Emergency Preparedness
The WiredPrairie household, being in southern Wisconsin, is not immune to being in the path of severe thunderstorms or tornadoes (and some nasty winter storms recently). All these years of living in Southern Wisconsin we haven't had an emergency (weather) radio. We've finally rectified that by buying the Midland WR-300
The Midland WR-300, as you'll see, is an extremely well-rated weather radio and alert monitor with S.A.M.E. SAME stands for Specific Area Message Encoding. Using this, you can set this emergency monitor to react to alerts to the area you live in rather than receiving all alerts broadcast in your region (usually a county, parish, city or marine area). This narrows the alerts and reduces the "noise" you might otherwise be alerted to by cheaper alert monitors.
If you head to SAME web site, you'll see it's actually the NWR SAME system. NWR is the acronym for NOAA Weather Radio. NOAA is the acronym for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (So, that becomes: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Weather Radio Specific Area Message Encoding. Can you tell a government was involved?)
This device can receive warnings, watches, or other non-weather emergencies (like Amber alerts for example).
It does violate one of my rules by strongly recommending batteries, but not including any batteries. Shame shame (especially given the nature of this device).
We like the device. It's easy to use and provides a little additional piece of mind for around $40. This model has a few accessories available, like a strobe light, and a larger antenna can be attached for poor reception areas.
I'd highly recommend if you live in any area of the country that is subject to inclement weather that you buy this or something like it (a cheaper model like the Midland WR-100B for example
FYI, it draws about 1 watt of power (2 when the backlight is on).
