KC8QVO

Just out of curiosity - do any of you have a weather radio with you on your trips?

I am looking for something that has the programmable alerts that I can throw on my handlebar (weatherproof even better). I figured some of you would have something like this so what do you have? What would you do different? What works/doesnt work on the bike?

Doug64

My wife and I took a small radio that included a "weather channel" on a cross country ride several years ago. It was mailed home with other items we no longer needed about midway into the trip. Even though it was a relatively costly radio, reception was spotty and we did not find it useful. When small netbooks came out we used one to check weather, email, update our blog, etc. This was in the pre-smartphone days. On more recent trips we rely on our phones and Accuweather or NOAA Weather.

adventurepdx

Of course, there are areas where there is no wifi/3G service, and this is where a weather radio comes in handy. This was put in practice a few years ago, when I was touring around Glacier and camped at Two Medicine Lake. The weather forecast for the next day was calling for extremely high winds, gale force. That helped me decide to spend an extra day at camp rather than try to tough out the winds.

I've used Eton radios for the last few years, first the Scorpion and now the Raptor. I've gotten decent weather band reception on both, though these radios aren't as durable as they should be. To the OP, if you're looking for a weather radio, find one with a telescoping external radio. That will help with reception.

And if nothing else, it's nice having a radio camping sometimes. Making breakfast and listening to NPR/CBC at camp is one of my routines.

KC8QVO

So what kind of alert services do you use?

What i am looking for is something that will alert me to weather without going somewhere and looking at reports and forecasts. I use Intellicast for a radar/report, but it doesn't do me any good unless I stop and refresh the webpage on my phone - if i have service to do so.

My last day tour I ended up out in severe weather, luckilly it developed bad once it passed me, but that illustrates the point - having a method of alerts while i am riding is more efficient than stopping to check every 10 minutes.

Cyclebum

I used this on a couple of tours. It worked when there was coverage. Still works, but I no longer carry it, relying now on the cell phone. Like in calling a family member for up dates, or checking with locals, if concerned.
s

KC8QVO

I dont care about "listening" so much as the "alerts" (S.A.M.E. technology) - i usually have a ham radio or two for the entertainment side. I just want to know if/when there is a severe thunderstorm, tornado, hail, etc warning and where. The other side of it is knowing where I am, but my phone maps are good for that.

KC8QVO

Midland makes a hand-held SAME receiver - the HH54VP series. That is along the lines of what I am looking for. I'd still be interested in everyones reports/info. That would be nice if some manufacturer made a ham radio hand held (dual band vhf/uhf) that had SAME technology but it doesnt look like that exists, yet.

JoeyBike

I carry a small weather radio every USA tour. Looks like this:


Source

Mine is a older version that is NOT rechargeable which I prefer. Four Lithium AA batteries are light and last months and months in the radio. Spare batteries last 10 years and weigh next to nothing if you want to carry spares.

My tours last six or seven months at a time and very rarely am I in a rush to get anywhere or have strict itineraries. Sometimes I would wake up in my tent, turn on the radio, and if the wind direction and speed forecast didn't suit me I went back to sleep! I also used it every night to plan my next day out. All Clear - probably cycle all day. Weather Angst - cut the day short or take a day off. I found it quite useful. Yes, there will be places without reception. Check the forecast for the next day at the last town you are riding through or supplement with a small AM/FM receiver that will also give you world news and some tunes now and then.

I do not carry a smart phone. I carry a $5 Samsung flip-phone. If it gets lost, stolen, or drowned I won't be spending a months trip fund to replace it, and I would prefer to spend $90/month service fees on an occasional hotel room or three.


Source

I do see the attraction to smart phones for tours especially for weight savings. One phone takes the place of a camera, phone, and weather radio but should probably be accompanied by a backup battery. The Cloud sounds like a good idea for loved ones to have access to photos but in reality, most loved ones have better things to do with their day than look at someone else's vacation photos. At least your photos will be safe even if the phone does not survive the trip.

Of course, many people already own smart phones and are totally addicted to them, so any rationality I may have posted may be ignored with no hard feelings by those folks. My tours focus on getting away from being "in touch" so much.

KC8QVO

Thanks for the post JoeyBike - I share some of the same thoughts, though i havent taken the "out of touch" idea to the bike yet. I have a smart phone but i do not want to totally rely on it.

I stopped at the store and they had that same oregon scientific yellow hand held so i picked one up - rechargeable. It is $20 less than the Midland one also. Ill give it a try and see how it does.

Tourist in MSN

Bike touring, I do not bring a weather radio - except I did bring it on one trip with vehicle support so I threw it into my duffle along with the high gain antennae since a truck was going to be hauling it. That gave me morning weather forecasts for the day. The high gain antennae was needed when far from civilization.

I use a marine band radio for kayak touring and canoe trips, I think all marine band radios have weather bands. Some marine band radios are waterproof. But I can't imagine why you would need a weather alert when you are outside on your bike, if the weather looks bad that should be your alert. A smartphone with wifi or a data plan that allows you to look at time lapse radar or at several days of wind forecasts is in my opinion much more useful than a weather radio for a bike tour. Even if I brought a weather radio, it would not be on my handlebar, it would be in a pannier.

My weather and marine band radios take a lot of AA batteries. I switched to AAA batteries in AAA-to-AA adapters to reduce weight.

Carbonfiberboy 

My wife and I have used a weather radio on our long distance hikes and bike tours. We find them very useful. We usually can get reception even in areas that are completely outside of cell coverage. We listen in the morning and evening but not usually during the day. If weather looks bad or dangerous, we stay put. For weather alerts we just look around. We've ridden through many thunderstorms. I doubt that a warning system would be of much use except for tornadoes, though I expect that would be covered in a morning broadcast. We wouldn't ride in such an area during that season anyway.

Doug64

We've gone on 2 and 3 month tours without "live time" weather intelligence. We've ridden through Nebraska and Iowa during the tornado season, and did just fine. When there was a tornado warning, one, folks stopped and let us know. My experience in the US is there are not many extensive areas lacking cell coverage. For the 2 or 3 days, probably the most I've experienced in the US, that I may be out of cell range; I'll take my chances. I have a hard time adding another item that will require batteries or a charger, for what I perceive as marginal benefit. I'm not entirely certain that we would have done anything different if we would have know about the one tornado we were even close to. We still had to ride to the town we were heading for, and were more worried about the rain, thunder and lightning than the tornado, which was several miles away. We were never in danger at that time.

Other than that 1 tornado warning in Nebraska, I can't think of a time when an "alert" would have made any difference in the last 7 years of touring which amounts to a little over a year's time on the road. However,we use the Accuweather site extensively to plan rides in the morning, evenings and during the day, and can time the cell movement to decide if rain gear is going to be needed, how long we should nurse that hot chocolate in the cafe or take a rest day.

We've also pulled over and hunkered down under our small tarp when unexpected events happen. This was at 10:00 am, and that is what it actually looked like. A radio alert would not have made any difference; it still would have been scarry! I'm getting out the small tarp (ground cloth) shortly before we hunkered down in the ditch to wait out the worst of the storm.


Sixty mph winds blew down several of these large cottonwood trees. The winds also caused a wildfire to jump the road behind us. This was the only refuge (Oregon's high desert) in a 50 mile radius, so I'm not sure what an alert, if there was one, would have helped. We were lucky enough to already have camp set up in a relatively sheltered area before the storm hit.

KC8QVO

A couple things I've found:

1. The portable radio I got is the Oregon Scientific WR601N. It has a cradle and wall wart power supply, but it is NOT rechargeable. It takes regular AA batteries. It is capable of programming in the S.A.M.E. codes for LOCATION ONLY (county-specific, or county sub-section, if divided).

2. The S.A.M.E. technology also carries coding for the alert/event type (such as tornado, severe thunderstorm, blizzard, wild fire, wind, etc - tons of them) and level (such as advisory, watch, warning). Some radios only let you program in the location-based SAME code (specific to the state/county). Some radios let you do that as well as specify the events on which to alert in that location.

3. Some radios are programmable for the type of alerting - tone, voice, or visual. I think any kind of audible alert, though, includes the alarm; and those are also fixed levels and very loud.

I picked up a Midland WR-120B model for the house and it does all the SAME programming so I got to see what all is possible. The bad part about the portable I got for the bike is it will alert on ANY alert issued for the advisory area - administrative, tests, child abductions, advisories, watches, and warnings = it will go off on everything under the sun. That's not what I'm after. I just want to know if there is a severe thunderstorm or tornado watch/warning.

The take-away here:

I misunderstood what the S.A.M.E. technology was - contrary to the acronym, it is not all the same (pun intended). There are two levels - location-only with all alerts and location + customized alerts. There are also radios that have "alerts" that are not SAME-capable radios. I had a CB radio that did this and it was a PITA - it was not location or alert specific - any alert issued from a transmitter it would pick up.

Now I'm on the search for a portable that does customized alerts.... So far I think the SIMA WX-150 and 200 models, although more akin to the nightstand style Midland I got than a hand-held, is the only compact radio that does customized alerts also. I'll see what I can come up with.

fietsbob

OP, Theres Portable Ham Transceivers , right? KC8QVO your calls sign? Thus, you can always ask over the air..

whats the weather over ( location-here ) going to be?

staehpj1

Yes but the OP is looking for alerts not just the ability to check on the weather.

Not knocking what others do in this regard, but my take on this is that it is just another unnecessary thing to carry. I am pretty satisfied with just keeping an eye on the sky.

KC8QVO

I do take ham radios with me on the bike, but like staehpj1 says - I just want alerts. I don't have the radio going all the time. Plus, unfortunately, in my area there are no active repeaters. So the dual band HT ends up just a receiver - mostly weather. Sometimes I have HF with me too (that's another topic for another time), but for regular riding, day trips, and general practicality there isn't anything I have that will "alert" by itself without turning on and monitoring. For the times I do want to monitor and listen to forecasts having the radio on the handlebar as I ride (as I do now with my phone and other radios) is best so I don't have to put the radio in a pocket or hold on to it while I ride.

I've been searching here and came across the Cobra CWR-200 - it has a "tornado mode" that limits the alerts, but still isn't customizable... Getting closer I suppose.

fietsbob

I just stopped in Pubs along the way .. Weather a popular topic .. missed a few in Bavaria..
one , the storm went into a Flood , overnight.. it included my Campsite..

Then I got to stay in the Burgermeisters House , for a few days ..

Booger1

I look up......

NeilGunton

I use the Midland HH50 Pocket Weather Radio:

Amazon.com: Midland HH50 Pocket Weather Radio: Electronics

I like the HH50 because it is so small and simple. You just turn it on, and it automatically looks for the best channel. Nothing to adjust except for the volume, which I usually leave alone anyway. So if I was wondering about what the weather might be doing hereabouts then I could stop by the side of the road, turn this little radio on, and listen for a couple of minutes to get the gist. Very nice. I like simple, and it's so lightweight that you won't even notice it in your handlebar bag.

I also quite like the Sangean DT-400, because it also has AM/FM radio reception:

Amazon.com: Sangean DT-400W AM/FM Digital Weather Alert Pocket Radio: Electronics

I keep this one more for the home emergency kit, though, because it's larger and obviously a bit more complex. You also have to use a wire antenna (or, headphones can also do double duty as an antenna). But it would be nice if you really liked listening to radio on the road.

Neil

KC8QVO

Neil - Thanks for the reply. The dual band ham radio I have is pretty small - cheap baofeng uv3r. If I leave it on the local weather station I can do the same - turn it on and the weather is right there.

I have a sony SRF M37W walkman radio also that has weather. In fact, the reason I got it was to supplement the weather capability with my HF set up for my backpacking set up before I got the uv3r, and before I started biking. The company that makes my hf radio (Elecraft KX3) just came out with an add-on module for the 2m band that includes wide enough reception to grab the weather band also, however, so all I wont have with that one radio is alert capability - back to the same problem with the direction of the thread here.

NeilGunton

Ok, but we're talking about the touring context here, right? So you're going to be constantly (potentially) moving between the different stations. I don't know how they arrange the channels, but the HH50 will just automatically choose the strongest one for you, no muss, no fuss. Of course, if you're a radio guy who likes fiddling with stuff then I guess that might not be a selling point! ;-)

The HH50 does have an alert mode too. It runs the batteries down more quickly (obviously), but the radio runs on 3 x AAA, so it's quite easy to carry spares. No recharging hassles. Also, I would only put it on "alert" mode when I know that iffy weather could be on the way (e.g. I go to bed with a thunderstorm or tornado watch). If everything looks calm, then I wouldn't bother putting it on alert, personally, but that's always a judgment call.

If you want small and simple, then you really can't do much better than the HH50. If you want more, then of course the sky's the limit there - but it won't be as small, or simple (or light).

adventurepdx

I don't, though the Eton Raptor ​does have a NOAA Alert feature that I haven't tried out. The one big issue with it is you can only set it to one of the seven weather band frequencies, preferably the strongest one you get at home. Since the strongest frequency is going to change as you pedal across a country, it won't always work.

adventurepdx

The Eton Raptor I own uses a solar panel but can be charged via "house" power. Even with a couple hours a day of listening, I only need to charge by plugging in about every two weeks, so it goes pretty long with a charge. And it also acts as an emergency charger for cell phones and other devices too. Of course, it's just shy of a pound so someone concerned about weight wouldn't consider it. It's all a matter of personal preference.

JoeyBike

Cool. Happy I could help.

When I am not on tour that little radio is right at my bedside. If the weather is sketchy I set it to the "alert" mode so it will wake me up if we go under a tornado or severe storm warning. Just know that it uses more battery power in that mode and if you forget to turn it OFF your batteries will die pretty fast.

Cheers!

KC8QVO

Can you comment on the Alert capability?

A couple things I am curious about -
1. When you plug in headphones or an external speaker - does the alert alarm/tone go through the speaker on the radio? Or the headphones/external speaker?
2. Do you get the radio going off with an unwanted alert much? I suppose if you tailor the "standby" mode (able to receive alerts, but not "on") to when you anticipate it going off then that may trim the alerts down.

The portable radio is strictly a portable radio for me. I have a base weather radio now (midland WX-120B as I mentioned above) that does the full customized alerts so no need to put the hand held in "standby" mode at the house, just when I'm out and about.