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.

I just received my Sangean CL-100 in the mail. I'll update this review in the future with comments about it's durability and battery life. Keep in mind that I bought this primarily as 1) a kitchen radio, 2) an emergency radio when the power goes out, and 3) a weather alert when I know big storms with potential hazards (like tornadoes) are coming through the area. On these fronts, it's about perfect. Although it has alarm clock functions, I did not purchase it for these purposes. Before purchasing the Sangean, I had a similar weather alert radio made by Radio Shack [Catalog #12-519], but I returned it a few weeks ago. It worked fine, but the Sangean cost less and potentially had better sound and reception (which it turns out it did). Throughout the review, I'll compare the Sangean to it's Radio Shack competitor even though it appears that Radio Shack has discontinued the radio I bought from them, replacing it with a new one that has a completely different design [Catalog #12-996]. PROS: --Well Made: It feels and looks like a high quality product, much more so than the radio I had purchased from Radio Shack, which felt fine for something that cost $20 to $30, but I had purchased it on sale for $60. --Great Sound: The speaker produces great sound for it's small size. It works well in our kitchen. The default mix is just right for classical music, NPR, and talk radio, and you can adjust the bass and treble if needed. The sound is better than the competition from Radio Shack. I don't think the comparable Midland or Reecom products have an equalizer either. --Great Reception: It picks up stations very clearly, including the closest weather station. Again, it does this better than the radio from Radio Shack, which only picked up one weather station while the Sangean picks up 2. The Radio Shack radio struggled to pick up the local NPR station while the Sangean does not (although I have to extend the antenna for it to come in at full volume). --Weather Alerts: It has the same weather alert capabilities as its competitors. However, you do have to know your county FIPS code, which isn't hard to look up online, while some of the competitors have all of the counties listed in the radio by state. --Stereo Headphone Out: You can use this as your radio receiver and plug in bigger speakers if you need more volume (assuming the external speakers have their own amp). This is a nice plus over some of the competition, including the Radio Shack unit I previously owned. --Small Size: I was surprised how small it is and how much sound it's able to produce for being so small. This is a plus if you don't want your whole night stand or kitchen counter taken up by a radio. --Ease of Use: It was pretty easy to figure out how to set everything up. I only had to look up a couple of things in the manual. There are some quirks, which I discuss below. MIXED BAG (could be Pro or Con depending on your views): --Siren Volume: Even the quietest volume setting for the weather alert siren is quite loud. Of course, the purpose of a weather alert is to alert you of an emergency. CONS (though these are quibbles): --Screen: The screen is fine if you're just using it as a radio. I like all of the information it shows, but as an alarm clock, it wouldn't work well. The angle is bad. It should be on the front of the unit like the screens of most alarms instead of on the top at an angle. The text is small for an alarm clock and would be hard to read even if the angle weren't bad. As far as screen location and size, the Radio Shack competitor was much better, but it had a bright blue background that lit up the whole room and made it difficult to read the time from an angle. The Reecom and Midland competitors also have screens on the top. So in the end, this con does not put it at a disadvantage to the competition. Plus, I don't use it as an alarm, so it doesn't matter to me. --Location of LED Warning Lights: The Sangean has LED warning lights for the different weather alerts: red for warning, orange for watch, etc. However, they're on the top of the unit, so if you have it on your night stand, it would be hard to see the lights without sitting up a bit. This is one area where the Radio Shack competitor wins out. --Automatic Menu Exit: If you're in the menu and don't push a button after 5 seconds, it will automatically exit you out of the menu. That's annoying, but once you have the alert codes set up, this isn't an issue. --Lack of Handle, Non-Upright Position: It would be more portable if the unit had a handle and was made to sit up-right. You can sit it up right to save space, but it can be hard to read the screen when it's in this position.

I took my time searching for a weather radio that fit my needs, not only for personal use, but as a sort of makeshift Emergency Alert System device for a future Internet radio station (look up the price of the actual EAS units and you'll see why). Whatever radio I bought had to have several features to make that work: alert localization by FIPS code (the S.A.M.E. functionality), external audio output, external alert voltage output to trigger a contact closure, and importantly, End-Of-Message support (to turn the radio and voltage off after the alert has aired). This radio does all of that. Reception on the weather band is about as good as one could hope for. I'm in something of a no-man's land (in terms of both commercial TV and radio AND weather radio broadcasts). My county is technically split between three different NWS forecasting offices by way of three different weather radio stations. I'm comfortably inside the far reach of my primary weather radio station to the southwest, I'm just inside the fringe of the secondary station to the north-northwest, and well outside the coverage of the tertiary station to the east (which operates at a lower power than the other two to begin with). I'm only using the attached antenna , and if this were a cheaper radio, I would probably only be receiving the primary station. That's what I half-expected anyway, just because I didn't want to get my hopes up. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that both the primary AND secondary stations come in quite clearly! The third station, I'm afraid, is hopeless from this distance unless I connected this radio to my rooftop antenna and aimed it east, but that's a bit overkill for my purposes, and most storm systems come in from the west, anyway, so it's not really worth it just to hear alerts AFTER the storm has passed. Commercial FM reception, however, is not quite up to the same level, though again, to be fair, I *am* in something of a no-man's land in that regard. Local stations come in perfectly well, but it's only picking up two or three of the regional stations that all of my other radios pick up just fine. Distant stations that my other radios receive with some effort are nowhere to be found. That *may* be remedied by connecting to an external antenna -- preferably a directional dipole or even a rooftop or tower Yagi if you rig up an RCA connection for it -- but I haven't attempted that, mostly because I simply have no reason to do so. One side note: this reception difficulty, at least for my purposes, practically renders the automatic RDBS clock synchronization function useless, because the local stations in my town either don't broadcast RDBS data or don't include clock time IN their RDBS data. One of the regional stations DOES, but either the data is being received incorrectly on my end, or they've failed to set the date and Daylight Saving settings on their RDBS encoder. So if you live in a rural area like I do, you're likely doing to have to set the date and time yourself. It's not really a problem by any measure, just an inconvenience when the functionality is present. It's not even necessarily a fault with the radio itself. All that said, if you live in a more populated region than I do, closer to a specific media market with more options available to you on the FM dial, none of that is going to be a problem for you. The AM side is... well, it exists. That's about all I can say for it. And, frankly, that's about all I can say for AM radio at all anymore. Between the terrible programming and the interference caused by modern electronic devices, AM radio is unlistenable at this point to begin with. But I did give the band a shot on this radio just to see how it performed, and while not at all surprised, I was definitely disappointed. AM receivers are, in general, an afterthought for manufacturers these days, but sometimes you come across one that's still halfway decent. This one doesn't even make it a *quarter* of the way to "decent." As free from interference as I could get it in a semi-urban setting, in the daytime hours, the internal AM antenna ONLY pulls in my local Class C graveyard channel (and not even full-power Class C, we're talking 500 watts day, 250 at night), which is almost exactly seven-tenths of a mile from me. Nighttime skywave reception isn't much better. The local graveyarder still comes in (I *would* actually be shocked if it didn't, as it resonates off the back of my refrigerator on humid summer nights), but even the regional flamethrowers barely show up. I'm 100 miles from WJR, which throws a lobe in my direction. They're barely audible. I'm 150 miles from WTAM. It's not even there. I'm 200 miles from WLW. Nada. WSM and WHAM showed up in my band scan, but only just. I connected my homemade AM loop and ground wire combo just to see if it improved anything. It did not. And this is a setup that I've used on several other radios for more than a decade with fantastic results, so I know it's not my shoddy workmanship that's the problem there. It's the radio. However, again, all that being said, are you even listening to AM radio anymore? Who IS? No one. You're not buying this radio for its AM reception, you're buying it to be a weather alert radio. The one star I docked this rating is for the FM mediocrity, not the AM misery. I only included my complaints about the AM side in this review because fellow geeks like me might want to be warned about it. Most of you won't care. Back to the weather functionality, then. The S.A.M.E. feature has worked flawlessly so far as best I can tell. I'm not hearing the alerts for the FIPS codes in my area that I haven't programmed in, so those are getting filtered out. There IS one concerning moment that I experienced: a flood warning was issued for a neighboring county one evening, which triggered an alert as it should. However, while that alert was still active on the radio, a severe thunderstorm warning for the southern portion of MY county was issued, but it did NOT trigger an alert. Now, it COULD be that the storm was breaking up the signal between my location and the transmitter (the storm was right smack-dab between us), and my radio simply didn't receive the data bursts that trigger the alert. But what worries me is the possibility that the radio DID receive the severe thunderstorm warning but simply didn't activate because there was a already another warning in effect, even if it was of another type. If the latter guess is true, that poses a safety issue. I haven't had the radio long enough to determine by experience if that's what happened or not, so don't take this to mean that it's a known problem, but it might be something to watch out for. One question I didn't have the answer to when I bought it was whether or not the auxiliary input would be interrupted by the weather alerts. I *presumed* that it would -- I can't think of any reason why it shouldn't and a whole lot of reasons why it should -- but nothing in the radio's manual or promotional information makes that clear. I can now confirm that yes, in fact, it does. So if you're planning on connecting, say, your phone or some other device to it (I use it for my laptop on my bedside table), you don't have to worry: you'll still get awakened in the middle of the night to learn that the world is ending. I *will* note that the auxiliary input is a TAD bit weak. My laptop's headphone jack automatically switches to line level based on resistance (as most do), so I keep it cranked up to 100% when plugged into the radio, but even then, with the radio at 50% volume itself, there's an airy bit of white noise that the radio adds. Prior to buying this radio, I was using a pair of (ancient) active desktop computer speakers to achieve the same volume level, and they did not add this level of noise. That says to me that the physical input on the radio is not feeding the amplifier at full power. It's not enough to keep me up at night, but then, I'm the type who could sleep right through the Nuclear Holocaust, so if your ears are sensitive to such things, it may be more noticeable. And from a broadcasting perspective, I had considered the possibility that I might not need the external contact closure relay for audio streaming purposes, simply running the mix into the auxiliary input, then out the headphone jack into the stream encoder, but with that noise being added, that's definitely a no-go. The contact closure setup WILL be necessary. I have only used the headphone jack as an external audio output -- I haven't plugged any actual headphones into it yet -- so I don't know how well it's going to power them, and that would vary by the resistance of the drivers, anyway, so I can't tell you how loud it will be. However, there is *definitely* amplification there. As with any headphone jack, it's not line-level audio, and using it for line-level purposes as I do, it should never be turned up full-blast. If you're using external speakers or connecting it to an amplifier, keep the radio at 50% volume, otherwise you're going to overmod by about 6dB, and the end result will not be fun for you. I learned from the experience of others, so take my advice and learn from their experience, yourself. Some others here in the reviews have mentioned the quick shutoff timing of the menu system, and yes, it can be a pain. I suggest writing out all of the FIPS codes you plan to enter in before doing so. That way you're not having to go back through the menu every time you have to look one up. The ability to switch alert types on and off is handy. I like hearing the required weekly and monthly tests, which are both turned off by default. Some of the others you might want to turn off, though I don't really see a reason to. For example, I seriously doubt I'm ever going to hear a hurricane warning alert here in Michigan, so there's no reason to have the radio listen for one, but since there's never going to be one issued, there's no real reason to turn it off, either. So the choice is nice to have, but it's not really all that necessary, at least in most cases that I can think of. Your mileage may vary. All in all, I'm very pleased with my purchase, and when I get my stream online, I *will* be buying another for it. If you're looking for a solid weather radio, look no further; you've found it. If you're looking for a solid all-around tabletop radio, there are others out there that might be better suited for your purposes. If you're looking for an AM radio, what's wrong with you?

I wanted a new weather radio to replace the very old cube style that's been here for years. The old one didn't even come on by itself to warn of approaching weather, we would have to go to the radio and turn it on for a report. Not too bad, in the daytime when the skies looked threatening we would be prompted to go and check it out, but of course no use at all in the middle of the night. Those storms I find are the most worrisome, the ones that blow up when you are sound asleep, oblivious to what is heading your way. We had a series of severe storms here last April in the State, and all of them after dark, some after midnight. The TV signal of course was interrupted, so we lost the local news station that had been broadcasting watches and warnings. We are just far enough out of town that the tornado siren is nearly impossible to hear if you are inside the house with the windows closed. The last thing I heard before loss of TV signal was ..'if you live in ____, (our town) take cover now. That was enough for me, and we spent an hour in the safe room waiting for the worst to pass. Apparently the siren in town went, and the all clear, but we didn't hear that where we are. I wasn't terribly concerned with how the unit looked, when I started hunting for a replacement. I wanted one that would allow me to edit out the dreck, for example the avalanche warning is of little use to me in land as flat as this. I wanted to be able to select a siren volume that wouldn't be heart stopping in the middle of the night, and a radio that would allow me to get warnings and/or watches for a select group of counties, mainly in the direction we get storms from, the Southwest. I did a lot of research, and sifted through quite a lot of websites, types of radios of many makers, and reviews before settling on this radio. And it's perfect! Does all the things I was hoping to have, has an excellent ordinary radio, and allowed me to set levels, counties and sirens exactly where I wanted them. In the first week after setting it up, we had a day where a series of storms blew through, and this little beauty performed like a trooper. It flashes, and the alarm comes on low and builds up in volume, but not to the point it's irritating. Gets your attention without deafening you. The NOAA weather message plays through once, and shuts of. The light flashes as long as the warning is in place. We had further warnings, three on the same afternoon, and each time it came on, did it's thing, and shut off. And although one thing I wasn't concerned about was what the radio looked like, I found I really like the style. It's easy to read, easy to set, hefty, and well put together. All in all I am well satisfied and I think I did very well using the Amazon gift cards I was given at Christmas.

UPDATE 5/2013: Severely downgraded my opinion of this device. After about 18 months or so, I noticed that the device is not receiving any weather alerts. Actually, since the device had been silent for a while, I am not sure for how long this device had been a dud. We have had episodes of rough weather and since I have signed up to receive weather alerts on my cell phone (for those times when I am at work etc), this weather radio stayed mum. Nothing - no alerts, no siren, no beeps, no display, NOTHING! Tried every possible setting including resetting to factory defaults and entering the county codes again. Still nothing. The radio is tuned to the local weather channel and on manually turning the radio on, it receives the broadcast loud and clear but does not receive the NOAA alerts at all. Thats not the reason for getting this type of weather radio. It seems several other people have had the same problem in about the same time frame too. I would now recommend staying away from this device. See the original review below (originally titled: Great weather radio) ******************************************************************************************************************************** This is the first weather radio we've owned. We had to get one because the tornado watches and warnings were getting a little too much to handle!! Since I had no idea of the various features a weather radio should have, this purchase was preceded by a lot of customary research. It seems some of the most important features a weather radio should have are: 1. ability to choose alert for specific warnings/watches 2. ability to listen for the end of message signal (so the radio plays the voice part once, and then mutes itself instead of repeating the message over and over again). (and of course the most important, RELIABILITY!) This radio has it all covered well. The box is well built. It is plastic no doubt, but it just feels right, feels kinda solid in your hands without being heavy. It also has a nice legible diplay. The radio can be programmed to receive alerts specific to certain counties. It is recommended that besides your own county, you program the surrounding county (or counties) depending on where you are in your own county (are you at border of your county, for example) and where your weather disturbance usually "comes from". The radio also allows for certain alerts to be ignored. We live nowhere close to mountains and so, not interested in avalanche warnings for example. It has the "Defeat Siren" mode which allows you to receive certain alerts but without the radio sounding the loud siren first. If you choose this, the appropriate light on the box (red for warning, yellow for watch) goes off, and you can hear the voice message but the siren stays quite. Very useful for things like thunderstorm watch or warning. To prevent foolhardy decisions, some warnings like tornado warnings, cannot be disabled. Smart! Powersupply: AC or AA batteries. All in all, this is a great radio and has some very intelligent feature-set. You can literally customize it to alert you the way you want. It also looks good enough to earn a permanent spot on my nightstand. The biggest plus for me however is none of the above! I am a chronic instruction manual loser, having lost most of the instruction manuals except those for large and/or intimidating items. I lost this radio's manual in less than a day. But the instruction manual is available online at Sangean's website! Highly recommended!

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) 3:05 The (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.

UPDATE: 3 years later.: The rubber buttons are starting to give out. Example, I have to press the power button 5-6 times before it responds. Aggravating. I think the material is breaking down with age. I'm changing my review from 5 stars to 3 stars because if the buttons are giving out, it ends up being useless. I've had other much cheaper clock radios last for 20 years. To bad this one lasts only 3 yrs. Also, dust seems to find its way inside the display as shown in the photo. Weird. :( Other than that, it's been an awesome featured radio. Having a tornado come through our area a few years ago I thought it would be a good idea to have a weather alert radio. Shopped around and decided to buy the CL-100. I've had it about two weeks and while we haven't had any crazy weather here yet, I love the features of this radio. Pros: 1. I often listen to soft music at night while falling asleep so the volume is low. However, I can set a different radio station to wake to and to volume level so you can be sure to hear it when it's time to wake up. 2. You can set the days of the week you want the alarm to sound, say M-F but not on the weekend. 3. Automatic time keeping so no need to ever adjust the clock. 4. Small footprint but awesome sound. Crisp and full for just one speaker. It can go quite loud. You can set the Base and Treble to the way you like it. 5. Scrolling display tells you the name of the song. 6. 5 FM station presets. I use to have to turn an analog dial so this is a nice feature 7. S.A.M.E technology so I can customize my weather alerts to my area. Con: 1. I wish the display was movable. If you're in bed, you have to really sit up to look down on the clock to see what time it is.

Fairly easy to program and setup. Works fantastic and it has come in handy since I got it. The alert tone is very loud and can be heard all through the house even with the volume is set low to medium.

After spending apx 8000 on radio and 1500 on Antenna I am not getting proper indoor signal coverage . Nothing special in sound quality....its ok ok. Battery consumption is also high. No special sound effects. Valume is also low. Better go for Some 3 in 1 option of good brands like Sony or Philips which is cost effective also. Overall I m not satisfied with quality compare to cost

J'aime bien cette radio. Elle est capable de capter des stations éloignées, tant du coté météo que du côté AM et FM. Le son est surprenamment très bon pour une radio de si petite taille. Et probablement pour cette raison qu'il y a une prise externe permettant à cette radio de fonctionner comme un haut-parleur externe. Côté météo, rien à redire. Entièrement compatible avec la technologie "SAME" utilisée par Environnement Canada pour son service météo sur VHF, je reçois très bien leurs alertes avec cette radio. Fait surprenant, cette radio affiche sur son écran les messages textes diffusés par la plupart des stations FM. On ne s'attend pas à cela d'une radio météo! Seul point négatif: L'écran. Il est tellement petit, pas facile à lire (à moins d'être directement en face de la radio) et surtout, il y a tellement d'information affichée sur un si petit écran que la lecture n'est pas aisée. Cette radio gagnerait beaucoup à avoir un écran de meilleur qualité et au moins au double de sa dimension actuelle. Somme toute, une très bonne radio météo multi-fonction !

Gostei de todos os recursos desse radio.

Este Radio Sangean tiene excelentes prestaciones, tiene AM, FM incluye RBDS ( datos que te indican el nombre de la canción y/o artista, entre otras cosas, ojo, siempre y cuando la radiodifusora lo tenga instalado) además incluye recepción de la señal de clima, a través de la cual en la Ciudad de México nos envían la Alerta Sísmica. Tiene Reloj despertador, con dos alarmas, las alarmas pueden ser un sonido de alarma o despertarte con el radio, tiene 10 memorias para que guardes tus estaciones preferidas y mantiene tu configuración y/o preferencias usando 4 pilas "AA". La calidad de audio y recepción es muy buena, incluso para el clima, además tiene la opción de controlar tonos bajos y agudos para un mejor sonido. En fin es un excelente radio, muy estético y de calidad, 100% recomendable.

Para México, Solo Alarma Sísmica (cdmx). Al Menos Que No Lo Haya Programado Correctamente . Esto Por Comprobar Hasta Qué Haya Un Temblor Qué Active La Alerta Sísmica. Por Referencia Que Tengo Con Otros Equipos No Dudo Que Funcione Tal Como Se Esperá.