Customer Reviews

Sima First Alert NOAA WX-17 Portable Emergency AM/FM Radio

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

 

 

I bought this radio because I wanted an emergency weatherband backup radio and chose it primarily by price and the First Alert brand. You get what you pay for. The AM/FM part of the radio is fine. The local weatherband is hard to catch, there's lots of interference unless you hold the radio, antenna extended, in a certain way. (Even then the reception is not very clear.) However, one of the best features is it comes with an A/C adapter.

The radio arrived with a crooked display and hard to use tuning knob. The package had obviously been opened before, so I got someone else's reject. Beach Audio will not pay return shipping under any circumstances, not even for sending me a defective product!!! So I am out $12 in shipping and have no radio.

I purchased one of these radios before Christmas and it works great. I decided I wanted another for work, so I ordered another one.

I recived my radio a couple of days ago and had to send it back because the "preset" weather stations are off the mark and the only thing I can pick up is distorted and garbled. They sent me a replacement and it too is off station. At this point, I'm wondering if the first one I got was the exception. I do NOT reccomend this product unless you just want an am/fm radio, that part works great.

This will be my last First Alert purchase unless I can try it out first!

This is a great portable weather radio. Small enough to carry in your purse or pants pocket, your choice of using 4 AA batteries or the electrical cord that comes with it, a loud tone alert to warn you when threatning weather approaches, a nice handle for carrying, and it also makes for a great little AM/FM radio for when the weather is not threatning. The speaker is very good and better than most portable radio speakers. I read the comments up above about a little radio interfearance but you are going to experience that with all portable radios or scanners. This weather radio has an awesome telescopic antenna which you can aim for best reception. This weather radio was a great investment!

I received the radio in time for Christmas but the weather channels don't function. I double checked the frequency and also had another weather radio which works, side by side to this radio. It does receive am + fm but not the weather channels.

This radio has the easiest set up. There's is no reason to not have this life saving device. We have had it alert us during the night once already for a severe storm. There is no question it will work when there is more danger on the way.
Worth every penny.

I bought my WX-17 weather radio about a year ago. I use it occasionally.

First, to get the bad out of the way:

I just found out the batteries are terribly difficult to insert. Instead of the four batteries laying side-by-side, they are arranged two-on-top-of-two. Each battery position includes one spring-terminal. The top two springs stick out and get in the way of putting batteries into the bottom two positions, and there's no wiggle room, so it's hard to avoid damaging the top springs when you're loading the bottom two positions.

The battery compartment incorporates a nice little ribbon which helps pull the batteries out and damage the top two springs upon removal, also.

If you're planning on mostly using battery power, I would recommend the design of the battery compartment is a deal breaker. It's too bad.

The tuning knob feels like it pulls an old-fashioned cord to move the mechanical tuning-indicator needle. But there are no creaking sounds when I tune, and it works very smoothly. So if there is a cord in there, they did a good design. Continuing the tradition from the 1940's, if you keep spinning the tuning knob after you get to the end of the dial, you'll mess up the tuning dial's calibration, and it also might stress the cord. If you inadvertently un-calibrate your dial, I find that spinning the tuning knob beyond the end of the dial -- in the opposite direction -- works as a way to re-calibrate the needle.

My tuning needle was well calibrated when I got the radio; then I un-calibrated it, then I re-calibrated it, no problem. Now, I'll stop doing that.

My tuning needle is two degrees off vertical, but I got used to it.

The handle and the telescoping antenna ask to be handled gently. The handle is lightweight, and telescoping antennas have a way of painfully breaking in half. To aggravate the situation, if you ever want to extend the handle to use it, the antenna has to be completely collapsed and docked to get out of the handle's way. (After extending the handle, the antenna may be re-extended, and they live together fairly well.) When not being used, the little handle nests out of the way. Besides, the radio is so small and light, you won't be wanting to use the handle, anyway.

With the radio switched to the Alert position, a tiny amount of audio leaks out of the speaker. But if you're more than a foot from the radio, you can't hear the leakage.

When the AC goes out, the radio does not automatically switch to battery-power. You have to unplug the AC adapter from the side of the radio to actuate the batteries.

White plastic looks antiseptic.

****

The good is endless:

I would recommend this radio, especially for 25 bucks and 25 cents, which ain't a lot in today's dollars. Qualifies for free, snail-shipping. I rated this radio 4-out-of-5 Amazonians. The rating is relative and subjective, depending on what you're expecting from the product.

For a little plastic radio, I feel it's built strong, with good components and quality controls.

It's about the size of a basketball player's hand. Squeezing the radio, I don't feel the plastic shell squish at all -- it's deceptively strong plastic. The shell is completely tight, without any hint of coming apart.

All sections of the telescoping antenna slide smoothly.

There are Power and Low Battery indicator LEDs. The latter would be useful if the radio were left in the Alert position, slowly draining the batteries. Of course, using the [included] AC adapter, the Low Battery light stays off.

The rotary Volume control works smoothly, feels a little velvety. The On/Off button is a two-position slider-switch, separate from the Volume control. If you menacingly try to push the On/Off slider into the radio (like a gorilla), it refuses to give inwards, as if it's supported from behind.

For tuning the weather, the radio acts like it's crystal controlled (maybe it is) -- no tuning required, since the 7 weather-channels are selected with a 7-position switch, therefore you don't use the tuning knob for the weather. Each of the 7 channels are "always on frequency," all you have to do is select a channel and swivel the antenna. It takes some minor force to move the 7 position switch, but it moves smoothly. The 7 positions are close together, but the tightness of the switch's motion makes it easy to avoid overshooting the desired channel.

There's another switch -- AM/FM/Weather/Alert. If you don't put the switch into the Alert position, you won't wake up when there's a Warning. I don't leave my weather in the Alert position, because I don't want to be waken up, or annoy the next door apartment.

NOAA says they "normally run tests each Wednesday between 10 a.m. and noon local time," so you can check your radio's Weather Alert function. I haven't tried it yet, but I think when there's an alert, the radio's volume switches to Maximum (regardless of what the Volume control is set to), and then it lets those loud tones through.

It would be bad if the loudspeaker were unable to cope with an extended, maximum-volume tone, multiple times. Of course, the radio only costs 25 smackkers, so if those Alert tones finally blow up the loudspeaker, the radio won't cost much to replace. Alternately, loudspeakers can be designed to survive; maybe this is one. Best luck.

The sound is noticeably better than an old transistor radio -- good for voice, good for weather, good for background music if you're tolerant. Feeding the Speaker Output into external "computer speakers" does a world of good, and the jack is tight. If the computer speakers are amplified, recommend Radio Schlock "Attenuated Dubbing Cord" to connect the radio to the speakers, so you don't blow them up. The audio coming out of the speaker jack is Mono, so the mono-dubbing-cord is just right.

The FM receiver is very clean. It doesn't have a problem with images, and it has good AFC action, so it's easy to tune, and the sensitivity is ok. If you ever fought with an analog FM tuner, you'll be amazed how nice and smooth this one works -- digital tuner not required. Lots of stars for [mono] FM quality.

Since it takes many turns of the tuning knob to tune through an AM signal, the AM receiver must have Very Wide selectivity. But I don't hear any distortion, and it sounds pleasingly good.

Should be zero stars in the review, but it will not accept 0.
Very hard to insert the batteries, poor design and cheap materials.
Weather channel selector is hard to work.
The NOAA alerts are not received by the radio.
Weather stations are not set correctly, you can hear bleeding from other weather channels.
Would not recommend this item.

This radio receives AM, FM and all seven weather alert VHF channels. Notably it does have an alert mode where audio is muted until the homeland security folks or NWS sends an alert tone that will activate the radio's alarm.

It may be powered by 4 AA batteries or by a supplied wall power supply (UL listed). It has a about a 20 inch telescoping antenna. It is available from a number of sources in the $18 to $25 range.

Overall audio quality is sufficient and clear for this small radio.

AM reception is poor: poor sensitivity and selectivity. Yet it will receive the major AM stations so long as they are moderate in strength or better. Forget weaker stations.

FM is better with more reasonable sensitivity and selectivity. I was able to receive and separate a dozen or more FM stations in my above average FM rf strength area.

My local NWS channel (4) was received adequately Sensitivity is probably average at best. So it will likely not receive the weaker NWS signals. I've not yet observed the alert function sound off. (Which is my main reason for acquiring this radio.)

Quality of construction appears to about what you would expect for the price (cheap!). I paid about $18 plus shipping. The performance is about what I expected.

I love this radio! It's awsome! When the clouds look bad I make sure it is tuned to my NOAA that I recive, I flip the switch to alert and it let's me know to tune in and get the latest weather update. It comes with AC adapter or you can use batteries. What more could you want?