Customer Reviews

Midland 74250 All Hazard Radio with S.A.M.E. Technology

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

This radio receives my local weather station very clearly after proper channel tunning. The display is very large and easy to read, and it backlits automatically for a while after a botton is pressed, so the display can be read easily at night. It also has a digital time, date, and temperature display, and two alarm clocks. It also comes with rechargeable batteries and a charger, so there's no hidden battery cost.

This radio is strictly a weather radio, which means it can't receive any other radio stations. It can't tell you the current weather or forcast up front: you have to keep listening to the local weather station broadcast until it got to the desired topic, which might take a few minutes. Also the button functions are not very intuitive, and it took me quite a while to get familiar with it.

Overall, a must-have for outdoor people.

I just Got this Weatheradio from Amazon and its a really great deal, especially for the price that Amazon is selling it at. it seems to pick up the broadcast recption very well compared to my old all area alert Portable weatheradio that couldnt wher this one can. with this weatheradio I can set the weatheradio only to pick up an alert if its for the county I am in Instead of receiving an alert that isn't for my area. for instance, severe weather that could be 50 mles away which my old portable would alert me for. There was no need for me to have to hear severe weather broadcasts that weren't for my area . I am really glad I got this weatheradio. I know now that it will only go off if there is severe weather for my area....
Lastly they say weatheradios should be as common in homes as smoke detectors

This little radio is well worth the money for all the features it has. It has good reception, it is compact and lightweight, audio and visual alerts (text or red flashing LED) & you can listen to NWS radio alerts and broadcasts also. 2 alarms w/snooze, digital thermometer w/alarm, date & time and S.A.M.E. technology w/battery saver features that can be set so it will cause it turn on only during an alert. For all the features it has, no other radio can beat the price. The only negatives are that it has no DC adapter capability and that it does take some time and practice to program. I would definitely recommend this radio to anyone that needs a weather radio that they can take anywhere with them.

Nice little radio, it receives fairly well... better than many other weather receivers I've owned, but not as good as the top of the line so it's priced well. A few concerns you should know before you buy... 1) It will not receive more than one of the 9 SAME counties you program simultaneously, you can only choose one SAME county at a time, or you can open it up to the whole broadcast area. 2) If you leave the radio where it can get warm, as in your car, and take it out in the sunlight, the display will flicker. Let it cool or take it out of the sun. 3) With optional NiMH batteries installed, I can get 4 days +/- of monitoring per charge. The latter is the big reason I purchased this radio... rechargability without taking the batteries out. Only SAME portable I found like it.

Fully charged rechargable batteries last two days in "alert mode" and new alkaline batteries lasts about six days. Without a radio battery charger, a 74250C is high maintenance with high battery costs. If your families safety is important, the radio should always be in "alert mode" 24/7. Midland lets their 74250C customers down because they should provide a charger with the radio and Midland doesn't offer any for sale. Midland tech advised me to get a 6-volt 100mAh charger. The smallest charger Radio Shack offers is 300mAh which will heat up your unit. Luckily I had an old charger and after changing the plug to a "B", our unit is functioning as it should, not heating up, and should serve our safety needs at home and in our motorhome traveling to different parts of the country as well as unplugging the unit and taking it on day trips in our toad or on hikes. Programing to a specific NOAA is difficult and takes a long process to master the complexities of this radio. Midland seems to have built a good radio otherwise and hoping it will continue working for long service which is in question according to other reviews. Currently it is the best radio on the market to fulfill our desired portable applications and this is because we have a charger for our rechargable batteries in the unit.

Programming this radio is very difficult. There is nothing logical about this process or the manual. Turning off the alarm functions are even more confusing and I'm not sure why they are even included. Battery life is very poor. Even though the batteries are rechargable the maximum life is two days. To make matters worse once the batteries discharge you have to reprogram the radio and don't loose the manual you won't get too far without it.

This thing eats batteries. It is also very difficult to operate. I give severe weather awareness training sessions and I will tell people not to buy this radio. I am very disappointed with Midland.

I purchased this unit for a trip through tornado country. You can't understand a word it is saying so you don't really know if tornados are in the area or not. I think it was a big waste of money.

This has the features you want - being able to select multiple weather stations, set the S.A.M.E. info so that you only get the alerts you need. Water resistant. Supports rechargeable batteries.

Now for the bad stuff...

I can see and agree with most of the other reviews.

The battery life if left uncharged is not very long. When I ordered mine (not through here, cough, cough...) it included ni-cad batteries and a charger, which some people seem to say is not included, and the charger is not even available.

If left unplugged the batteries will go dead in a couple of days. **** NOTE WELL **** quite often when it gets recharged the radio does not work to start with! What needs to be done is to take the batteries out for a couple of seconds and then put back in. When I do that the radio functions again. So, perhaps the people complaining about dead radios may of had this happen to them.

About the interface in setting the weather alert function:

First, let me say my level of tech savvy - I am the type of person who would reset people's flashing VCRs from 12:00, even without the manual. I have two technical master of science degrees. I love tech stuff.

With all that said, I would suggest that you don't loose the manual, since squirrels must have designed the interface for this! You can set the time, alarms, degree display choice easily. Now, to set the SAME interface you must: press the radio on button on top, wait till the "NO MESSAGES" scrolls by twice, and be pressing the "SET" button. Then you can get into the radio codes section. WHAT?? They have a MODE button, they could have added one more step in that cycle.

Right now, I have not had any alerts for the last year or so. I think I took it to a different area and used it there and though I think I had reset the home area, perhaps I did not. The weather radio does still work manually, so I don't know what the problem is.

This piece of junk finally did it for me! I will never buy another Midland product ever! This "thing" is a waste of money, and a health hazard! First off, it doesn't scan between the stations you program into it, it severely overheats and smells like its melting, and sucks batteries dry in less than a week, and thats with it turned off! If you turn this piece of crap on, it gets so hot after awhile you could use it to start a fire. Really this thing is junk! Do not buy it, just "X" out of any midland product you come to... I haven't gotten another NOAA radio, because quite frankly this thing really turned me off to them... so I'm sorry I can't make a recommendation for a better NOAA radio... but I know this thing sucks!