I am in search of the ultimate weather radio

Here are the requirements that I would like

Weather band (WX 162 MHz range)

AM / FM

Ability to pick up local HDTV audio. It does not have to be 5.1, two channel stereo or mono will be fine.

AC operation and AA battery power

Portability

reliable plastic case

S.A.M.E.

Comes on when weather alert is activated

Price! Do not charge me above $50.00 USD because it is new technology and anything with HD gets an overly inflated by fear-mongering market-driven price

Where I live in the land of the hurricanes, all of these features are very important and needy. What got me thinking about this was the fact that I began to perform my annual accounting of my inventory of supplies for a hurricane such as candles, portable batteries, working flashlights, duct tape, tarps, fuel in my spare gas cans, a couple of spare sheets of plywood, rope etc. to make sure that I have those supplies ahead of time because when the hurricane watches are issued

The supplies become more limited as everyone starts to stock up at that point.

The price of the supplies goes up significantly, but not too much for someone to call “price gouging” and notify the State Attorney General to prompt an investigation.

It was then that I remembered my fifteen year old Emerson tabletop AC/portable AM/FM/TV/WX band radio (that I use everyday to pick up the AM signal from the local ESPNRadio affiliate) and the thought hit me…

The analog TV band is no longer being broadcasted

That is a very important issue because when the hurricanes do come, the power does go off for numerous hours at a time and during Hurricane Fran, the power was off for four days. In my experience, even though the NOAA broadcasts on WX are reliable as in being on throughout the entire storm, they are not updated quickly enough in the same manner as the local television stations are and the local television stations have diesel generators to power the transmitters.

When the power was lost and the latest coordinates came down the line, it would take as long as fifteen minutes after the release of the hurricane coordinates for the local WX frequency to update while the television stations had them minutes before the announce time and only a select few radio stations around here do live broadcasting at night (national syndicated programs are now the norm). Also, many of these stations do not have backup generators at the transmitter site and once the power is gone their broadcast is gone. Since most radio stations are owned by one or two companies, these stations usually have only one station with a backup generator on the transmitter and they start running public service ads to switch their listeners over to the one station owned by them that has the backup generator when the hurricane does come and power is lost.

Also, many Christian stations (and the Christians will still not cut a radio on in a hurricane fearing God will “get them” for listening to the easy listening station for weather updates and eventually become “polluted” in their minds) do not have backup generators and prepare by shutting down ahead of time and refer their listeners to the local television stations (which many do not watch because TV is still the evil eye box).

With the obsolescence of the old analog VHF 2-13 band, and the fact that the radio stations wait until songs end and commercials are ran (make money) to give us weather based information, I want to have the ability to pick up the HDTV audio signal of my local HDTV stations because their updates go well beyond just the coordinates and the weather.

They tell us what parts of town are without power

They tell us of shelters and if needed evacuation plans.

They tell us quickly if we are under curfew

They tell us which streets are impassable due to either flooding or fallen trees, and fallen power lines

They tell us when and if we need supplies, which convienence stores, gas stations, grocery stores, Lowes, Home Depot are going to re-open when the storm passes.

They send their live crews out to show us and document the area.

They tell us if the police has had reports of looting.

In other words, the local television stations do a significantly better job of covering the storm from days before to after storm care as necessary than the radio stations and the NOAA weather radio. My problem is that I have not been able to find a portable weather radio with audio HDTV bands.

I should be able to tune in a HDTV audio band with a battery powered radio. America was primed for two years by those annoying commercials before the DTV switchover that the switchover was going to happen in 2009 and HDTV was going to be the norm so get a HDTV or a converter box by using a voucher coupon. I am wondering why there is no availability of a HDTV radio when the FCC let everyone prepare for what was supposed to be a February 17, 2009 switchover now pushed back to June 12, 2009?

I have looked at the Oregon Scientific, Midland, weather channel, Cobra, Uniden, Amazon, Radio Shack, Walmart, Best Buy webpages. No luck. What is more amazing is that there are online merchants still pushing the $19.99 Emerson special with the obsolete VHF 2-13 analog TV band. It was that same price way before the VHF analog band obsolescence.

Also, here is another dilemma with the new HDTV protocol. The local stations broadcast their normal affiliate programming on channel X.1 (the term “X” is for the channel since channels vary in your area) but now have instant 24/7 weather on their channel X.2. I know that after every hurricane, some brash women complain because they missed The View, soap operas, Oprah, and their prime time television shows and David Letterman. Will the local television stations with the advent of HDTV run their normal programming on X.1 to shut the liberal Oprahfied women up (and also to still make money on commercials) and run banners at the bottom of the screen to visibly notify or interrupt every commercial with audio notification telling you for constant hurricane coverage switch over to the instant 24/7 weather on their channel X.2?

If we see a hurricane this year that causes significant power outages, (trust me, some religious right zealot or contributor at the Elijah List will want one to appear to where they can blame voting in Obama as President caused the storm since Obama won the electorial college votes of North Carolina in order to start up another repent-a-thon and mega-fast), it will be very interesting to see how the lack of ability to pick up the HDTV audio signal with a battery powered radio will affect things.

I am still looking for a weather radio with HDTV audio per my criteria listed above.

Tags: 162 MHz, category five hurricane, category four hurricane, category one hurricane, category three hurricane, category two hurricane, HDTV, hurricane tracking, hurricanes, national hurricane center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National weather service, NOAA, NWS, S.A.M.E. technology, Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, Specific Area Message Encoding, storm tracking, tornadoes, tropical depression, tropical storm, tropical storm tracking, weather radio, WX band