MIDLAND WR300 Weather Radio
by Midland
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of MIDLAND WR300 Weather Radio
Customer Review: Product works well, could be improved
Summary: 4 Stars
I had thought about buying a good weather radio for several months, but never really committed. Murfreesboro's "Good Friday Tornado" helped me make up my mind, as much of the destruction took place only a couple of miles from my home.
I've had the WR300 for several weeks now. Fortunately, it hasn't had much opportunity to prove its worth. However, in the last 12 hours, some rough storms have moved through and demonstrated that all is working well.
The Midland WR300 is a weather radio, AM/FM Radio, and alarm clock all in one. All three of these main functions perform well, though, the alarm clock is in the greatest need of improvement.
As a weather radio, the WR300 performs very well. It is very easy to set up; just dial into the nearest broadcasting station, enter your desired S.A.M.E. county code(s), adjust the alerts settings (optional), and sleep soundly. Many of the alerts that this unit will receive can be configured to sound an alert or only display a message. Also, you can store several county codes with this unit. This is particularly helpful if you live near the county border.
The AM/FM radio function works as expected. You can save several station presets so that you won't have to search for them each time. Reception and sound quality is as good as expected from a small, single-speaker unit.
The alarm clock is a nice touch, but could stand some improvements. My main complaint is the small size of the clock display. It's difficult to see from the side of the bed, even when the backlight is turned on.
Generally speaking, there are a few minor things I'd like to see improved. I'd like to disable the *beep* sound that occurs every-single-time I press a button. I don't need a audible confirmation with each menu item I scroll through (if anyone out there knows how to turn this off, please leave a comment!). Also, the owner's manual that shipped with my unit has a few contradictions, the most important of which deals with Tornado Warnings. The manual leads you to believe that, by default, an alert will not sound during Tornado Warnings. This is both absurd and untrue. I spoke with customer support regarding this and, as I suspected, Tornado Warnings will always sound an alarm and this setting cannot be changed by the user.
Speaking of customer support, they do exist but aren't as responsive as I would have liked. After sending in my inquiry via email, I didn't hear back from anyone for about a week. I haven't had the need to contact them about anything else. I can only hope that their phone service is more responsive.
Considering everything, this is a really nice weather radio. If you want to configure alerts across multiple counties, I have no problem recommending this product.
Customer Review: Simply a great product
Summary: 5 Stars
This weather-alert radio is one of the best purchases I've made in a long time. It's attractive, functions exactly as advertised and is a good value.
The complaints of other reviewers have ranged from the radio being difficult to program, the quality of the speakers, the unit not functioning very well as a clock-radio, and the loud beep that sounds every time a button is pressed.
I found programming the radio wasn't difficult at all. To be sure, you have to carefully read the instruction manual, but the instructions are clear and concise and take you through the process step-by-step. Not including the time it took to read the manual, I had the radio programmed in about 5 minutes.
As for the quality of the speakers, well, it's a small clock-radio. We're not talking stereo surround sound here, but we're not expecting that, either. Bottom line, the speakers are just fine and deliver more-than acceptable sound.
I have no complaints with the unit functioning as a clock-radio, either. The time display isn't terribly large, but that's because most of the clock-face real estate is taken up by whatever warning message is being displayed. The main function of the radio, after all, is to alert you to approaching danger. At night, you can choose to have the display backlit continuously so you can see the time.
The radio has three memory presets for FM stations and three more for AM stations. When you set an alarm time, the radio turns on at the assigned time, just as you'd expect. There's also a snooze button. There aren't any bells and whistles, but again, it's a weather-alert radio that doubles as a clock-radio -- not vice versa.
Yes, the unit does beep every time a key is pressed. I don't find it particularly bothersome, but if you do, you can silence the beeps when you're programming it by turning off the volume/power switch on the side of the radio. You can then program to your heart's content without a single beep. Just remember to turn the switch back on when you're done so the weather-alert function will work.
Finding the S.A.M.E. county codes on the Internet was easy and it was simple to program the ones into the unit that I'm interested in. Sure enough, each time there's been a weather event, the unit has gone off and displayed what's happening. The radio also turns on and broadcasts the appropriate NOAA warning. You can filter the types of warnings you receive in various manners and you can also choose whether or not to have the radio's siren alert you, as well. There are even two volume levels for the siren.
All in all, this is a great product. If you're concerned about the weather and your safety, you won't regret this purchase.
Customer Review: Every home should have one.
Summary: 4 Stars
There is room for improvement, but this is a very nice weather radio.
It lets you choose either a voice-message or beeping alarm.
The ability to disable the alarm for individual message types is great. I want the alarm on for tornado warnings, for example, but I don't want to be awakened at night for an "Amber Alert"....or many weather adviseries. It even has a few slots to disable alarms for message types that have not yet been defined.
NOTE: When the alarm is disabled, the indicator LED for that type of message still lights up if applicable.
I also like that I can set it for a single county code, multiple county codes, or all counties.
I've seen reviews that say this was difficult to program. Personally, I thought it was a breeze. I never even had to touch the manual. Then again, I'm a techno-geek. ;-)
What I wish it had was the ability to not only choose alarm on/off per message type as it has, but to choose alarm off/on-voice/on-beep per message type. It only lets you choose on/off per type, and then choose voice or beep overall (applies to all alarm-enabled messages).
Regarding performance, I cannot speak for sensitivity of the weather-radio receiver because I live only about 10 miles from the transmitter atop Stone Mtn, which if it weren't for trees, I could see from my house....so my signal level is nice and strong.
The AM radio, however, is terrible -- no selectivity (or overly sensitive?) There is an AM radio transmitter about 4 miles away, and I can hear that station across nearly the entire AM dial, yet I do not have that problem with any other AM radio I have in my house or car.
FM seems okay. Don't expect hi-fi sound though -- this thing has a tiny speaker, meant mainly, I'm sure, for the voice weather radio transmissions.
If you're thinking of using this for an alarm clock, unless you live alone, don't. Every button beeps loudly, with no way of turning the beep off. I didn't buy it for an alarm clock though; I bought it as a weather radio.
On thing I've been surprised about, is that I get no indication of the "required weekly test" (RWT) having been received. I know the S.A.M.E. system is working, because we had a tornado warning last week and it worked great for that! If I don't get it for another couple weeks, I may call Midland about it. (I can't find a number to call the local NOAA office to inquire if they're sending the S.A.M.E code for the RWT.)
Customer Review: A decent product, poorly engineered
Summary: 3 Stars
I received this monitor last week, and went through the process of setting it up over the weekend.
I live in an urban area, and as I'd expected, the signal strength of the FM radio stations as well as the weather radio were strong and clear, even without extending the antenna and even though the radio was not particularly close to the window.
The setup process was relatively painless. I'm a computer engineer so I'm fairly forgiving of needlessly complex user interfaces, but the menus were fairly logical, and I had no trouble setting it up.
I was expecting to be annoyed by the repeated beeps, but it really isn't a deal breaker. All you have to do is turn off the volume switch (on the lower front right of the unit) and no more beeps while navigating the menus. And, once you're done with the menus, you really won't have to endure the beeps all that much.
The large weather button makes it easy to reach for it in the dark, to get a quick update before starting your day - which I'm sure I'll appreciate in winter when snow often changes my commute/itinerary for the day.
The alarm was easy to set up and I woke this morning to public radio. The snooze button increments by 8 minutes, but the button is much smaller than usual. The prime center spot having been taken by the weather station button.
There are 3 presets for the FM band, and the programming while not completely intuitive was not very hard to do.
I have yet to test the SAME broadcasts but given how solidly the unit has performed so far, I'm not particularly worried.
So why do I consider it poorly engineered? Well, in addition to its function as an alert monitor, it is supposed to act as a clock radio as its secondary (and probably most used) function. In that role its a miserable failure.
Its difficult to tell from the picture, but the display is angled at around 60 degrees to the horizontal. What this means is that its designed to be read while standing above the unit, looking down at it. While lying in bed, the display is completely unreadable. The only way to read the display is by physically pulling it over to you. This is true even with the back lighting turned on ... with the sharp angle most of the light is angled upwards and away from you.
Given that 99% of the time this device will function as a typical clock radio, it seems that its design focuses on the less common usage.
Customer Review: Not a Great All-Rounder
Summary: 3 Stars
I was looking for a radio/alarm clock that also had weather alert functionality. I settled on the WR300 since it seemed to check all the boxes.
The set-up instructions are wrong in places, but if you follow the set-up you'll understand the basic method and can figure out how to achieve something even if the actual instructions don't work. Irritating, but not a deal breaker. I set-up my WR300 in about 20 minutes, which included getting the S.A.M.E. county codes off the internet. It's not that hard to be fair.
We finally had our first weather event a few weeks ago. When Mr. T. Nado paid a visit to our town recently, my Midland WR300 went ballistic! Good to know it's paying attention to what's going on. From a weather alert monitoring and alerting standpoint, the WR300 is all good. I hope it doesn't die in 6, 9 or 12 months like other customers have reported. I guess I'll see.
As for being an everyday alarm clock radio, it's not that great for a few reasons.
1. The back lit screen display, while a pretty blue, is way too bright. At night in a dark room, it really lights the place up. Distracting for me. You can turn the back light off, but then you cannot see the time when the room is dark. It needs a light sensor so it dims when the light level is low.
2. The time component of the display is tiny. Located in the top right corner of the display, the digit size is smaller than the digit size of the year which is located in the center of the display. How dumb is that? It would have made more sense to have these swapped around. Big time in the center and small year in the top right corner.
3. The slanting angle of the front makes the display impossible to read if your bed is at the same or similar height to the clock. Even if you had the overly bright back light on at night, you'd have to sit up in bed to see the display properly. If you're one of those people who wake up at night and want to sneak a peek at the time without having to move much, this clock is not for you.
So, for a weather alert/alarm clock radio it's great so far. For an everyday use clock, it's not so good. I decided to keep mine just for the weather/alarm functionality and will buy a separate digital display clock that's easy to read from a distance and dims the display in low light.