I've had the Sangean CL-100 since Jan 01, 2012 now. It's one of the better weather radios I've ever had. But, it does have its share of shortcomings as you will see later in this review.
The Sangean CL-100 Features:
1.) An AM/FM radio - Good reception. Sound quality is ok for a clock radio, but nothing to write home about there. Not a high quality sound. There is a headphone jack on the back of the radio. Which is a plus. The audio sounds better though the headphone jack than it does through the speaker, in my opinion. I do, however, wish the headphone was on the front of the unit though. It's kind of difficult to plug into the back. One has to turn or pickup the radio to do it, for the most part.
The radio itself has 6 programmable preset buttons on the topside of the unit toward the bottom. You can program 6 FM stations and 6 AM stations for a total of 12 overall presets. There is a separate selector switch to switch between the AM and FM modes.
2.) Alarm Clock - This unit is a fully functional dual alarm clock. It features a snooze button, a setting to wake to music or beeping alarm, an independent volume control for both alarms, and a special day of the week feature. This day of the week feature allows you to set individual alarms for days of the week. For example, you can set alarm 1 to wake you up at 7am Monday through Friday, and have alarm 2 set for Saturday and Sundays at 9am. There are various ways to set this up to fit your needs.
When the alarm sounds, it starts off at a low beeping pattern and gradually increases in volume until hits the max volume you set. After about a minute of beeping it will stop, and then start again with the beeping cycle from low to high volume. The wake to music feature works in a similar manner in so far that the radio will increase volume gradually until it reaches the preset max volume that you have chosen.
The time on the clock can either be set manually. Or, it can be set by a certain FM stations that send out a "Radio Brodcast Data System (RBDS)" signal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Data_SystemNot only will the RBDS signal reset the clock, but in some cases provide song title data, if the radio station is transmitting this type of data. In my area some will transmit song title or program information, while some others will transmit just a radio station call sign and that's it.
The one thing I don't like about the alarm clock function is the dual alarms are turned on-and-off via two small three-way slide switches on the right side of the unit. One three way switch of each of the two independent alarms. They are not well marked from a distance, hard to read because of being located on the side. So, it's quite a challenge at times to pick out which one is alarm #1 and alarm #2. It's also hard because of the three settings on each switch itself. Wake to radio is at the bottom selection. Alarm off is the middle selection. And finally, wake to alarm it the top selection on the slider switch. It's hard to keep straight until you memorize it, or watch the display carefully as your fiddling with the switches inconveniently located on the side of the unit. Try doing this at night with little or no light on, or while groggy and tired.
3.) Wx alert functions - Typical SAME technology. The CL-100 can display upto 20 warning messages, and can cycle through them manually via the tune up and tune down buttons attached to an mp3 style circular control button. The Wx radio also shows the amount of time left in a particular alert, witch is a very handy feature. I just wish it was displayed bigger in the display. More on the display shortcomings later.
It has a voice or siren mode with user selectable volume controls. (Note: Older CL-100 models with older firmware have a bug with Wx voice alarm. The volume and will blast at full volume no matter how you set it. So, check the firmware date if you buy a used CL-100 wx radio)
The big, big, big, plus to this radio is that this radio
WILL ADHERE TO THE NWS "END OF MESSAGE" TONES. Most Midland radios that just have a five minute timeout timer feature, and will not mute when the NWS tones are received. Five minutes is a lot of time that the radio is blarring in the middle of the night, so I prefer to have the radio shut itself off when the NWS tone is received.
4.) SAME alert lockouts - The unit has programmable lockouts for weather alerts. I have mine set up to lock just about everything out except tornado warnings. There are a few alerts that can't be locked out, but I don't remember all of them right this second. I know a couple of them were civil emergency related. It would be nice if weather radio manufacturers would have some sort of daytime/nighttime alert features that would allow different lockout strategies during certain hours of the day.
5.) The Wx radio's display - The display is unfortunately the one weakness of the radio that I don't like a whole lot.
I do like the fact that the display fully alpha-numeric and warning messages will scroll across the bottom of the screen. The background is a white text on a blackish gray background. It's bright and good looking in general. But, the display is relatively small in nature. The display is non-adjustable angle wise, and has a poor viewing angle (up, down, and side-to-side). You will have to tilt the entire radio if your going to use this as a radio by your bed. The unit doesn't have any sort of built in kickstand either, so your going to have to put something under the radio to tilt it.
The other thing I don't like is the brightness control. The dimmer has three settings, but the lowest one is still too bright for use at your bedside, in my opinion. There is a way to set the radio up where the back-light of the display will turn off after a user defined amount of time, but I'm not a fan of that option because anytime I want to see what time it is I have to reach over and press any key. That's something I don't really want to be doing at night.
With all of this in mind, I think the radio makes for a good desktop radio, but a questionable bedside unit. Luckily in my case, I have a back lit large display clock across the room that has dimming, that is easier on the eyes at night, in my personal opinion. A clock that I can see anywhere in the room, unlike the CL-100 that has a poor viewing angle.
6.) Power - The unit is AC and can work off of batteries for a short while. I haven't really tested this feature out thoroughly, but during a two hour blackout recently the basic functions kept going, and all my settings were saved, so I'm happy about that.
7.) Ease of programming - The radio uses a scroll down menu system which is wonderful. Everything is arranged neatly. But, the radio gets low marks from me in one very important area. During programming (of nearly any setting) you only have about five to eight seconds to make up your mind before the radio kicks out of menu mode and back to your regular clock display. Meaning, if your two or three levels deep in the menus, and you stop to think for a few seconds on how you want to set setting x, you run a high risk of getting timed-out and starting all over again. This is
VERY frustrating. Especially, while your trying to learn your new radio, or your trying to program thing while your half asleep in the middle of the night.
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The CL-100 does have other features as well such as an external antenna, a device port to trigger like a light flasher, etc...
In summary, the Sangean CL-100 makes for a wonderful desktop weather alert radio, and will work well in any room of the house. Except, perhaps the bedroom, in my opinion. Despite all the shortcoming this unit has that I've listed above, the unit is still a solid well built unit that will definitely do the job of keeping you informed, and keeping you safe, during times of severe weather of during civil emergencies.
In the end, I give this radio a rating of 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.