SangeanCL-100 NOAA, S.A.M.E and Public Alert Certified Weather Alert Table-Top Radio with AM/FM-RBDS, and EEPROM Back Up for Preset Stations

North Carolina doesn't have tornado sirens on public buildings, and I always worry about being asleep in bed when a tornado strikes. I decided to look into buying a weather alert radio. I did a lot of price research and read a lot of reviews before I settled on this model. I didn't mind paying for quality, since a cheapie weather radio would let our family down when we need it most.I just got our Sangean CL-100 Table Top Public Alert Weather Radio yesterday and spend an hour or two reading the manual and setting it up. The features I like most on this unit are the ability to put in the county codes (available online from NOAA) for the areas that affect our home, and the ability to turn off alerts that don't apply to us. I turned off the iceburg and avalanche warnings and I wondered what the boiling water warning is. I was pleased to see an Amber Alert warning for missing children, and even a frost warning for those of us who garden. It takes a little time to punch in all the numbers, codes and notes, but it's not hard. I left the "thunderstorm watch" alert enabled so I could make sure the unit works. It worked last night - loud and clear! There's no way anyone could sleep through that siren, although there is a volume control if you don't want to be shocked awake.The unit itself is very sturdy and well made, with buttons that feel solid. It comes with an antenna booster, which is useful out in the boonies where we live. It also funtions as an alarm clock and FM radio, but I won't be using it for that. I have it set up in an inconspicuous place, just waiting to alert us if there is a fire, tornado or hail alert issued.One thing I noticed is that the price has nearly doubled since I bought mine on backorder six weeks ago. I probably wouldn't have purchased it at $140 - I paid $73.Overall, this is a really nice unit. Every home should have a weather alert radio, and I recommend this one.

I live in Florida and bought a weather radio in 2004 after Hurricane Charley, and while that radio did it's job, it ONLY had the NOAA stations and I wanted to upgrade to a radio that has the NOAA channels, as well as AM/FM, and could still be powered if the juice went out. I initially was looking for a hand crank radio, but after reading some reviews, it seemed like most of them were garbage, so I spent a few hours reading reviews and trying to decide which radio seemed like the best choice, and finally settled on the CL-100. It does everything I want and then some, and don't regret the purchase.The nice thing about the CL-100 is that you can program it to pick up alerts from select counties (it's easy enough to look up the county codes online), and you can also pick and choose which alerts you want to receive and which you don't. For example, I don't really want to be notified every time a Severe Thunderstorm Watch is issued. I just want to know when something HAPPENS. It looks like you cannot disable the alerts for more serious events, like Tornado Warnings, Hurricane Warnings, etc. but that is probably a good thing.So far so good as far as being alerted to weather events, as I found out recently with Tropical Storm Andrea. My radio went off saying that a Tropical Storm Warning had been issued, so I went out to the NHC's site, and sure enough, there was Andrea with newly initiated advisories. The radio was also going off like crazy when Andrea rolled through and there were Tornado Warnings left and right in my area. So the CL-100, so far, is doing it's job, and doing it well. I've had it for almost a year by the way, and still seems to work great.Regarding the volume of the siren - yes, I concede that it is pretty loud. But when the radio first goes off, it starts at a low volume so that it doesn't scare the bejeezus out of you, and steadily increases to its full volume in about 5 seconds or so, rather than blowing you away at max volume the moment it goes off. When it reaches peak volume, yeah, it's loud, but just hit the "weather" button and you will be switched over to the NOAA radio giving you the details and you're good to go. I guess I'm fine with it being loud, though - I'm a heavy sleeper and might sleep through it if it wasn't so loud.This is a great little weather radio for a reasonable price. I highly suggest picking up a CL-100 if you're in the market for a weather radio.