Weather Radio

[grich]

The new weather radio will provide all the time. Unless there is a timer circuit, and I haven't come across one yet, the button you push to hear the broadcast leaves the radio on until you hit the button again which mutes the speaker.

Well, both current Midland and Radio Shack models shut down the audio output after an alert. According to the folks at Midland, it should stay on when you push the "Weather" button. So far, it doesn't on the two I've purchased. The Sangean should arrive tomorrow. I'll see what it does.

I don't recall the model of Midland radio, but it did the mute thing, until I opened it up, found the place where the audio muting occurs, and bypassed it. Still working after three years. This model had an external antenna jack but no headphone, so I had to modify it a little further. No biggie.

 

[Fieldtech1]

The Sangean should arrive tomorrow. I'll see what it does.

I know of a station in a top 10 market that was using the Sangean CL-100 to feed the weatherband audio for an HD-3 stream.

 

[Chuck]

I don't recall the model of Midland radio, but it did the mute thing, until I opened it up, found the place where the audio muting occurs, and bypassed it. Still working after three years. This model had an external antenna jack but no headphone, so I had to modify it a little further. No biggie.

Figuring out where the muting occurs might be a good trick on most new radios with surface mount components and no schematic. Figuring out how to get audio out if it should be easy enough.

 

[grich]

I probably traced the audio backwards from the speaker with a Radio Shack mini-speaker-amp and an axial-lead cap for a probe. Just kept going until I found where the audio was always on regardless of mute state.

 

[boiseengineer]

Scanners I've used seem to have a high noise level. Hiss & synthesizer noise.
Hamtronics makes a VHF reciever that works really well. It's $229.
http://www.hamtronics.com/r303.htm
If you've got a weak NOAA signal this may be the answer.

 

[Chuck]

My Sangean radio arrived and it is in service. It is a pretty good little radio for $60. It has way more features than I want or need, but the big one is a switch on the front that says "Weather." When turned on, it seems to lock it into a weather radio only mode and it stays on. I guess I'll have to wait for an alert or EAS test to see if it really stays that way.

As a bonus, it is also an AM-FM clock radio. To my amazement, it also decodes and displays RDS. It also has jacks and terminals for external antennas, as well as audio outputs. It seems to be a very handy little radio. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[kenglish]

BTW, if you have a weak signal from NOAA, you can buy a 162 MHz Yagi antenna from Lindsay, often via your favorite broadcast equipment supplier.
And, if you need a tuned preamp for it (if ya'll are waaaay out in the country), SITCO can supply those.