Well shit. Look who just breezed in the door. Twofer Tuesday that dirty temptress! Better just buy 6 for no fucking reason. If the wife asks, they were for um...safety...let's go with that.
@MsELizardBeth You should get a radio with SAME; it lets you more narrowly define what location you want alerts for and I think even what type of alerts you want.
@jqubed I only have one because my mother in law gave it to us after we all slept through a tornado that made national news passing about 600 meters away. ....whoops...
So does Meh actually employ all these great females that helped me with my CS issue or is Holly, Erica and others who assisted me with my broken mugs of death really just Octopus man?
@Alien88 You didn't really think he had 8 arms and or legs did you? it was 8 drag queen names! Oh and if this had been the 200 version that had rubber grips, led screen, alarm clock and desktop docking I would have been on it like a postal man on mugs.
I just turned on my weather radio and my "personality" sounds nothing like the samples in the description. I guess he's closest to Tom, but I don't think it's the same guy.
@wa27 yeah, my guy (sometimes girl) here in Ohio don't sound like either of the samples. The ones here are a lot more fluid, and sound a lot like a real human (they are not). I do remember Paul from back in the day though.
@wa27 Each Weather Forecast Office (WFO) can tune their voice to be smoother, or more clipped, or slower/faster/whatever. Each one tends to be a little different.
@SSteve my bad- i posted an irrelevant link to an admittedly silly .gif that had no meaning to anything and ran off because the IQV (item of questionable value) was a punt.
@PurplePawprints I was trying to comment on the item's obsolescence by comparing it to my laptop which can much more easily get weather reports. What if the internet is out because of bad weather, you say? Well, then I still don't need the radio because I know the weather is bad. This is reductive, I know, but aren't all comments?
@Psikic Shouldn't that be covered by reverse 911 on your phone? Admittedly, I recognize not everyone has a new enough phone for that, but I assume this sort of thing is becoming less of a necessity and more of a backup plan?
was going to buy for my grandparents who dont have smartphones(only reason to buy these and they're cobra crap) but then I realized it wont make it by christmas so.......meh
I was going to knock these for not having Specific Area Message Encoding, because people tend to turn their radios off after one too many 3am alerts for a flash flood 3 counties over and then the radio does no good in an emergency, but then I saw they're small, portable radios. These would probably be great if you're doing some outdoor activity when the weather could suddenly worsen, particularly in an area of limited cell service, and in those situations SAME is likely of less value.
@jqubed I'm getting them to have on hand during power outages when I don't want to waste my phone's battery constantly checking for weather updates. Hopefully, they're good enough for that.
My phone warned me about the last tornado to touch down near me (actually more like 15 miles away). The advantage of my phone is it is always with me. It also knows where I am, so it gives me the right alerts.
My basement is stocked with Power Now portable USB chargers. So I will have a flashlight, and extra power for my phone. This weather radio is not for me.
@hamjudo My phone warned me about the last tornado near me about 15 minutes before the sirens started. When I couldn't find any information about where it was, I went outside to look for it
@SSteve The National Weather Service provides advanced warning. My house is not in the valley, it is on a small rise. It is too late for me if I don't here about the storm before the cell towers go down. We usually get notice that a thunderstorm will be moving through, and the conditions may be right to form tornadoes. This happens before the first warning or watch. Then I go to the basement, fire up a web browser, and watch the storm cells move around with the predicted tracks at the Weather Underground, wunderground.com. Can you say "weather junkee"?
In for 2.....I just don't know why. On the bright side, I got a traditional-flavored-hawk. Mix up a little gravy and ya got yourself a fine Sunday supper.
By the way @Moose will randomly turn these on throughout the day during quiet moments and it's super creepy and unsettling, so if you like scaring people in the office these would be an excellent buy.
@unixrab Oh, you wouldn't want me doing it either. It'd be pokemon plushies, D&D stuff, anime box sets, cheap fishing gear, and comics. Or...just stuff that I thought would be easy to ship.
One of the best write-ups ever, @JasonToon! So many things to comment on. 1a) I listened to the holiday song. There is only ONE hall, NOAA! 1b) Could that kerning around the logo possibly have been any worse!? Shouldn't they have updated it since the original version they did in Windows for Workgroups 3.11??? 2) I love that all the names are real. 3) I feel sorry for Paul. 4) I think I'm kinda gay for Javier.
I already have 3 tabletop SAME weather radios that work very well (no smart phones in this house, no real need yet), and I'm not out-and-about much, so I cannot figure out why I would need more weather radios. But they're a gadget and only $4 each is so damn tempting which has given me thoughts in my head that I must need to buy a set or I may miss out on a really great deal. Someone please give me some reasons to buy that I haven't figured out yet!
I would love to buy a weather radio, but we live in one of NWR's blind spots (behind a mountain). If you live in a rural or mountainous area, you may want to check the coverage maps http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/coverage/county_coverage.html
@stupidrobot It's actually shockingly difficult to find the answer to that question. The manual for this thing is no longer on the Cobra website, Amazon's got nothing, and an enlarged pic says "4.5V IN", instead of something helpful like "4.5V 2A." But since it runs on 2 AAA batteries, I'd say "not much." Maybe 1.5 amps, 2 amps at the most. Just be sure to note the polarity on the tip!
@stupidrobot If mine don't arrive wrapped in an exploding ceramic mug, I can test it out for ya, and give you a non-legally-binding rating. Basically measure the current drain at room, and double it (you DO need margin for the P.S.). My guess is it won't need over 1 amp.
Being that I already own a couple of Motorola Talkabouts with built in NOAA channels, I have no need. But these are kind of a fun gizmo to have for just a few bucks each. Go ahead peeps, splurge.
@Cinoclav Thank you. @editorkid I have 11 co-workers and was thinking about a post Christmas gift as it would be too late to put it in their Christmas gift bag.
Down on the Jersey Shore - Bought two. When there's no power to the cell towers, your smartphone isn't very smart. The internet requires electricity...
@linefeed Another reason to go with something like the Talkabout. You can stay in touch with people by walkie-talkie as long as they're within range. Some of them range up to 35 miles as long as there's a relatively clear line of sight.
I have my still working DECTalk unit (Think Stephen Hawking's original artificial voice) sitting on the shelf and I even have a computer with a serial port. This is inspiring. I can maybe make it sing (badly but still...)
@username The 40 mile range is how far it will work from the broadcast offices. You can use this map to check coverage: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/Maps/ Not sure about the red button, though I know some weather radios come with a 'snooze' mode that will temporarily silence the weather warnings.
Some have a tornado mode that only sounds severe alerts. I wish my phone had that option. I don't need to be woken at 3am to tell me about a flash flood warning somewhere in the same area code, especially when my house is outside the 100 year flood plain.
@username The red thing is just a light, but I'm not sure what for. Emergency alerts, I assume. The middle black button changes which channel it is on.
I received my two radios today. "Meh" on these is an understatement. "Sucks" is more like it. The first one the antenna came right out of the radio when I extended it. The second one - the antenna works but it's just static (ironically the first one may not have an antenna but it works fine). Everything about these say "cheap." I think I'm just throwing them out. Nice idea but if these are really Cobras, I don't think I'll be buying their radar detectors either.
@IcedCorn@Moose has been using the sample we have at the office since before the sale went up without any issues, give us a shout at https://meh.com/support
@IcedCorn looks like you sent in your email two days ago, we have a very small support team and because of the holidays turnaround time for responses is a little longer than usual. You will get a response and get taken care of. Please be patient with us.
Yep, I got three days on two different sets of new batteries. Pretty useless. If I can find a charger, then the batteries would be good for when the power gets knocked out.
Specs
Condition: New
Warranty: 1 Year Cobra
Estimated Delivery: 12/26-12/29
Shipping: $5 or free with VMP
What’s in the Box?
2x Weather radios
4x AAA batteries
Pictures
Face of the radio
Two radios
Side view
Brrrzzzztttt
Inset photo from MattysFlicks used under Creative Commons License
Price Check
$35.94 (For 2) at Amazon
$37.90 (For 2) at Walmart
Warranty
90 days
@mediocrebot http://www.sears.com/cobra-cwr100-portable-emergency-weather-radio/p-SPM11605547819
Add solar and a hand crank dynamo and we got us a deal!
@ruouttaurmind I'd be all over this if it were a hand-crafted style. Still might get it.
Anyone know how long it lasts on a set of batteries?
This is random
Finally a use for all those batter.... OH COME ON AAA
AAA batteries. Figures...
finally found a way to sell us some AAA batteries....
@Noddy93 12 AAAs for the low low price of $24!
Well shit. Look who just breezed in the door. Twofer Tuesday that dirty temptress! Better just buy 6 for no fucking reason. If the wife asks, they were for um...safety...let's go with that.
@studerc there's my favorite goat-awaiting-a-prize Tuesday post!
@studerc stocking stuffers
@JonT you know it...like clockwork. Its kinda becoming my signature post.
@studerc If you ever feel like the temptress is getting you down you can always fight fire with fire
At least we know tomorrow's sale is AAA batteries
@wyk3d we can hope
If anyone needs some rechargeable AA batteries, you can buy them from me on ebay.....
@givemeyoursoul i think we all have a plethora of AA. These take AAA.
I should really plug my weather radio back in... It got annoying with the constant alerts about it possibly snowing.
@MsELizardBeth You should get a radio with SAME; it lets you more narrowly define what location you want alerts for and I think even what type of alerts you want.
@jqubed I only have one because my mother in law gave it to us after we all slept through a tornado that made national news passing about 600 meters away. ....whoops...
C'mon man! I was seriously expecting to scroll down and see zero purchases...
Looks like this is a CWR-100, not CRW-100.
@jqubed Who will stop the rain? No, wait, that would be a CCR. Sorry
Mehnado. Mehrricane. Mehphoon. Mehvalanche?
@choral_music Mehther
@SinNYC Mlehzzard?
Sadly it won't warn us about a Mehsteroid hit...
Model: CRW-100
..... Ummmmm I think you mean CWR-100?
I bit. VMP gets me every time. delightful-underrated-winter
Did I mention that winter is my favorite season? Meh totally gets me.
I feel so tempted to buy these...too bad I'm in California
@rchao OK I'll bite. Why is it too bad you're in CA?
@Kerig3 Well if he's south of L.A. its becuse the only weather we get is a couple of days of rain per year.
@neuromancer It would still ley you know about the Santa Anas if he is in the southern part of CA.
If I clip it on the end of Da Bird, will my kitty be happy?
So does Meh actually employ all these great females that helped me with my CS issue or is Holly, Erica and others who assisted me with my broken mugs of death really just Octopus man?
@Outofmymind great, now I have visions of a drag queen octopus @snapster
@Alien88 You didn't really think he had 8 arms and or legs did you? it was 8 drag queen names! Oh and if this had been the 200 version that had rubber grips, led screen, alarm clock and desktop docking I would have been on it like a postal man on mugs.
@Outofmymind @Alien88 Exclusive behind the scenes look at meh CS
jkjk @hollboll @mehcus
@JonT Gee thanks. I just got off the phone with Alien88 and he is going to need 3 days therapy and a bottle of Crown now.
Do these come naked or in an original box?
@givemeyoursoul In an original, retail box
@somf69 Why does Snoop carry an umbrella?
@somf69 Fo' drizzle.
@phatmass So the drizzle won't hit his pizzel?
@Kerig3 The one's that he ordered for himself yesterday?
meh AAA
I just turned on my weather radio and my "personality" sounds nothing like the samples in the description. I guess he's closest to Tom, but I don't think it's the same guy.
@wa27 yeah, my guy (sometimes girl) here in Ohio don't sound like either of the samples. The ones here are a lot more fluid, and sound a lot like a real human (they are not). I do remember Paul from back in the day though.
@jzmacdaddy Wasn't Paul actually a moonlighting Stephen Hawking back in the day?
@wa27 Each Weather Forecast Office (WFO) can tune their voice to be smoother, or more clipped, or slower/faster/whatever. Each one tends to be a little different.
enter link description here
@alacrity You enter a link description. I'm bitter.
@SSteve my bad- i posted an irrelevant link to an admittedly silly .gif that had no meaning to anything and ran off because the IQV (item of questionable value) was a punt.
I was going to buy it then realized I was using a computer to do so and felt stupid.
@esjacobs Your comment makes absolutely no sense. Apparently, something went terribly wrong. You should try again, I guess.
@PurplePawprints I was trying to comment on the item's obsolescence by comparing it to my laptop which can much more easily get weather reports. What if the internet is out because of bad weather, you say? Well, then I still don't need the radio because I know the weather is bad. This is reductive, I know, but aren't all comments?
@esjacobs You must not live in an area where tornadoes are prevalent. In Arkansas, where I live, everyone pretty much has to have one of these.
@Psikic Oh, right tornadoes. Yeah, that makes sense. Forgot about those things. And you're right; I'm in NYC.
@Psikic Shouldn't that be covered by reverse 911 on your phone? Admittedly, I recognize not everyone has a new enough phone for that, but I assume this sort of thing is becoming less of a necessity and more of a backup plan?
@Psikic Shouldn't a psychic know when something's coming?
Weather radio? Do these play Baby It's Cold Outside, Hot, Hot, Hot, etc.
was going to buy for my grandparents who dont have smartphones(only reason to buy these and they're cobra crap) but then I realized it wont make it by christmas so.......meh
I was going to knock these for not having Specific Area Message Encoding, because people tend to turn their radios off after one too many 3am alerts for a flash flood 3 counties over and then the radio does no good in an emergency, but then I saw they're small, portable radios. These would probably be great if you're doing some outdoor activity when the weather could suddenly worsen, particularly in an area of limited cell service, and in those situations SAME is likely of less value.
@jqubed I'm getting them to have on hand during power outages when I don't want to waste my phone's battery constantly checking for weather updates. Hopefully, they're good enough for that.
@PurplePawprints It should certainly fill that role well.
@jqubed Mission accomplished then.
My phone warned me about the last tornado to touch down near me (actually more like 15 miles away). The advantage of my phone is it is always with me. It also knows where I am, so it gives me the right alerts.
My basement is stocked with Power Now portable USB chargers. So I will have a flashlight, and extra power for my phone. This weather radio is not for me.
@hamjudo When the tornadoes knock down all the cell towers don't come crawling to meh!
@hamjudo My phone warned me about the last tornado near me about 15 minutes before the sirens started. When I couldn't find any information about where it was, I went outside to look for it
@SSteve The National Weather Service provides advanced warning. My house is not in the valley, it is on a small rise. It is too late for me if I don't here about the storm before the cell towers go down. We usually get notice that a thunderstorm will be moving through, and the conditions may be right to form tornadoes. This happens before the first warning or watch. Then I go to the basement, fire up a web browser, and watch the storm cells move around with the predicted tracks at the Weather Underground, wunderground.com. Can you say "weather junkee"?
@hamjudo Weather Junkie. Yes, I can.
In for 2.....I just don't know why. On the bright side, I got a
traditional-flavored-hawk. Mix up a little gravy and ya got yourself a fine Sunday supper.
Meh, but kudos for the illustrated sound clips!
Say gu'buddy, do these things come with log books.. ten-fur?
By the way @Moose will randomly turn these on throughout the day during quiet moments and it's super creepy and unsettling, so if you like scaring people in the office these would be an excellent buy.
@JonT Um it's called emergency preparedness and it saves lives.
@JonT
@unixrab trust me, you don't want @JonT in charge of picking the stuff we sell. It'd be 99% cute cat posters and artisanal jams.
@hart but that other 1%... .... maybe....
@unixrab The 1% would be video games, probably.
@hart
@unixrab Oh, you wouldn't want me doing it either. It'd be pokemon plushies, D&D stuff, anime box sets, cheap fishing gear, and comics. Or...just stuff that I thought would be easy to ship.
@lisaviolet
@hart
@hart @jont This kind of artisanal jam?
@hart We know it sure as hell wouldn't be ceramic mugs!
@hart Yes plz
@unixrab
One of the best write-ups ever, @JasonToon! So many things to comment on. 1a) I listened to the holiday song. There is only ONE hall, NOAA! 1b) Could that kerning around the logo possibly have been any worse!? Shouldn't they have updated it since the original version they did in Windows for Workgroups 3.11??? 2) I love that all the names are real. 3) I feel sorry for Paul. 4) I think I'm kinda gay for Javier.
@SSteve Flattery AND kerning geekery? I only regret that I have but one star to give.
@SSteve I know what you mean about Javier, too. I'm having to ask myself some tough questions about same-sex, human-robot relationships.
@JasonToon fully functional and programmed in multiple techniques?
@nadroj I'll bet he writes poems to his cat named Spot, too. He's dreamy.
@JasonToon Complaining about kerning is just a cheap ploy for stars. I feel terrible about myself.
WTF
Anyone ever hacked one of these things? Maybe use them for other bands?
Do these have pagination?
@phatmass Yes, didn't you see the first picture shows it can handle seven pages?
I already have 3 tabletop SAME weather radios that work very well (no smart phones in this house, no real need yet), and I'm not out-and-about much, so I cannot figure out why I would need more weather radios. But they're a gadget and only $4 each is so damn tempting which has given me thoughts in my head that I must need to buy a set or I may miss out on a really great deal. Someone please give me some reasons to buy that I haven't figured out yet!
@Kerig3 1. Cheap. 2. Gadget. What other reason could there be?
@Kerig3 When the zombie apocalypse comes, you can throw these at them. Maybe all they want is to know whether it's going to rain tomorrow.
I would love to buy a weather radio, but we live in one of NWR's blind spots (behind a mountain). If you live in a rural or mountainous area, you may want to check the coverage maps http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/coverage/county_coverage.html
@gio I mean, you could still buy it...
In for two REAL Two-for-Tuesday deals
mini-ordinary-chimpanzee
@RedHot . . sexy dinner with mystery chimp.
@RedHot this image is very disturbing.
I see a DC in on the side. Do you know what kind of power adapter I would need to plug it in? I see 4.5V, but how many amps?
@stupidrobot It's actually shockingly difficult to find the answer to that question. The manual for this thing is no longer on the Cobra website, Amazon's got nothing, and an enlarged pic says "4.5V IN", instead of something helpful like "4.5V 2A." But since it runs on 2 AAA batteries, I'd say "not much." Maybe 1.5 amps, 2 amps at the most. Just be sure to note the polarity on the tip!
@flynnski You get two in the order so you can reverse the polarity once!
@stupidrobot If mine don't arrive wrapped in an exploding ceramic mug, I can test it out for ya, and give you a non-legally-binding rating. Basically measure the current drain at room, and double it (you DO need margin for the P.S.). My guess is it won't need over 1 amp.
This is probably one of the best blog posts I've ever seen at meh!
Paul sounds like Stephen Hawking.
OK, so how long has the logo click resulted in the Meh theme song? Brilliant.
@TBoneZeOriginal That actually doesn't work for anyone else. I think they said you would be the beta tester.
@Cinoclav
Being that I already own a couple of Motorola Talkabouts with built in NOAA channels, I have no need. But these are kind of a fun gizmo to have for just a few bucks each. Go ahead peeps, splurge.
Is this one 2 pack or two 2 packs per order?
@triciad It would appear to be 2 one packs so that you receive two radios in total.
@triciad Geez, man, how many apocalypses are you expecting?
@Cinoclav Thank you. @editorkid I have 11 co-workers and was thinking about a post Christmas gift as it would be too late to put it in their Christmas gift bag.
@triciad Oh. Well, then.
As you were.
Will this alert us of the zombie apocalypse?
@rhinoknock Yes: http://www.cdc.gov/phpr/documents/11_225700_A_Zombie_Final.pdf
Sigh. abundantly-miniature-seashore.
Great for a Bug Out Bag
No Georgia Red. . . for that alone, meh.
I love purple.
@jrwofuga That's my boy!
dumb-amused-talk
perfect, 10/10
In Oklahoma here... ordered the max of 6. Could've ordered twice that many.
Down on the Jersey Shore - Bought two. When there's no power to the cell towers, your smartphone isn't very smart. The internet requires electricity...
@linefeed Another reason to go with something like the Talkabout. You can stay in touch with people by walkie-talkie as long as they're within range. Some of them range up to 35 miles as long as there's a relatively clear line of sight.
Part of the old song still plays in my head for days like today...
"This'll be a new-item drought"
Regarding the NOAA Carols:
I have my still working DECTalk unit (Think Stephen Hawking's original artificial voice) sitting on the shelf and I even have a computer with a serial port. This is inspiring. I can maybe make it sing (badly but still...)
over/under that this will be part of the next $5 meh bag?
how hard was it for them to add FM there as well? it uses same damn hardware.
also what is 40 mile range refer to and what does red button do?
@username
@username The 40 mile range is how far it will work from the broadcast offices. You can use this map to check coverage: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/Maps/ Not sure about the red button, though I know some weather radios come with a 'snooze' mode that will temporarily silence the weather warnings.
Some have a tornado mode that only sounds severe alerts. I wish my phone had that option. I don't need to be woken at 3am to tell me about a flash flood warning somewhere in the same area code, especially when my house is outside the 100 year flood plain.
@username The red thing is just a light, but I'm not sure what for. Emergency alerts, I assume. The middle black button changes which channel it is on.
@Moose thx. at the very least i bought $8 worth of red LEDs and other components
@username Here are the other components!
@Moose Aww, you totally ruined the perfect opportunity for the next De-meh-lition video!
@Moose neat! thx
@Moose Wow - this is the first sales site that will do a teardown before you buy!
Biggest meh I've seen thus far.
Is meh good or bad? The meh button
@bacon4jason
@nadroj i thought meh was a pass, ive been mehing the wrong ones
@bacon4jason you may meh however you wish to meh.
I received my two radios today. "Meh" on these is an understatement. "Sucks" is more like it. The first one the antenna came right out of the radio when I extended it. The second one - the antenna works but it's just static (ironically the first one may not have an antenna but it works fine). Everything about these say "cheap." I think I'm just throwing them out. Nice idea but if these are really Cobras, I don't think I'll be buying their radar detectors either.
@IcedCorn @Moose has been using the sample we have at the office since before the sale went up without any issues, give us a shout at https://meh.com/support
@IcedCorn You're not alone here, First one wouldn't power on and the other was just static(seems like it doesn't change channels).
FYI, I did file a support item, haven't heard back.
@IcedCorn looks like you sent in your email two days ago, we have a very small support team and because of the holidays turnaround time for responses is a little longer than usual. You will get a response and get taken care of. Please be patient with us.
no worries. Thanks for the update.
Welp, the batteries lasted about 3 days on Alert mode. Unless meh finds a warehouse full of power supplies these are kind of worthless.
Yep, I got three days on two different sets of new batteries. Pretty useless. If I can find a charger, then the batteries would be good for when the power gets knocked out.