Is There A Decent Portable Weather Band Radio?

[ski3pin]

Oh how I miss the days when the Subaru in dash radio had the National Weather Service. I wanted one of those in our truck. Subaru says it was eliminated because everyone gets weather on their cell phones. Not where we go. I miss the days of backcountry ski patrol where my USFS Bendix King radio had National Weather Service programed in and the latest forecast was always available.

In the camper we've had various cheaper versions of this -

Midland Emergency Radio

Reception in the backcountry has been nil and useless. The last one, I had to hold on to the extendable antenna to get reception here at home on the kitchen table.

Are there any weather band radios that work? Cell phone and satellite radio are not options.

 

[craig333]

Most any scanner will get weather. I have it programmed into all my ham radios.

 

[RicoV]

My old trusty Oregon Scientific unit (Model #WR102N) has unfortunately been discontinued for current sales by the company, but I notice EBay has a few units available if you're interested in that possibility. A good item to have along out in the deep boonies.
Rico.

 

[KK7OQ]

I use a C Crane Pocket Radio.

https://ccrane.com/products/cc-pocket-am-fm-noaa-weather-radio-alert-with-clock-and-sleep-timer.html

This is the best performing small radio that I have found. Instead of a telescoping antenna it uses a wire that plugs into the headphone port. You can also use a set of wired headphones/earbuds as the antenna. It’s small, so easy to throw into a daypack.


Jim

 

[ckent323]

I agree with KK7OQ

C Crane radios are great. Good reception and clear sound. I have one on the boat and my brother has one he uses. Reasonably priced too.

Also, the higher end GMRS radios have NOAA weather channels if you happen to be considering one.

 

[fish more]

x3 on the c. crane radios

 

[Lighthawk]

Why not use your Inreach?
The device itself will give a modest weather report for locations you specify, not always where you happen to be.
With a smarty-pants phone the app is much nicer to work with and has more details.

<missing screen shot>

 

[Beach]

Still using my 40 yr old Radio Shack radio. Model 12-151a, it gets good reception. Check on Ebay

 

[Mighty Dodge Ram]

C Crane Currently out of stock but I ordered anyway…shipping after 4/22

 

[ski3pin]

Thanks all for the good suggestions, we appreciate your help. I found a new - open box - Scientific American radio that Rico recommends for a good price on ebay. It will be here in a few days. We'll test it out in the remote areas we frequent for a real world test. If we have poor results, we'll try the highly recommended C Crane.

Again, we really appreciate the helpful suggestions.

 

[ski3pin]

Why not use your Inreach?
The device itself will give a modest weather report for locations you specify, not always where you happen to be.
With a smarty-pants phone the app is much nicer to work with and has more details.

<missing screen shot>

Lighthawk, we are currently using the weather feature on the InReach. When in the backcountry and planning "where to head to next" we are missing the detailed forecast that Weather Service broadcast offers. If we can receive it, we see it as a plus.

 

[PaulT]

Monte,

I usually ask for one of the premium weather reports using the Earthmate app. However, I stumbled over the following video that seems like a possibility to get localized NOAA/NWS reports, at least for the near term.
https://hikingguy.com/hiking-gear/wx2inreach-nws-noaa-weather-reports-sent-to-you-garmin-inreach/

Haven’t tried it so I don’t know if it is useful.

Paul

 

[Old Crow]

I used to get the Wx2InReach weather report PaulT refers to before my Inreach had a weather function. That would have been before the Inreach's firmware update of June, 2016.

I liked it but around that time there were several articles about 'hyperlocalized' weather predictions from the new guys on the scene, Dark Sky. I bought the Dark Sky app for my iPad. And I switched to using the weather function on the Inreach as I knew it used Dark Sky for its weather source. However, I don't use it very often... probably only two or three times on a month-long trip. I generally move daily so I can often get the weather report via Dark Sky on my iPad (as I get close enough to a cell tower).

Last night, I was curious whether Wx2InReach is still working. If you look at the What's New tab of its web site, you'll see the last comments by the developer were done back in August of 2019. But then again, HikingGuy used it last summer so maybe it still works.

So I tried it.

It does indeed still work (on my Delorme Inreach Explorer) for the "wx now", "wx now nws6" commands. Like HikingGuy, though, my attempt to use it to get the Mountain Weather Forecast (from mountain_forecast dot com) didn't work. My attempt to get the Mount Robson weather using the example in the instructions (under the Details tab) returned the same message-- "Error- Mountain-Forecast.com not currently supported".

I guess the argument to use Wx2InReach would be to get National Weather Service-based forecasts rather than (or in addition to) the Dark Sky-based ones.

I'm happy with the Dark Sky forecasts on my Inreach. I just have to remember to switch to Premium if I want more detail (i.e., closer-spaced times and a longer forecast) and to click on the individual time interval to get details like precipitation likelihood and amount, cloud coverage percentage, wind speed and direction, wind gust speed, pressure, wind chill, and humidity. It is a bit frustrating that the time intervals jump to six-hour intervals on the third day, then 12 hour intervals the next.

.

 

[craig333]

Another thing a scanner can get you is the local Fire Weather Forecast.

 

[smlobx]

Most HAM radios can be programmed to the National Weather Service. We’ve used this feature a couple of times in Utah and Tejas.

 

[ski3pin]

As an update, we purchased on ebay a new Oregon Scientific weather radio model WR602. It appears to be the latest update to their weather radio. It appears Oregon Scientific no longer sells a portable weather radio. It works well for us in the areas that have good reception. Thanks all for your help and comments.