Sangean CL-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

I've been in the market for a home weather radio for a few years now (yes, a few years). It was actually a frustrating search as I couldn't find one that had all of the features I wanted without annoying issues. Midlands wouldn't shut off at EOM, Reecom had a back-to-back alert bug, Radio Shack models had reliability issues, and I even looked at a few others but they didn't have everything I wanted. Even this radio had a lot of problems when it was originally released, but I tracked it through all of the firmware updates until it finally seemed like it would work how I wanted it to. Thankfully, it has.Overall, I absolutely LOVE this device. As a matter of fact, I was waiting for our first alert (besides the weekly test) to go off while we were home so I could hear it work before posting my review. We had a severe thunderstorm watch right as we were going to bed and it alerted us exactly how I expected. It does have a few drawbacks, but they are nothing that make me regret my purchase. Here are the pros and cons I found while I've had it:Pros:-You can set the date/time to use RDBS, which is a fancy way of saying it can sync the date/time from a local radio station if they transmit it. Mine has stayed synced with no issues since I've had it, so it's working great.-It honors EOM. I almost asked for a Midland weather radio for Christmas as they seemed highly recommended online. Thankfully I found some reviews on Amazon that mentioned they do not honor the 3 burst EOM signal at the end of an alert and constantly go off for 5 minutes. That was a deal-breaker for me. This device works perfectly as right after the 3rd EOM burst, it shut off the radio. We could go back to sleep without having to get up to turn it off or be forced to listen to it for 5 minutes. The manual seems to indicate it works like the Midland, but it's incorrect as it shuts off after the EOM.-It allows you to silence certain alerts. For instance, the weekly test is disabled, so it will receive the test and show it on the display, but won't do any audible alerts. I believe some alerts, like tornado warning, don't allow you to do this, but I feel that's excellent as events like those shouldn't allow you to accidentally disable them.-It allows SAME codes, either single, or multiple, so you only get alerts for the counties/parishes you want. If you set multiple, you can even toggle them on and off in the menu instead of having to delete and add, if you want that type of control.-It shows when the active alert will expire.-It has 3 LEDs that light up for warning, watch and advisory. That's nice if you miss the broadcast, like if you're outside and you come in and see an LED you can know you have an active alert and what type it is.-It has a weather button that you can press to listen to the weather channel you're using, which broadcasts current conditions and forecasts. I sometimes listen to this in the morning while getting dressed to get an idea of what the weather will be like today and for the week ahead. They even discuss the tropics during hurricane season, which being on the south coast is something I'm always monitoring. If you press the weather button again, it turns off.-You can choose to have a siren alert, or voice alert, though the voice alert starts with a siren before the message is announced.-The siren doesn't start off at full volume. Reviews of earlier versions of this radio indicated that in voice mode, there was no way to adjust the siren volume and it came on full blast. With this version, you can change the siren volume and it will affect the siren level that goes off before the voice alert, and it even does a "humane" version where it starts off low and increases in volume until reaching the volume you selected (Low, Middle, or High).-It has the ability to add new alert codes in case new alerts are added to the system. I don't know if they'll ever add any new codes, but at least you have the option to add them.-It has a history of expired alerts that you can scroll through.-Display can be adjusted to turn off and you can adjust a timer for how long it stays on after a button press. This can be good if you use it in your bedroom and the light from the display is too much. I don't have it right next to my bed so I always leave the display on and it doesn't bother me.-It comes with 2 alarms that are very customizable. Each allows you to wake up to a radio station or an alarm sound. You can set the time, the individual days of the week, and adjust the volume for the radio alarm and alarm sound (they both have their own volume setting). These both do the humane waking where they increase in volume to the volume you set.-Sound quality is very good for a radio this size. You can even adjust the treble and bass, though I think it sounds fine with the defaults.-It has a battery backup that uses 4 AA batteries. This is crucial since in severe weather, you want your weather radio to still work if the weather knocks out the power.Cons:-My main gripe is that it doesn't show the date/time of expired events while scrolling through them. The main reason why I would like this feature is because I wanted to use the weekly tests to verify that the radio is working correctly. Without the date/time of expired events, I can't easily see if the last alert I received was the weekly test for this week or weeks past. I have a workaround that relies on the fact that when you press the button to scroll through the alerts, if you do it again later it remembers the last one you were on. So I'll scroll down to expired alert # 3 for instance, and when I press the button to scroll later and it's on the same alert # 3, I know I haven't received a new one. If it resets me to #1, I know I had an alert since I last checked. I'm at least glad I discovered this so I can still use the weekly test to verify the radio is working, but it would be nice to know when those expired alerts happened.-The display could be a con depending on where you have the radio as the angle is not adjustable and the viewing angle isn't that great. I'm not using this as my primary alarm clock, so it's not a big deal for me, but it's something to keep in mind if you want to be able to see the time while in bed.-The menu exits after a little while of inactivity. This was annoying while trying to set up the radio since if you pause to figure out how you want to set something, it will frequently go back to the main screen and you'll have to browse back to the setting you want to change again. Once I had it programmed though, I rarely go through the menus except to change the alarm, so it hasn't bothered me since setup.-The quick start manual is terrible. I usually read the manuals for electronics I buy, but the quick start is one I probably should have skipped. I find the main manual is much better to use when setting up. For instance, the quick start just says to select the channel of the weather radio you will use, with no mention of what channels map to what frequency. I found my local transmitter on the NOAA website and got the frequency, but I had no idea how this radio mapped the channels to the frequency. I found this information near the very end of the main manual, which IMO, is a terrible place to put it. That chart should have been in the beginning of the quick start so you could know what to enter.-It does the humane volume increase while browsing for radio stations. The humane volume increase is great for alarm or weather alert mode, but is bizarre for channel surfing the radio.-The description of "Defeat Siren" should be "Defeat Alert" since it controls if either of them do an audible alert.Overall, the pros easily outweigh the cons. This is definitely the weather radio I've been waiting for and the one I would recommend to anybody looking to purchase one.

The build quality of weather radios has varied throughout the years, but this one is top-notch.I've own 3 S.A.M.E weather radios with AM/FM built in.The first was the Oregon Scientific WR196T back in 2000. While it was the sharpest-looking weather radio I had ever seen, it had many shortcomings. It took some time to learn how to program it and the manual was very vague. The sound quality was among the worst and it would miss about 1 out of every 5 weather alerts. It also lacked the ability to disable specific alerts, or the option to add future alerts. It did, however it did automatically shut itself off after receiving the end of message signal. But since it missed too many alerts, I decided to try to the Midland WR300 in 2004, making the WR196T a secondary radio until last year, when I decided to give it to a friend. And there, it hasn't been known to miss a single alert ever since Go figure.Though I was familiar with the Reecom at the time, and knew it was the best on the market with a slight edge over Midland, I chose the Midland as it was at K's Merchandise for an extremely discounted price, and I also didn't trust online shopping yet. The Midland's build quality and sound quality were superior to the Oregon Scientific units in every way. Also, I only know for it to have missed a couple of alerts in it's 10 years. My only issues with the WR300 were the inability to show duration time (which later versions now do) and the inability to detect the end of message signal. Though the years, I referred 3 other people to the WR300. And since there's one where I'm now staying, I left mine with my father where it continues to work. However the NOAA tuner on the WR300 over here failed last fall after only 6 years. So why we were dealing with getting it replaced, I reluctantly decided to try the Sangean CL-100 for myself on account of reading about some unforgiving issues, but all issues appear to have been fixed in firmware updates. and it has been a clear winner over all the other radios I've seen.*Not only can I defeat various alerts in both voice & siren mode, but I can also adjust the siren and VOICE volumes of the alerts. So for those who said their alerts were stuck on full blast, it certainly doesn't apply to mine.*I have also verified that it does pay attention to the end of message signal, even though the instruction manual is unclear. They might benefit by revising their manual to specifically state this. I believe it does also have a timer (mine hasn't been needed) as a backup should it fail to receive the eom signal. Example: A NWR station gets knocked off the air before an alert is finished.*this is, by far, the best sounding weather radio I've ever heard, substantially better than the Midland WR300.*It shows the duration of an alert (something I was unable to verify before purchasing, and I'm glad it does)This unit has a clone, the Motorola MWR839. Both have an identical case, LCD display, button layout & features with the only difference being color schemes and button & indicator shape (round vs square). These appear to be redesigned versions of the First Alert WX-268, which was on the market a few years ago. But the Sangean & Motorola weather radios add 5 instant access tuning preset buttons the First Alert & all others lack. RDS music data also seems to be a feature exclusive to these Sangean & Motorola units. Also, this Sangean, along with the aforementioned Motorla clone & First Alert radios are the only 3 that unseat Reecom as the king. They are superior to the Reecom R-1650, and all others as they offer these exclusive features:*superior sound quality Sangean, Motorola & possibly First Alert)(I haven't tested First alert or Reecom, so I'm going by what others say. Reecom sound quality is said to be comparable to Midland)*reads RDS signals on FM radio stations (Sangean & Motorola only)*auto clock set capability using CT signal on FM station where available (Sangean, Motorola & First Alert)*audio input and stereo audio output (Sangean & Motorola only)*terminals for am and ground antenna (Sangean & Motorola only)*easiest to program of all weather radios (Sangean & Motorola)*all audio, including alerts, voice, radio & siren, gradually increase to set volume over a few seconds to avoid startling! (Sangean, Motorola, and possibly First Alert)My only gripes about this unit are the display. And it's the same flaws that other people are complaining about. Plus the duration time for an alert is toward the top of the display while the warning is at the bottom. It is also given in a jumbled way:end: (01) 3:05The (01) is referring to the number and order of active alerts. It would also be nice if it indicated am or pm. But none of this is a deal breaker. All the info is still there & anybody can decifer it. It just would be nice if things were displayed in neater order.It has missed one weekly test since I got it last fall, but I don't know of a single weather radio that hasn't missed at least one alert. It's disconcerting, but no technology is perfect. Also, this happened after I did a battery change, so I reset the unit just to be sure and it has been fine this past month. This is now the one I recommend.And lastly, I will say that Midland did replace my friend's weather radio for free and it goes off in the other room. So as long as I'm here, there won't be any alerts missed with 2 weather radios going just one room apart.