Midland HH54VP Portable Emergency Weather Radio with SAME - NOAA Weather Alert, AM/FM, USB Charger (Black) - Perfect for Camping, Hiking & Emergency Preparedness

I wanted a weather radio to hear NOAA broadcasts and receive the occasional severe weather alert here in Chicago. I chose the Midland HH54VP2 package and am delighted with the purchase.The pros:1. Small size sits easily on a window ledge; it looks great, too, with its black finish and streamlined shape... no more ugly white box with steel antenna!2. Drop-in charger allows me to take the unit with me into the bathroom, around the house, or in the car3. Excellent clarity of NOAA broadcasts, especially considering I have concrete walls (dorm room) and cell reception is usually only 3 bars out of 5. There is some crackle, but the automated voice is clear and loud over it.4. Ability to program multiple counties for S.A.M.E. encoding and chose your alert type (sustained tone/siren, voice, or silent)5. Display shows different colors depending on the type of alert: red for warnings, orange for watches, etc.6. LED light on the display shows if I missed an alert7. Midland has added a software upgrade that removes the loud confirmation beep when you press a key; this annoyed many people and has been the focus of prior negative reviews of the product. The beep is now an option you can set.8. The provided battery pack is removable, so, if it runs down, regular AA batteries can be substituted for continued performance.The cons:1. Alert tone is very LOUD. I live in a pretty small dorm room by myself and I worry that the noise will be heard throughout the building. This would be great if I lived in a large house or if I was working outside, but the tone is too loud. I wish there was a way to set the volume on the tone. I would characterize it more as a "siren" than a tone. Even when you select the "voice" alert option, the siren still plays for about 10 seconds prior to the broadcast starting. In general, I would like more customizable options on the alert type, which shouldn't be hard for Midland to implement in a software upgrade.2. The radio does not seem to receive my local NOAA office's weekly test signal. I wait for it and the reception is good, but nothing happens on the display and there is no indication that the S.A.M.E. function works. I would like some way to confirm that it is receiving this information... I guess I'm a worrier.3. There seems to be some software bug related to the time display: when the unit it out of the charger for a little while and I am manipulating options, it "loses" the time and resets to 12:00. I have to re-program the time more often than I would like.4. There is no option for an external antenna connect. As indicated above, I live in a concrete building so the reception is a little weaker than I'd like. Midland should provide an external antenna connector jack that plugs into an exterior antenna or at least something longer.Overall, at this price point, I am very happy. There are always tradeoffs when you buy one product over another, but I am satisfied with the purchase I made and recommend it.EDIT (5/7/2012): We have recently had several days of powerful storms. The weather radio has been receiving all NOAA alert tones (e.g., watches, warnings, etc.) and acting appropriately. It does not receive the weekly test signal, but perhaps that is the fault of my local NOAA office. The loud, piercing siren is still an issue, but I have learned to get used to it because it is only about 5-7 seconds in length. Note: this is the primary reason for the four-star review. The time reset and lack of external antenna jack are also issues.I purchased the Midland HH54VP Portable Emergency Weather Radio with SAME on June 22, 2015. I researched heavily in an attempt to find the perfect portable radio for my needs, and despite mixed reviews I settled on this one. I thought that the design and aesthetics, plus the included features were what I was looking for. Once I received the radio, I had no issue with setting it up. The manual was clear and well written. I turned off the beep, set the time, and programmed in my county codes within minutes. I kept the radio plugged in and it lived in my kitchen for a week, during which time I used the button on top to manually check the weather at regular intervals, and I received what seemed to be a pretty strong signal, and had good sound quality with minimal static.I liked the shape of the radio, and I liked that it was all black. A number of other offerings in this style and price range seem to be brightly colored and narrow. I wanted something that would blend well with my décor and stand up on its own, which this radio did. I liked that it had rubber grips on the side to prevent it from sliding when I did decide to grab it, and the rubber pads on the bottom also helped to keep it in place. After a week, I decided I would prefer to keep this in my bedroom so I could hear it at night. I found that the move made the signal reception much worse; the weather reports were barely audible over the increased static. This was only a very short distance from where I had it originally; I couldn’t believe how much difference this made in the signal reception.At this point, I decided that I would grab a couple of the batteries for these radios, and I also even bought a second radio and the charging base. My thought was to keep one in the kitchen and one in the bedroom. Once my additional purchases arrived, the problems started. 2 out of the 3 batteries were completely dead upon arrival. I’ve written a separate review for these. The charging base, although it lit up, never really seemed to charge anything. Upon closer inspection, I found a critical flaw in the design for these radios. The charging base will only power these radios if you have a Midland battery installed, and it has to be a working battery. Why Midland chose this approach is beyond me. I briefly considered pulling one of them apart and attempting a rewire, but ultimately decided it wasn’t worth it. If Midland ever releases an updated model, I hope that they do something about this wonky design. The charging base should power the radio without a battery installed, as it stands now, it functions as little more than a glorified stand. I was forced to plug the radio in using the side jack and then use the base as a stand. I managed to get one of the batteries to hold a small charge, but I only got that to work by using the side jack, the base never did anything. Every time I would disconnect the radio from the charger and press a button, the radio would reset itself. The battery icon never showed a full charge, despite leaving the radio charging for 24 hours. The batteries are also difficult to put in and take out, though it is worth mentioning that the belt clip is removable and helps with removing the battery cover. Other reviews have made mention of this difficulty, but I didn’t see anyone mention the removable clip.I tried to call Midland twice to discuss my issues. The first time they were closed for a holiday weekend, and the second time I received no response. After another week or so of using my radios, I decided that I would look for a better product and ultimately resolved to sell these radios at a fraction of what I paid. I am currently eying a Motorola product which seems like it would better serve my intended purpose.Pros:- All black design with rubber grippy sections- Bright screen with choice to leave on or off- Easy to setup- Removable belt clipCons:- Reception is spotty depending on location and placement- Midland batteries are worthless- Flawed design means you must have a working Midland battery to use the charging cradle- Batteries are difficult to install and removeTo conclude, after a lot of playing around with two of these, I wasn’t very happy. I think there are better options in this price range, though you may have to settle in terms of aesthetics. I really wanted to like these, but ultimately I just couldn’t. I would not purchase these again. I would not recommend them to anyone, unless you are happy with plugging it in and forgetting about it, though, that also defeats the purpose of it being a portable model. I did not bother testing it with regular batteries, I’ve read enough reviews to know that they wouldn’t last more than a couple hours, and my feeling was that the rechargeable batteries were part of the product and they should function in that capacity. I rate these radios at 2/5 stars, and would advise you to spend your money on another product or wait for a possible next gen version with a better design. A company as well known as Midland could really do a better job.This weather radio has all the great features you would want or expect from a good weather radio. The emergency alerts first annoyed my wife, but now she is the one that gets up to check the update.Cons:I had originally purchased this model so I can grab it for camping or bugging out, but the biggest complaint I have is the battery life! it sucks! will not last a full day off the charger. So the reason I bought it for does not work well.Pros:Compact design takes up much less space on my bookshelf than any of the other models out there.The device works properly but the rechargeable battery only charges to 1.5 volts and it's supposed to be 4.5 volts. So the adaptor, battery and charging cradle are useless with a battery pack that doesn't work. I could put 3AA batteries in the device but that defeats the purpose of getting the rechargeable battery and cradle :( I have till Jan 31 to return it.I got this radio for a trip into the southern States in tornado season. I'm in a part of Canada which doesn't have weather radio reception, so I haven't been able to try out the radio except for the alert test but I'm very happy with the ease of setting up the clock and navigating through the other various parts of the menu. A friend of mine has the same radio and has told me it works well, so I'm not worried about reception. It feels sturdy and I'm happy that it has a belt clip for times when I'm out hiking.The product works pretty well, but the power adapter died very quickly (in a couple of months). This seller only has a 30 day return policy so you don't have much time for things to go wrong.Excellent. A life save for sure. Warned us about a tornado heading right for us. A must for travellers to the south.