts have to go. 25 minutes of good PDQ Bach tunes and 35 minutes of lame blather I couldn't even sit through once.

This is a satire of the annoying disc jockey "personalities" who are all-too-apparent on radio today. As is so often the case with this sort of satire, it mimicks what its mocking a little too closely while not providing enough in the way of humor. There are some good pieces, like the PDQ Bach folksongs, but the music faded to the background when viewed alongside the obnoxious radio personalities. Some of it, was not only annoying, but kind of poinless, like the Elvis parody. I'm a huge fan of PDQ, but this album was too much even for me.

Okay, I am not really a listener of classical radio stations, so I cannot comment on whether this send-up of classical radio stations is really fair. But, when I am trapped in a car without my IPOD, I do listen to many pop radio stations and the material on this CD with lots of annoying and stupid DJ chatter is all too familiar. But that is the problem. Listening to this CD is like watching a comedy skit that goes on and on longer than it has to. Yes I did laugh a few times at the material and the liner notes. But I cannot say this is really even "average" PDQ material, hence the below average rating.

Ok, it's not better than Citizen Kane. It's just that I played "Jocko" on this CD and had a great time doing it. I'm glad so many people reviewed and liked the recording. Elliott Forrest

Let me say at the outset that this is not my favorite PDQ Bach album. I agree with other reviewers that the PDQ Bach works themselves are somewhat less inspiring that on other albums. But there is one aspect of this album that needs to be pointed out: it is an absolutely devestating parody of what has become of classical music radio stations. More and more I find (and apparently Schickele also finds) that classical stations have become watered-down affairs, bland, inoffensive-- "relaxing" they call it. Music for people who basically don't like music very much. You know, background music that you don't have to pay much attention to or think about too much. Basically, high class muzak. This album takes that whole thing on in spades. In fact, in some sense it's really too true to be funny. I swear, the classical station in Boston must really have a "no minor keys until after 11pm" rule, and if they're not quite "all Pachelbel all the time!", they certainly play at least 33% obscure baroque works, while playing maybe 2% romantic and *zero* percent 20th century. So while the comedy on this album may not be the very best, the parody is absolutely spot-on. For that, I say "Kudos!!"

Reviews

Great product. On my 2nd one now only because the 1st one was run over by a truck at a construction site. The hand held flashlight is perfect and I always know where it's located and that it's charged. I leave the unit plugged in when I'm not mobile with it so it's always charged. It's lightweight, durable and sounds pretty good. I like the digital tuning display for finding my favorite radio stations and the NOAA weather station is really handy when I'm working outside with the Storm Station and need a quick weather update.

I got the Storm Station as a gift. After plugging it in to charge it for 24 hours (as recommended by the manual) I wanted to test it out. The flashlight worked fine. Nothing else worked at all. When I tried to turn on the radio or LED lights on the unit, they went on for about a second and then the whole unit died. I called Black and Decker customer service and talked to a pleasant, but unhelpful, rep who had no suggestions other than to return it. He indicated that this is not an unusual problem for these units. I really liked the features on this unit - AC power inverter, USB plug, hand crank, etc. - so I decided to return it for a new one. Amazon's return process was awesome, unfortunately the replacement unit had the exact same problem as the first. In this case, it's two strikes and you're out so I'm giving up on the Storm Station and will find a replacement that will actually work (which is a desirable quality for an item you may need to rely on in an emergency!).

I purchased this after I lost power during our recent 1-2 punch snow storms in the mid-Atlantic states. As far as I know all things work - Flashlight, radio, etc. I purchased this mainly due to the fact that I live in an all-electric environment and when that goes out so does everything else. My biggest fear was losing my cell phone and this has a place where you can charge up your cell manually if not on the battery power. So - I have not had to use it and I hope not to in the near future. But I keep it charged and I feel a little bit less "alone" should the lights go out. If it all works when I need it it's well worth the investment.

Loved the concept of having an emergency power source, weather and FM radio, and flashlight/room light easily accessible in the event of an emergency. I especially loved the idea of a hand crank in the event of an extended outage. However, I must add myself to the disappointed group. The instructions said it would come uncharged and needed to be charged for a day. It seemed to fully charge within a very short time (couple hours) and the detachable flashlight did not light at all. I kept it plugged in the full 24 hours hoping the flashlight would then light up but it did not. Not even a dim stream of light. Absolutely no light shone from this flashlight. This would not be very helpful in an emergency. Given that an emergency power station needs to be reliable, I had to one star this as this product appears not to be so.

My Dad had mentioned to me that he would like to have an emergency radio so I began searching for one for his birthday. I found two different models of Black and Deckers and started comparing them both. After reading lots of reviews and comparing I decided on the SS50B and I could not have made a better choice! My Dad just loves this radio. When I mentioned maybe getting one for him for his birthday he said all that mattered was that it had a crank and that he did not need all the extras. After I gave him this one he said he was glad that I had gotten him one with all the "extras" on it. The LED light is bright enough to comfortably read with, the flashlight is very bright and works well, the AC plug (yes, we have been experimenting just in case we need it for real) will charge our cell phone and actually run the coffe pot! It picks up the weather and radio stations nicely and has the emergeny channels plus AM and FM bands. We tested it to see how long it would hold a charge and it held a very powerful charge for a week. Our whole family now feels a little safer when a storm comes through and my Dad is very satisfied with his birthday present and he especially loves all the little "extras" !

Reviews

This is not dependable in a storm. The light indicating that it is fully charged does not come on EVER. The outlets which would be great for charging a cell phone do not work. It is also an eyesore. The flashlight works. At first, the radio worked. I do not keep it plugged in all the time as I had in the past, so unless I know a storm is coming well in advance, this does not help at all.

Used for a couple years, mainly only the flashlight. Purchased in 2005 and flashlight just quit working a couple months ago. Do not see where bulb or battery can be replaced. All other functions still work I would assume.

I bought this for my son in law a couple of years ago and it has proved itself over and over again. It's everything you need in an emergency, and my grandkids thinks it is a life saver, they don't like sitting in the dark.

This is a toy for picnics and occasional short-term (30 minute) power outages. DO NOT bet your safety on the "StormStation." Shop around. There are far more reliable and practical products for the money. In the meantime, Black & Decker should either discontinue this product or sell it for a vastly-reduced price with a disclaimer that it is not for actual emergencies. Again, DO NOT bet your or your family's safety on this product.

I gave the storm station as a birthday gift to a relative in Arkansas. The family was so impressed by the gift they called me and said it came just in time to alert them of an oncoming storm. Every outlet worked perfectly, the light it gave them when the power went out was incredible. They felt so much better and safer having the StormStation during their frequent power outages. Fantastic buy for the money

Reviews

We have 3 of these - one for each of our kids. It has a great loud white noise sound (waterfall) and travels beautifully. The two major drawbacks, though, and the reasons I'll be replacing them for something different: 1) after a year or so of use, it functions poorly - cutting in and out at times, 2) in a power outage, the sound machine goes out but then when the power comes back on, it goes back on to its default - chirping birds! So we're desperately running around trying to flip it back to waterfall so our kids don't wake up. I've finally found a machine now that reverts to battery when the power goes out (often in our neck of the woods) - Sound Oasis sound therapy - it's more expensive, but worth it, I think. But overall, the Homedics is a great machine for the price if your power doesn't go out often :)

This is one of the biggest pieces of junk. Worked fine for a couple of months, then would start randomly cutting out. I'm someone that's grown up with sound machines helping get to sleep and stay asleep, so I've gotten to the point that if everything goes quiet in my room I will immediately wake up. This machine has cut out more and more over the last year and now I can't even get it to connect to the power cord anymore so I have to keep batteries in it at all times. I'll turn it on and turn the knob for the volume, something that should be a relatively easy task, and it will cut in and out, in and out. And a lot of the time it won't even come on at all, even if I've just replaced the batteries. It's awful. Spend some more money on a machine that actually works. You'll be glad you did.

This product has good sound, and is small enough to travel with when needed. I would buy this again.

I've been having trouble sleeping lately, so I decided to go back to using Sound Machines. In the past I always set them to the Ocean Waves sounds and left them on all night. Because of this, they frequently died on me due to so much use - so it was time to buy a new one! One great feature about this sound machine is the timer option. I was looking forward to falling asleep to the sound of ocean waves once again, but unfortunately that has not happened with this machine. Personally it doesn't sound like the seagulls are in the background at all. It sounds like they are right there on the shore near where the sounds are being recorded. In order to hear the ocean waves sounding like more than just white noise you have to turn it up loud enough that the seagulls are distracting and disturbing when trying to get a good night's sleep. The rain sounds nice, but there are a few dripping sounds that are also distracting. It's like rain dripping off of an awning rather than just pitter-pattering on the ground. Maybe it's because I've had insomnia lately, but it's just really too noticeable to fall asleep to. I really want to like this product, but if I can't sleep to the sounds of the ocean with it, then it's really just not going to work out between us. I've just not been able to switch it off of "Waterfall" - which is basically just White Noise. I can't really comment on the other sounds too much. I bought this machine to also tune out the crickets outside my window - so I haven't used the "Summer Night" sounds. The "Rainforest" is basically the same issue, but with birds instead of crickets, so I haven't tried listening to that one much either. The "Heartbeat" I must agree with others and say is a bit creepy - though I understand the use of it for babies.

This sound machine worked perfectly for 2 months, and now it cuts out and stays off unless I adjust the volume of it. Annoying and doesn't help my daughter to sleep anymore. Don't buy this.

Reviews

I recently purchased this item and just want to say that it is great! I was worried that for the price, I wasn't going to get an accurate count or that the radio would be lousy, but I am happy to say I was wrong! The radio is strong (though it cuts out, which i think is because it has an internal antenna) and easy to use, and the count (so far) is accurate within 2 steps. I highly recommend this product!

Reviews

The headset works just like I expected it to. The foam ear-piece can be a little uncomfortable after a long time wearing it, but this is true of almost any headphones or ear-piece. Volume is great for louder environments and it works with the Motorola radio VOX as expected, when you read the instructions. Could be a bit more comfortable, but it works like I expected.

These are light weight headsets for motorola walkabout radios. For just communicating in quiet areas line of sight they are great. If you were at a crowded area like a fair or amusement park, it might not cut the mustard. I am satisfied they are a good value for the price.

After spending an inordinate amount of time removing it from the packing it was defective. I was going to say more but it's simply this SAVE YOUR MONEY on this item.

The item served its use; however not the quality I thought it was priced at.

I bought these headphones to use with Trisquare eXRS radios. I wanted a headset with a boom mic rather than the earbuds that came with the Trisquare. The description of these headsets did not specify that they would work with eXRS but the price was good so I gave them a try. They work very well with the Trisquare radios. They are comfortable and the boom mic can be positioned at a desired distance from your mouth. They are sensitive enough for the VOX on the Trisquare.

Reviews

for the price, this internet radio far out performs any other internet radio in this price range.

The Chumby doesn't do much of anything really, really well. But for the money it does quite a bit pretty darn well. It is a fun device. A great value IMO. I use it daily to play music from Pandora and to stream pics from Picasa. Also lets me stay up to date on stock market and headline news, and offers quite a few other cool apps. Kind of lame for games - I would definitely not recommend it to someone who planned to use it that way. I was very tempted to give this a 5 star rating, but it just does not quite have the quality and consistency of performance to warrant that.

It's OK, has some nice features and some major shortcomings. It works well as an alarm clock as you can customize alarms as much you want and offers a variety of sounds. The available widgets vary greatly in their usefulness. It can be pretty handy to wake up to the weather. On the other hand, as a previous reviewer pointed out, the wifi reception is poor and the Chumby is very frustrating to use as an internet radio. At times it can stream music such as Pandora without problems but other times it constantly skips and freezes. The customer service responded very promptly to complaints but tried to blame the problem on interference. There are a number of complaints on the Chumby forums about weak wifi. The FM radio is worthless. I can't get a single station. The speaker is decent. It is fine for alarms and spoken broadcasts, not so much for music. The touchscreen is also rather mediocre and I occasionally have to touch the screen a few or even several times for it to register.

Chumby One is a nice toy, designed to provide snippets of the internet in a fun way. Since it's supposed to be always connected, it is very disappointing that its WiFi reception is so weak. It can't connect to a b/g router 20 feet away, and behind a wall. Nice little unit, if you keep it in the same room as your wifi router.

I received this as a gift in December and the family liked this cool internet toy. The novelty has worn off and I found that the chumby would sit in the kitchen unpowered for weeks. Nobody would bother to plug it in. So I have relocated Chumby to my office and reset to appropriate widgets. I like it here. So I think its value is more personal than as a shared item. You need to think about the user and setting before buying, which is true about any gift really. My 2 cents.

Reviews

The solar-powered radio is hard to listen to due to difficulty in "holding" a radio frequency. Also, although charged enough for the flashlight to work, the crank has to be turned in order to listen to the radio. The packaging wasn't person-useful for a return, so I've kept the radio. In an emergency, I can listen to weather stations by turning the crank. It IS an advantage to have the gadget powered just by solar energy rather than by battery or electricity. The flashlight does provide good light, also. Although I wouldn't have ordered this particular radio if I'd known the above information, I'll keep it for emergency use, which is the reason I bought such a radio in the first place.

Bought one of these about a year ago for my earthquake kit. At first, it worked fine w/o any issues. Actually needed it last week during a power outage. The radio part would NOT work no matter how long I cranked it, nor how much solar charge I gave it. The battery light goes green for a few secs, then just dies. The flashlight part still works though. Nice concept, but on the search for something that's more reliable.

I bought this regular radio, weather radio, flashlight and phone charger for emergencies when we loose power. It works great. The radio is sometimes hard to get stations in, but most of the strong ones come in fine. The crank works good and the solar charging feature is very nice. I can't believe how small this is. We lost power a month or so ago and I used this. It really works good. For the money, this is a cheap emergency item to have in an house or if you are away on vacation and need something portable.

It is a nice radio, producing sound comparable for a similar sized radio. Easy to use hand charger, and I like the fact that it has a solar panel. LED flashlight is very bright.

Compact and easy to use - surprisingly good sound quality for just a 2-1/2" speaker. Used it within a week of receiving it - tornado sirens went off and we spent the next hour in the basement listening to crystal clear NOAA reports. I like the solar recharge for the battery - just stuck it out in the sun the next sunny day. Backup crack is easy to use. We didn't lose power so I don't know if the LED light on the AM/FM display is bright enough; it probably isn't too important as you can just run up and down the frequencies with the dial. We also like that it will charge a cell phone; flashlight could be a bit bigger and brighter and I don't think it has a siren. However, the volume goes up so loud, if you are able to turn it on, they will find you.

Reviews

Not a good receiver. I have a couple of these portable FM receivers and this one just doesn't receive as well as the others. Maybe because this one doesn't have a mono switch? I don't know. I do know the signal is good but the sound through this receiver isn't.

The radio worked fine for three weeks, now you can't get contact in the port for sound. The headphones are JUNK.

I have bought several small radios over the years and always buy the mid priced ones. I live between some hills in the country but 10 miles from a large city. My reception in AM and Fm has always been mediocre. This Sony model got the best AM reception I have ever had ! That's great because that's what I wanted it for. The FM though was very weak on most stations that usually come in better with other brands I've had. I tried the newest model that is yellow and made for armband etc. and it deserves the bad reviews it gets. Don't waste your coins on that one ! This one is probably phased out or on it's way our but the referbished deal is awesome if you can get it ! It also ultra simple to program and use and has the nice "lock" feature so if it gets bumped it won't alter your settings. The FM will be fine in a city but not long distance.

Does Sony build anything that doesn't get at least 4 stars? On my second set of ear-phones (the first work well, but needed new ear pads ... God those are expensive given what they are ... nothing! fae

its a wonderful walkman and the people on amazon who sold it to me were great. it arrived promptly and it looked brand new even though it was refurbished. most of the time the reception is great. and if it isnt i just change the station. it has alot of preset channnels so you can just flick a button and you have another station. but the majority of the time the reception is great! i use it when i work out in the gym and walking and i cannot workout without them. it only uses one battery so its nice that it conserves on batteries.

Reviews

1. Time display is small and therefore makes it almost useless as an alarm clock. The year is displayed LARGE if you don't know what year it is. Da! 2. The LCD is dim if not looked at strait on. 3. Setting the time and all the functions is rather difficult and works different than the manual. Weather alerts work OK but don't know about overall reliability. Will probably return it or will just use it for weather alerts and forget about the time and alarm function.

Love this. Since we've had a ton of storms roll our way this is awesome to keep us updated and informed when warnings are no longer in effect when we're stuck in the basement. Thanks for this great product.

Ordered this radio because it had a separate antenna to improve reception in our large facility. We have about a dozen hand-held NOAA radios in various departments. Some of them have difficulty with reception of weather warnings. The reason I rated this radio at a moderately good level is because the manual is incomplete and very sparse on the actual operation of the radio. Other than the separate antenna, it performs about the same as units that we paid much less for. While this radio is adequate for the purpose of receiving NOAA warnings, its performance did not equal the premium that we paid over the hand-held units from another manufacturer. If a more robust and better documented unit was availble I would buy one, even if the cost was greater. I would recommend looking elsewhere than to Midland for this type of product.

I am happy with it as a weather radio but it doesnt seem to multipurpose too well as a regular radio also. I think one is better off buying the cheaper weather only Midland radio. Save the extra money and buy a cheap store radio and one will have better am/fm receptionI bought this radio primarily as a weather radio and for this purpose it seems to be pretty good. But I was hoping the am/fm feature would be good. It is digital with three memories on each band. I assume the radio would be at least good, but it has the sensitivity of an old fashioned crystal set. I live in the a city area and should be getting pretty good reception . It only has one speaker also.

We live on the boarder of two counties so this is a great buy. We can select what types of alerts we want and for what counties we want. I cannot tell you the peace of mind this has brought to our home. I used to panic and worry about foul weather and now I don't. It has a battery backup which is great for when the power goes out. This model can also be used as an alarm clock, but we have not used that function. That could be very useful for camping and whatnot.