You need to purchase a NOAA weather radio that is capable of receiving SAME code. That is
Specific
Area
Message
Encoding.
After buying an NOAA Weather Radio SAME receiver, you must program your county, parish or independent city or marine area into the radio. Do
NOT program your radio for louder or clearer station not designated as a SAME channel. You will not receive alert. Your NWR will then alert you only of weather and other emergencies for the county(s)/ area(s) programmed. NWR receivers without the SAME capability alert for emergencies anywhere within the coverage area of the NWR transmitter, typically several counties, even though the emergency could be well away from the listener.
The radios can be programmed by frequencies of the different counties. We even have ours programmed to Lauderdale County, MS since a lot of our weather comes from that direction. I purchased my NOAA radio at Academy Sports last year for around $35. I went with a Midland WR-100 brand, but there are several out there that are equally as good.
The website for the individual county frequencies are as follows:
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/CntyCov/nwrAL.htm
Here is a link to the radio I bought:
http://www.ambientweather.com/miwrdewealra.html
With regular weather alert radios you can be awakened all night by alerts from areas too far away to effect you. Now if the alert sounds you know it is for your area.
This model can automatically alert you by specific county or area. False alarms are eliminated. This model receives all seven weather channels.
The eight character LCD displays different watches or warnings plus AMBER alerts. Three LED lights indicate at a glance the alert status (statement, watch or warning). User selectable warning (90 dB Siren, voice alert, or flashing red LED).
The WR-100 has its own telescopic antenna plus has an external antenna jack (RCA phono). There is also an accessory jack (3.5mm mini) for keying optional external alert devices such as strobe lights or pillow vibrators.
This device also serves as a digital clock (12 hours format).
