Troubleshooting your NOAA Weather Radio

As with any electronic device, sometimes things can go wrong, or settings can get mixed up. No worries! We are here to help with troubleshooting solutions for some common issues that we hear.

1. I can't get a signal!

   1. Check that the ON/OFF button on the side of the radio is set to ON. It should remain ON always.
   2. When you press the WEATHER/SNOOZE button, what do you hear?
      1. If you hear the weather, that is a good sign!
      2. If you only hear static, that would indicate you are not tuned into a NOAA transmitter, or your local NOAA transmitter is off the air.
      3. If you hear a "beep", the radio ON/OFF switch is OFF. 
   3. You may not be tuned to the right channel for your county, or there may be extenuating circumstances contributing to not hearing alerts.
      1. Make sure you have tuned your radio (SET CHANNEL) to a NOAA transmitter that is responsible for warnings and alerts in your county. You can find those here. 
      2. Is there a chance you may be located in a part of the county where the signal is blocked by hills, valleys, relative distance from the transmitter, or low overhead power lines?
      3. If the radio is tuned to the proper channel but you only hear static, your local transmitter may be off the air. You can check that here. If the transmitter is off the air, there may be another channel that serves your county. You can update your SET CHANNEL to monitor the other designated frequency. 
      4. Certain electronics in a house, or the building itself may interfere with getting a good signal. In these cases, an external antenna can be used, like the Midland 18-259W Window Mount Antenna.

2. My radio hasn't gone off, but we've had severe weather.

   1. Ensure the ON/OFF switch is ON
   2. Do you hear anything when you press the WEATHER/SNOOZE button?
   3. Ensure you are tuned to the proper CHANNEL for your county. 
   4. Ensure SET LOCATION is set to your county, and not a county in a different state.
   5. Is your local transmitter on the air and operating properly? You can check that here.
   6. Has your county truly had a severe weather that would produce an alert? Often times, while there might have been severe weather in your area, your county was not included or affected by any of the warnings, so an alert would not have sounded. 
   7. Ensure your batteries are in good working condition. 
   8. Try moving the radio to a better location If "NOAA" is blinking on the display, it means the radio is not receiving 100% signal strength. 
   9. SET EVENTS should be set to ALL DEFAULT, or ALL ON. If SET EVENTS is ALL OFF, the radio will still receive Tornado Warnings (as per NOAA regulations), but it would not sound for Severe Thunderstorm, Flash Flood and other warnings. You can find a full list of default alerts here.

3. I live in Tornado Alley, but I can't find "Tornado Warnings" in my SET EVENTS / EDIT EVENTS menu!

   1. These types of alert (Tornado Warnings, Hurricane Warnings, etc.) are always on by default and cannot be disabled. Because of that, they won't show up in the EDIT EVENTS menu, as there is no option to turn them off or on.
   2. If you would only like your radio to alert for a warning like this, go to SET EVENTS and select ALL OFF. This mutes all the optional alerts, but because Tornado Warning is locked in, in t will still audibly alert. 

4. What other alerts would be important to turn on?

   1. Following the previous example, if you select ALL OFF to only receive Tornado Warning alerts, we suggest also enabling Severe Thunderstorm Warnings as those types of storms can also produce dangerous winds, hail, flooding and other characteristics that might also be present with a tornado. 
   2. To turn on disabled alerts, go into the SET EVENTS / EDIT EVENTS menu, scroll to the alert you are looking for (Severe Thunderstorm Warning, in this example), press SELECT, arrow up to ON, press SELECT, and press Menu to save and exit. In this example, your radio will now alert for only Tornado & Severe Thunderstorm Warnings. 
   3. For a list of all editable events please see this document.

5. How do I reset my radio?

   1. Performing a reset for your radio erases all the settings stored on its memory chip and returns it to factory settings. 
   2. To reset: 
      1. Unplug the radio from the wall
      2. Remove one of the batteries
      3. Replace the battery, but as you replace it, use another finger to hold down the WEATHER / SNOOZE button. When the battery snaps back into place, release the WEATHER / SNOOZE button and RESET should appear on the screen. 
      4. You can then proceed with normal set-up of language, location, channel and so forth.

6. Is there a way to decrease the volume of the alerts? They are SO loud!

   1. By design, the alert tone is set to be 76 decibels, enough to wake a person in a deep sleep. This is intentional, as a life-saving device. 
   2. Some tips are to place it, say in a bathroom instead of a bedroom where the sound will be a bit more distant or cover the speaker with a towel or another item to muffle it a bit.