MyFoxTampaBay

Hopefully you have gone out and bought your family a weather alert radio. If not get to the store and get yourself one. You can pick them up at places like Radio Shack and Walmart. Or if you prefer to shop on the web they can be purchased on those stores websites or at www.midlandradio.com

If you have got one and are now looking at a 30 page manual and saying ..."hey they said these were simple to set up!" There are extra features in most radios, but there are only 2 or 3 things that must be setup. The first one is to find the radio signal. This is normally done by just selecting the channel that you hear the clearest. You can also double check the channel by going to this website.

www.weather.gov/nwr/CntyCov/nwrFL.htm

Then the next thing is to select your "SAME" code for your county. "SAME" is just the National Weather Service acronym for SPECIFIC AREA MESSAGE ENCODING. This is probably the most important feature of your radio...because if the radio started alerting all the time for storms that have nothing to do with you then most people are going to toss this radio in the closet. So set this to your county so it does not wake you in the middle of the night for a severe thunderstorm 200 miles from you. Below is a listing of the counties in our area and the code for that county.

S.A.M.E. Codes:

Citrus = 012017
Sumter = 012119
Hernando = 012053
Pasco = 012101
Hillsborough = 012057
Pinellas = 012103
Polk = 012105
Manatee = 012081
Sarasota = 012115
Hardee = 012049
DeSoto = 012027
Highlands = 012055

These codes can be found at: www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/indexnw.htm

Many of the radios have an option for the alert type...if so you can choose how long the alert tone will sound before it automatically resets itself and if you want the radio to turn on automatically when a warning is issued. One more thing...don't forget to put the batteries in it so it has backup power if the electric was to go out and get in the habit of changing those batteries when you change the battery in the smoke detector.

Poll: We've Had Enough Michael Jackson

A new national study among 1,850 Americans found a majority feel that Michael Jackson's death is receiving too much media coverage in comparison to Farrah Fawcett's.

101-Year-Old Meals on Wheels Navigator

At 101, Lydia Hart should have people bringing her meals. Instead, she navigates fellow Meals on Wheels partner Betty Spivey through their delivery route once a month.

Idol's Amanda Overmyer is rockin it

American Idol finalist Amanda Overmyer is ready to rock St. Pete on the Fourth of July. She's headlining at the Rock'n Wings Concert at Albert Whitted Airport.