If I were rating this project in terms of its performance in providing essential alarms and information, particularly in relationship to its price, I'd give it 5 stars. I do have issues, however, with its instructions and interface.Performance-wise, this is a quality product. I've had the radio in service for a few weeks; it proved its worth almost immediately. The radio arrived during a period of late spring unsettled weather. A tornado passed to the south of us and the radio woke up to gave me plenty of warning and very good information as to the location and path. I discovered that, during a tornado warning, the Weather Service provides a live, real-time announcer who tracks the storm for you.During normal weather conditions, you can always listen to the weather service just by punching a button--although what you get is a computer voice reading from a typed script. Once you get past the fun of listening to the computer's pronunciation errors, you'll probably choose to get your weather forecasts from other sources.The product description doesn't make it completely clear that you can grab the radio and head for shelter without missing a lick--the on-board AA batteries instantly go to work when you unplug the wall power from the unit's back. Similarly, the unit will continue to perform through an electrical outage without any action on your part. I haven't tried to see how long the radio might run on the batteries alone. I suspect that listening full time to the radio (as compared to using it as a weather alarm) probably would shorten battery life.In addition to its weather warning chores, the radio can also function as an alarm clock, but this does add a layer of complexity in setup and operation with which you may not wish to engage.I've noticed a reviewer who complained about the frequency of alarms and I admit that receiving them in the middle of the night is a little unsettling. But the point of having the radio is not getting killed in your sleep, so I'm willing to tolerate being catapulted from deep slumber by the alarm. Under normal weather conditions, the radio just sits there, completely silent. You can go for weeks with nary a bleep.Now to the problems: If you're the kind of person whose VCR used to constantly blink "12:00", you may find the setup instructions somewhat difficult to follow. I suspect they were written by an engineer because of the presence of unwarranted assumptions such as the one that all users will intuitively understand that a panel button can have more than one function. The screen interface isn't much help in this regard either in that it can be hard to know where you are in the setup sequence. If you're willing to be patient, however, rest assured that the radio will do everything its advertising promises to do. For the very reasonable price and quality performance of the unit it would be worth the trouble to find a kid to program it for you.Bottom line: I didn't find any shortcomings in the radio itself; only the instructions left something to be desired. I'd still buy this radio if I had it to do over again. In fact, I recently did buy an additional unit to give as a gift to a family member (for whom I'll do the setup).*** Latest update : Hurricane and summer storm weather is around the corner. I bought this unit on August 18, 2008 and today is April 30 2013.The radio is still going strong and it has outlasted both more expensive models and ones with hand cranks.It has battery back up , 3 AA batteries - Duracell is the best brand to buy , just remember to buy your ( fresh ) batteries long before a storm warning and stores run out.NEW UPDATE : It appears NOAA has changed the alert tone system and this unit is now shutting off after the alert instead of it still broadcasting like when I bought it.This is an excellent update from NOAA.About a month ago we were getting tornado warnings about every fifteen minutes for 48 hours which is unusual for Naples FL.It was another time the radio paid for itself as location and direction were given and it made it easy to track as we don't have basements in Florida so the timely warnings were a plus.One thing that might get on peoples nerves are the small craft warnings and this is what you get the most of in my area but on the flip side it has been very helpful and the most dependable model I have bought.I would recommend this for anyone living within 100 miles of the gulf coast and Atlantic ocean as well as tornado alley. I am repeating this recommendation on purpose .Storms are one time to much information does not hurt.It's battery back-up is three AA batteries so keep extra ones handy in case the batteries get weak just when you need them and the radio has a battery meter so you will know in advance. Duracell batteries are the best brand to buy.UPDATE : The unit is now one year old and works as new. I have had four other weather radios , spending more money will not get you a better unit.*** If you live within 100 miles of the gulf coast , near any seashore , hurricane country , tornado ally ,rivers prone to flooding now is the time to buy ***.This unit can save your life and I do not work for the manufacture.There is no reason to spend more money on features that you do not need.Do not waste your battery life on a weather radio with AM/FM buy a separate radio. S.A.M.E. works great but if you are not a boater and live near the water be advised you will get a lot of small craft warnings.That being said in a storm you will get advanced warning of storm and land fall location in a hurricane.Tornadoes , Hail and other weather emergencies are covered but with S.A.M.E. technology your warnings are localized and this is very important.One note of cation , NOAA weather radio ( US Govt. ) sometimes uses towns that in everyday life we might not be accustom to so it is good to keep a state map with the radio so if the radio barks out a location that does not sound familiar you can find it.Like smoke detectors , best to change back-up batteries every 6 months.This is not a requirement for the radio but will extend useful life if caught with no power.Keep a flashlight with the radio , in an emergency you won't have to go searching for one.Have a plan in place before the storm and remember to speak to your children before any storm on what your family plans areI live in Kansas where, if you've been reading the news, you know we get more than our share of severe weather. Last month tornadoes did quite a bit of damage in a nearby area because the county didn't activate the emergency sirens quickly enough. Those with NOAA radios, like this one, already knew there was a tornado on the way, though, and more than one person credited their safety to the radio's alert.That was enough to convince me that we needed one, too, and I'm very pleased with this well-priced unit. Contrary to what one previous reviewer wrote, it DOES NOT BEEP FOR EVERYTHING if you follow the instructions. You simply dial into the NWS and get the code for your county, then you can program the unit to alert you solely for severe weather (e.g., severe thunderstorms and tornado watches and warnings).The reason I'm not giving it 5 stars is due to the antenna - first day out of the box my little boy had bent ours. There's a spot on the back to attach a wire one (the kind you use with some home stereos to pull in radio frequencies). Since those things are very low-cost it seems the manufacturer could have thrown one in without affecting the price much.I do like that the unit is small and is easy to remove from the A/C adapter so we can take it to the basement when we need to go to our "safe place". The Weather/Snooze button is handy as well: I often push it just to hear the day's forecast while getting dressed rather than having to endure the "blah, blah, blah" of our local meteorologists (who seem to believe we all need to be educated about pressure systems and jet streams before we can be trusted to know what today's weather will be).Great, economical buy.Funciona bien para CDMX avisa cada tres hrs. Aunque no se ha alarmado ningún evento real