Anyone want to share any good or bad weather radio's. Never used on before but think I have been rolling the dice a bit and want to pick one up. Is the reception in the BWCA ok for a small NOAH radio?
Thank you!

NOAA radios get reception fine in the BWCA. Lots of people like the C-Crane or Sangean model that looks like the C-Crane. If you get one of those, get the external antenna that plugs into the headphone jack to improve reception.

I have a Midland crank one that also has a small solar panel. The crank arm doesn't stay attached to the radio any longer, but the solar still works. Once I get around to it I'll replace it with a C-Crane that I've had on my Amazon wishlist forever.

Others will take walkie talkies that have weather radio functionality. Gently bite the antenna to improve reception if it's wavering in & out.

Thank you! I was hoping reception was ok and I have seen a couple different kinds in videos. I had a crank one a few years ago and the crank broke off that after only a few times using it. I am a little unsure of them now.

I assume you mean NOAA...unless you are beckoning the Ark;-)

Sorry, could not resist.

Here's a thread from last year that has discussion on several different kinds:
Weather Radio Thread

If you search Google with the following query you'll get lots of results -
"weather radio site:bwca.com"

Based on that thread I purchased a Sangean DT-400W . It works great and even picks up some local radio stations.

My first thought was that if you listen to NOAH weather radio, you will cancel your trip. But then I realized that you should definitely go on your trip so you have a boat with you.

Selfsuffi: "Anyone want to share any good or bad weather radio's. Never used on before but think I have been rolling the dice a bit and want to pick one up. Is the reception in the BWCA ok for a small NOAH radio?
Thank you!"

We bring one and at night can pick up a public radio station out of Grand Marais. My favorite is listenixng to Rainbow Trout play old time country music on Sunday nights.

Selfsuffi: "Anyone want to share any good or bad weather radio's. Never used on before but think I have been rolling the dice a bit and want to pick one up. Is the reception in the BWCA ok for a small NOAH radio?
Thank you!"

We bring one and at night can pick up a public radio station out of Grand Marais. My favorite is listening to Rainbow Trout play old time country music on Sunday nights.

LOL, well I knew it was pronounced like the ark... all I could recall was it stood for National Oceanic and Atmospheric ...something. NOAA is only a google search away. Thank you.

Thank you.....just what I was looking for. Heading up to Gijikiki and Cherry in mid-June. I can't wait to get back.

I used this one last year. Small and did its job. Fired it up once or twice a day to see if nasty weather was coming. Id recommend getting one for sure. Not the most accurate depending on where you are in the Bdub, since you are relying on forecasts around you but not necessarily where you are. But it'll give you a good indication of whats happening.

Thank you. That is all I am looking for is just a general area weather. Usually we just grab a 10 day forecast and go by the wind. The older I get the more I think about the bad things that can happen. Never hurts to be prepared.

Like others have said there are some good radios that pick up this weather band. I for one had a bad experience with my weather radio. I was the only one that brought one on my last trip. We had 6 guys with on Pine lake. I told the group that rain was moving in. The group took a vote and my buddy and I were the only ones that wanted to stay. So we packed it up and exited the BWCA. I will not be making this mistake again. I will be keeping the weather to myself when I hear it.

I bought the cheap radio that Atrain linked to. Small (about the size of an Altoids tin), inexpensive and quite effective even deep in the Quetico.

mirth: "Here's a thread from last year that has discussion on several different kinds:
Weather Radio Thread


If you search Google with the following query you'll get lots of results -
"weather radio site:bwca.com""

That's a good thread. I bought a small weather radio (can't remember the brand) for about 15 bucks. It gets the major NWS weather stations when I'm in the BWCA and tunes into either Rainy Lake or Atikokan on some of the southern Quetico lakes. It does not work when I'm in Wabakimi or WCPP although there may be some radios that pick up Environment Canada stations.

Savage Voyageur: "Like others have said there are some good radios that pick up this weather band. I for one had a bad experience with my weather radio. I was the only one that brought one on my last trip. We had 6 guys with on Pine lake. I told the group that rain was moving in. The group took a vote and my buddy and I were the only ones that wanted to stay. So we packed it up and exited the BWCA. I will not be making this mistake again. I will be keeping the weather to myself when I hear it. "

I'll second this! I was on a trip with some first-timers, and we saw rain coming and decided to make camp early on day one. I tuned in when i was setting up my hammock and heard the report talking about 40mph winds and possible hail. I just set up the group tarp and grinned a little. The hail ended up missing us like a couple miles to the south but we got battered pretty hard with wind and downpours. I plead the fifth. YMMV haha.

Selfsuffi: "LOL, well I knew it was pronounced like the ark... all I could recall was it stood for National Oceanic and Atmospheric ...something. NOAA is only a google search away. Thank you."

Oddly, and my wife works with people at NOAA constantly, it never occurred to me that it sounded like the ark. So, I really enjoyed the spelling.

lol, I will listen to the weather with an ear bud so I don't get a mutiny and have the group wanting to leave early. weather doesn't bother me but it would be nice to know if it is a lot of wind coming or just an all day soaker.

Blatz: "Based on that thread I purchased a Sangean DT-400W . It works great and even picks up some local radio stations."

Enjoy that Sangean too and always gets Weather band + area radio (which I rarely listen to out in BW). I did purchase the extended 'soft' antenna but it was more of a tweak than a necessity.

I just looked up the Sangean dt-400w. It looks like a solid, lightweight option that I might consider picking up (it's not like I need more gear :). I picked up the Oregon Scientific WR601N weather radio, but not at the price listed in the link.

La Crosse makes a very good NOAH weather radio. I have had very good luck with it in the past. Never have had a problem pulling in weather reports while fishing on Lake Insula which is about 15 miles from the Lake One Entry Point. Even been able to pull in NPR as well as local Ely station. It has an alarm setting you can place it on to alert you of when bad weather is approaching. If you alarm it, it will burn through a set of batteries in a few days, but if you just manually turn it on and off to search the weather frequencies, we have never had a problem with wearing down the batteries. It has an extendable antenna and a small LED light. It runs on 3 AAA batteries. The radio came with a DC plug so it works great at home without consuming batteries. My brother bought the newer version of this radio from Cabela's but it did not come with the DC plug. I never go to the BWCAW without this radio. It has saved us a few times from straying to far from camp with bad weather in the area that would have certainly caught us and put us in a bad situation.

Last year I went with the $20 generic hand crank/solar/AAA battery radio off of Amazon that ells under several brand names, (Running Snail?). It is red, and had a hand crank, a solar panel, and technically a spot to charge a USB device. However, it is total garbage. It tries to do 8 things, but it does them all poorly. The only way I could get reception was if I held the antenna and our fly swatter together and then moved it around until i could find reception. (It could pick up WELY pretty well though, even without the hand attached fly swatter). It took forever to charge via hand or solar, and the amount of "juice" it puts out to your phone was basically just enough for an emergency call. It was also heavier than I would have expected. It really needs to be run by the batteries.

I hoped it would serve as a radio and a phone charger all based on hand/crank or solar, but it failed miserably at all of its tasks, and weighs more than the combined weight of a dedicated item for each task.

I just used my REI dividend to pick up a C Crane CC Pocket, so hopefully that works out better at it's main purpose, Weather Radio. While it isn't solar or hand crank powered, and can't charge my phone, it weighs about 1/3 of what the amazon one does, even with a second set of AA batteries.