MIDLAND WR300 Weather Radio
by Midland
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of MIDLAND WR300 Weather Radio
Customer Review: Everything but the choice of Colors ....
Summary: 4 Stars
I recently purchased the Midland WR-300 AM/FM Weather/All Hazards/Civil Emergency Alert Monitor with S.A.M.E. through a link from a mobile weather website. I had been checking models and prices for awhile. I had noticed the same basic radio is sold in "accessibility catalogs" because of the alerting connectivity to accessories to make it more accessible for deaf/hard of hearing (vibrating bed shakers and flashing lights, etc.). It is much more expensive in those catalogs (they tweak the model number just a little to add confusion, because they are essentially selling it in a package deal to INCLUDE the flashing lights and/or bed shakers etc, but it's still way over priced!). So really it does what I want it to do, and I already had flashing lights (and a hearing husband!).
The instructions for programming the machine are clear enough, but I would have preferred something a little larger font, to make it more user friendly for those not wearing their glasses (or other visual issues).
Also they don't specifically include the state/county codes for the SAME feature - you have to look them up on the internet, or go through an automated 800 toll-free calling system. You can, however, leave it set to the default of "every county in the radio signal coverage zone", or you can set it to multiple counties (helpful if you're up in the corner of a county and might want to know when the county above you is getting clobbered just before it hops over the county line 2 miles away from your house, etc.). The third option, of course is just program your county alone.
We have it programmed now for just the three or four counties in our metro area, and my husband loves it now that he can sleep through the night without receiving alert signals from places 300 miles away getting a fog advisory or other such weather alert!
If the power goes off, you have to reprogram everything - oh joy! So I'd recommend that you print off the codes you laboriously obtained from the 800 number or from the website and keep them written in or near your instructions. They recommend that you put the AA batteries in at the time you are programming...which I did (I think it was 4 batteries ? need to double check)...but turns out, it's merely there to keep the receiver on and drive the alert when an incoming weather alert arrives. Once the power was back on - I had to reprogram the S.A.M.E. and the three radio stations (3 FM and 3 AM radio stations can be programmed to memory.).
It's cute going through all the pre-programmed alert possibilities to turn them on or off. It tells you what the default is, and most of them the default is off, but you can toggle it on if it's appropriate for your area - for example, there were alerts for coastal tidal wave, avalanches, coastal flooding, things like that which are good to know if you are on the coast (and I used to live in Florida, so I understand this), but given that we're out in the mid-west, miles and miles from the nearest coast, it seemed funny. Or I'm easily amused - BUT - I was also pleased that I did have the option, as I could theoretically take this in my luggage if I was traveling somewhere and wanted a more reliable way to be alerted for emergencies (in the USA).
So far, I'm basically happy with this. Why they couldn't offer this is pretty colors (pink? purple? why not??) I don't know, but oh well. When the lights go out, I guess it hardly matters what color it is!! ;-)
There are three different colored LED lights that flash during an alert, to indicate visually what level of severity - advisory, watch, or warning (which is when it's actively happening 15 minutes to NOW!). The Text also flashes on "SEVERE THUNDERSTOM WATCH" "TORNADO WARNING" etc. and of course, the trippy little voice from the station also starts speaking. One of the toggle selections is if you want to be alerted by tone or by voice. If by tone, it squeals for awhile (? what my husband says, I can't hear it!) and then the voice comes on. I have it set to "voice" so there is a tone but not the long obnoxious kind, and then the voice of the radio station comes on reading the statement. There is also a toggle for loud alert or softer alert.
There are output jacks in the back where one can plug in whatever signaling device - I'm not looking at it now so can't tell you the exact size but I'm sure it's available elsewhere on the 'net, or ask and I can go look it up on the instruction booklet.
Customer Review: Exceptional weather radio, poor bedside alarm radio. And poor setup instructions.
Summary: 4 Stars
Yesterday we had two tornado warnings, and we finally figured out that this is a great weather radio, but only after you set it up properly! The instructions are really bad, but I included additional instructions below if you are interested.
As a bedside radio, this item is not very useful. If you are looking for an alarm radio with weather-radio capabilities, this is not the product. The hour display is small, and the backlight is out in 5 seconds. Touching a button will get the light back on, but the darn beep is so loud that it is not nice at certain hours of the night... Letting the backlight continuously is not an option in a bedroom; you can almost read a book with that blue light...
As weather radio: outstanding.
- Very clear weather radio signal. Even in the basement and without the antenna the sound didn't break. And I generally have poor FM reception.
- You can activate the alarm ONLY for life-threatening advisories. (See below about tornado warning). So you can go to sleep and it will only wake you up if there is tornado Warning, but not tornado watch.
- It has a light that is lit for alerts (yellow), watch (orange), and warnings (red). If it lits, you can touch a key and it will tell you the type of advisory. But if it is not life-threatening, you can program it without alarm. For instance, severe thunderstorms warning will lit the red light, but won't sound unless you want to.
- It keeps a memory with tests, so you can check if the NOAA tests worked and your radio is getting the signal.
- It can be plugged, but also works with batteries, in case of outage or if you want to carry it with you in a weather emergency.
Overall, very happy with the functionality of the radio and I highly recommend it if you are in an area with tornados or hurricanes, it just helps you sleep better.
The instructions to set it up... man, that is a different story. Poor poor instructions. The first tornado warning yesterday, it didn't sound or lit any light. We were very unhappy about this. But we figured out and 3 hours later it woke us up in the middle of the night with the second tornado warning of the light. And it worked like a charm.
So, to set it up:
1) Follow the instructions to set up the radio functions, clock, alarm, etc.
2) Follow the instructioins to set up the county codes for the SAME. Find out the county codes you are concerned about, choose the multiple option if that is the case, and enter them as they say.
3) Then, go alarm by alarm and "defeat alarm" for those that you don't care. I left the warnings on and the rest off, but I am sure there won't be an avalanche in my county to wake me up :). The instructions are helpful here.
4) Now, what is with tornado warning!? The silly instructions say that the most dangerous alarms, marked with an *, will not sound by defect but it can be changed, because it is the intended purpose. They should fire the person who wrote this. In fact, the alarms marked with an * (like tornado warning) will ALWAYS SOUND THE ALARM by defect, and this cannot be deactivated. It did sound yesterday in my house, so I can attest that they do sound.
5) VERY IMPORTANT. After you set up the alarm, listen to the weather radio. Make sure it is picking up the signal (there are different channels and not all of them will work). If you don't do this, then the weather radio is basically as useful as your toaster to alert you from a tornado. And this is exactly what happenned to us yesterday in the first tornado warning. Besides, the light and the alarm will only work when the alert is initiated by NOAA, so until they issue the next adivsory in your area, it will not work.
Midland should definitely rewrite these instructions, because they are not just confusing by incomplete. But once you set it up correctly, this product works very well as a weather radio. Not so much as a bedside alarm, so I just put it in my desk and I use it as a clock. I would highly recommend the product as weather radio, but be wary of the poor instructions.
Customer Review: Yesterday's Technology - Be Prepared to Be Annoyed
Summary: 2 Stars
For several years, the National Weather Service weather radio network has been delivering warnings using two sets of technologies - a very old school single tone burst, which some older weather radios are trained to respond to, and the newer SAME codes, which deliver three sets of short data bursts which contain information about the county/counties the warning applies to, the type of warning issued, and the duration of the warning event.
SAME technology has allowed weather radios to respond with alerts intended only for your specific county. No more 3:00am weather warnings for an event three counties and 60+ miles away that will never impact you. Assuming you program these radios correctly, they will respond only to the warning criteria you set.
The Midland WR-300 conforms to the very basics of the SAME standard, but, like many of its competitors, has never implemented the full standard, which makes the radio obnoxious to deal with, particularly with its complete lack of support for the End of Message (EOM) standard. If you listen to a weather warning or test, you'll notice at the end of the message, three short data bursts are sent. That is the SAME standard method to tell weather radios that the warning message has concluded.
Well built weather radios recognize this EOM signal, and will immediately mute themselves.
The Midland series of radios, as a way of cutting engineering costs, ignore the EOM and simply have a five minute timer, which will eventually mute the radio.
After your third or fourth middle-of-the-night weather warning, you'll start to curse Midland for ignoring this important specification, as you either lie awake forced to listen to the radio blare for five minutes or you get up to go and shut it off.
In 2008, with the cost of producing a SAME chipset for weather radios costing next to nothing, any weather radio that does not respond to EOM is unacceptable in my opinion, and upon learning this one does not, I returned it.
And if this function did not irritate you before, wait.
In 2008, the National Weather Service is rolling out a new system to deliver weather warnings over the weather radio network. Soon, weather warnings will be issued for specific towns or sections within your county, and an entire new set of SAME codes will be issued (starting with a 1 or 2 instead of the usual 0). Many weather radios expect SAME codes to only start with 0 and will not work with the new codes.
Those that don't (or more commonly the individual owner won't realize the new codes exist and simply leave the county code programmed) will still respond to warnings, but now the radio will sound alerts repeatedly for warnings issued specifically to different parts of your county. For a severe thunderstorm or tornado, this can easily result in three to five warnings per event, coming every few minutes as a storm progresses through your county. And this means your weather radio will sound for every last one of them.
With a five minute timer on this unit, that means a thunderstorm will likely leave your weather radio audio on for 15-20 minutes minimum, unless you get up and turn the thing off each time it sounds.
The NOAA Weather Radio network will also shortly begin sending warnings including Amber Alerts, 911 outages, public safety warnings and advisories issued by the Department of Homeland Security, and other public safety agencies, which will sound the siren for each warning.
To not have EOM enabled is the equivalent to owning a smoke detector that goes off when you put something in the microwave. Eventually, you're going to start turning it off or unplugging it, which is exactly contrary to why we need weather radios.
At this point, you should only consider weather radio models that fully implement the SAME standard (including the new forthcoming SAME codes) and fully supports the EOM standard. You'll be far happier with products that do.
Customer Review: A Few Flaws, But Still A FINE Product!!
Summary: 4 Stars
I had the radio programmed and ready to go early on 04/13/07 (Friday the 13th!) because I knew severe weather was coming in later that afternoon. And sure enough, a squall line came in and a tornado touched down only a few miles north of my house. But my little Midland WR-300 alerted me in plenty of time before the storm hit the west side of my city. I programmed it to alert me to 4 counties surrounding mine, because one or more of them nearly always gets the severe weather before I get it. So this gives me good advanced warning. My WR-300 alerted me again and again that April 13th, and has many times since.
And I think this is really neat: almost always, the radio sounds the alarm and gives you the emergency weather information (from the National Weather Service) BEFORE the weather man (or woman) announces it on TV!
There are some negative things I've noticed about it, though:
(1) The instruction booklet is, to me, woefully inadequate.
(2) The alpha-numeric characters that appear on the monitor are terribly
faint and small. They should be redone in larger and much bolder type.
(3) The fairly loud tones that are heard each time a button is pressed
when programming the unit can be pretty annoying.
That's why I rated the radio with 4 stars instead of 5.
But the WR-300 does what it is supposed to do and does it very well, so I highly recommend getting it. After all, on the very first day I got mine, it warned me of a tornado that was on the ground only a few miles from my house. Who knows, it might save your life some day, too.
Update, 3 years later: My WR-300 is still operating fine. But there is an additional "negative" I would add to those I listed before: The radio is not programmed to store weather alerts for later retrieval. We get numerous severe weather warnings through the spring and summer months where I live. In fact, I read that more tornados have occurred in my county (Tarrant County, TX) since the year 2000, than any county in the U. S.! So I like to keep a record of the dates, times, and kinds of warnings issued, and counties they were issued in. But it can't be done with this radio. I think they should reprogram it to be able to store and retrieve weather warning data for at least the previous 14 days, better yet 30 days, even if they have to raise the price of the radio to do it.
Still, the radio fulfills its main purpose and does so very well --- alerts you to severe weather before it comes to you. That's why I still recommend it without hesitation.
Update, 4th year:
Sun., 04/10 - Mon., 04/11: Just started the severe weather season for 2011 a few days ago. From Sun. night 04/10, thru early Mon. morning 04/11, the radio got a real work out! At 9:50P on Sun. 04/10, the first TORNADO WARNING for 2011 came on. It was for one in the county immediately west of mine. Altogether: 2 tornados confirmed, and possibly a 3rd one, that night in two counties adjacent to mine, and numerous severe thunderstorm warnings.
Thur., 04/14/11: Looks like tonight is shaping up to possibly be another busy night for my radio. It definitely needs some improvements, but it does its main job and does it very well... alerting you to severe weather coming BEFORE it gets there. So it is DEFINITELY worth getting.
Customer Review: Would definitely recommend
Summary: 5 Stars
I live in a semi-rural area that doesn't have high-speed internet, cable TV or very good cell phone reception available. If there is rain or wind, the digital TV signals completely blank out and turtle slow internet speed doesn't do me any good (if I can even get the web page to load) when there is no power. This means I have no way to monitor weather conditions when I need information the most.
After experiencing an increase in severe storm activity accompanied by several power outages, I decided it was time to purchase a weather radio. I read a lot of reviews on this product and am very glad I made this purchase! Some reviews had stated it was difficult to program but I found it extremely easy -- you just have to follow the directions step by step that are given in the manual. I never had any idea that there were SO MANY alerts out there you can monitor! My only complaint with the set up process is the fact that I made this purchase mainly to receive alerts for tornado warnings, but this alert was not even listed as an option when programming and there was no mention of it in the manual. After contacting the Midland help line I learned that this is a mandatory warning that is automatically programmed into the system and cannot be silenced or disabled which is why it was not listed. Personally, I think they should state this in their manual in order to save a lot of people the frustration of thinking it isn't there.
Within two weeks of receiving my radio, the system was put to the ultimate test - we had an actual tornado warning (first one for my immediate area in more than 4 years!) The radio alert signal and voice command with full instructions was not only very prompt and accurate (my radio alerted me at least 5 minutes earlier than the TV broadcast), but the volume was loud enough for me to hear it from every room in the house. I cannot express how thankful I was to have those few extra minutes to get my family to safety! The compact size and battery back up were perfect for keeping the radio with us to monitor exactly where the storm was tracking and to know when we were out of danger. I am very happy with this radio and would recommend it to anyone!!
My only disappointment was making the purchase from the Amazon Marketplace. Good price, but I didn't receive a delivery date until after my purchase was complete. When I reviewed the company prior to purchase, the information I saw showed they were located in Wisconsin - I am in Western Michigan. Had I known that it would take 10 DAYS for me to receive this unit, I would have paid the couple of bucks extra from another company to get my order in no more than 2 days. I cannot say that I will be purchasing much from Amazon in the future as this has consistently been my experience with them --- very slow to ship.