MIDLAND WR300 Weather Radio
by Midland
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of MIDLAND WR300 Weather Radio
Customer Review: Excellent safety device
Summary: 5 Stars
Other reviews helped me to buy this radio. Live in tornado alley and hard to hear the public sirens. Set this to go off only for tornado warning while lights show other conditions like watches and advisories or warnings I do not have flagged for siren since do not need to be awakened middle of the night for a flood warning or severe thunderstorm warning since first not issue for me and second there is nothing I would get up to do about it!
Instructions are not intuitive as others have mentioned and have to work with this to get it set properly. Knowing you have to push up and down buttons to review if more than one event e.g., tornado warning with flood warning and high wind warning and then have to turn on and off to go back to the screen is awkward. Print a bit small on screen and too bright for using at night if leave on continuously. But it does now show when events expire and the notice and lights turn off automatically when expires.
As a radio the speaker is tinny as seems typical for these types of radio. If you love Bose clock radio this is not it!
In two months I have owned this it has gone off twice, once at night when tornado was very close and second time early evening when did not know storms were in the area. Could be a life saver especially at night. I use satellite TV so do not get warnings on TV screen when something is going on in my area. Also use DVR to cut out commercials and watch shows on my schedule so warnings that would otherwise show up I would not get. Therefore having something what will alert me when watching TV or when TV is off is valuable to me.
I am pleased enough to recommend to friends and my two adult children. Does have a few odd items listed such as Iceberg alert which is probably not too useful in Missouri. Also not all the alert items are listed to check for siren notice and assume the more serious would sound alert e.g., nuclear event, chemical spill, tsumami event, etc.
While I have given this five stars because it performs it major function well the set up, quality of speaker and reception issues cause me to give it lower scores on those issues. But it does what I bought it to do and for that it gets highest rating.
Customer Review: Worked the first few days
Summary: 4 Stars
When I received my WR300, things were ok for the first few weeks. I was getting warning and alerts as they were issued. The evening the tornados hit us (in Arkansas) not a warning one. I poked around on a weather radio forum and finally came to the conclusion the signal was not strong enough from the Fort Smith transmitter. I went out and bought a outdoor scanner antenna, mounted it on my TV pole above my TV antenna, I get 4 channels crystal clear. Last week we had another round of storms, no alerts no warnings from the radio, and I know the warnings were there as I was watching it on TV.
I pulled out my old R.Shack weather radio and plugged it in, it began receiving warning as soon as they were issued. Nothing again from the other. I knew then something was not right with the radio. I do know how to set the radio up, had it on all county mode, alert on in voice mode, it was just no good.
THEN I read on a forum of someone having the same problem, they said after 2 returns the 3rd one worked like it should. The next morning I contact Midland radio and talked to a very nice person who informed me they have had several radios come back with the same problem. This concerns me, how many people have these radios right now, and think they are protected? PLEASE if you have one of the radios, make sure it's set to receive the weekly on Wed's around 11.
I boxed mine up last Thursday and sent it back to Midland in Kansas City. Today,(Tues) I got a brand new radio via UPS. I have it set up waiting to receive any alerts or warning including the weekly test warning. If I have problems I will post back.
The other issues I've seen reported is the light, it does not stay on all the time, but can be programmed to. It goes off after a few seconds by default. The am/fm radio and the alert/weather radio can be used on battery power. Don't waste your money on the optional indoor antenna, a good outdoor antenna will make all the difference.[...]
I hope this helps :)
And remember what I said, PLEASE ENABLE WEEKLY TEST ALERT TO VERIFY YOUR RADIO IS ABLE TO RECEIVE ACTIVE WARNINGS.
*edit - we had a round of storms this weekeds 5/2, the alert feature worked flawlessly.
Customer Review: Excellent product and fast shipping.
Summary: 5 Stars
Let me start by stating that I'm in Florida. I tried finding a weather alert radio in a 80-mile radius of my home (no joke). I asked big-name electronics stores, department stores, and even the usually dependable pharmacy. All were out-of-stock. Home improvement stores stock up on them during hurricane threats. This search went on for 3-weeks. "Call back, we may get them in stock". I even went online with a large electronics chain and ordered their "in-stock" radio, only to be notified that it was on back-order.
Then I turned to Amazon. A little concerned about availability, I placed my order. This was on April 22. I received it today, 3-days later! How quick and simple can that be?
Ok, about the radio (ahem). Very nice unit. I live about 30-miles from our local weather station. Reception is clear and sounds very good on this radio. Programming was very easy. Right now, I'm monitoring alerts for 3 counties. The loud alert tones are ... LOUD. You can also set a "Lo" alert. I also like the feature of disabling certain alerts (test alerts by NOAA on Wednesdays comes to mind). The screen is big and clear with a nice blue backlight. AM reception is ok (I'm too far from my particular favorite station). FM reception is much better. Yes, it has AM/FM as well as a time/date display. It also has a wake-up alarm feature. So far, I'm very satisfied with this product. And, it was priced $20 cheaper than what the local electronics chain was offering online.
Now, about the loud beep everyone is complaining about. There is a simple fix for this - TURN THE VOLUME CONTROL "OFF"! While programming the radio, I found this out easily enough. If you turn that dial on the side, for volume, off (until it clicks), you don't hear the beeps anymore. Problem solved. If this fix was mentioned already, sorry I missed it.
As a last note about the main function of the radio: As I'm writing this, it is currently sunny and hot here, so I can't say if the alert does its job or not. But the season is just starting so I know it will have a
lot of work to do, soon.
Customer Review: Needs a simpler programming mode
Summary: 3 Stars
All of my downgrades on this have to do with the more advanced programming of the unit. If your needs are met by just plugging it in, and setting your county (S.A.M.E) codes, this radio is very good. A simple setup is just that, simple. If you desire to customize the alerts you receive, the process is very poor.
There are no watch alerts that I want to receive. Of the warning alerts, the only one I care about is the tornado warning. I learn about all other watch/warnings through other means (TV, online news, radio). The process to turn off watches and warnings is extremely annoying. It took me about 30 minutes to turn off every watch & warning (the tornado warning cannot be turned off; I have no problem with that).
To change the status on any given alert, you must press the menu button to get to the 'Defeat Siren' function, press 'Select' to enter the programming mode for that function. Using the UP arrow button, scroll through the list of 80 different watches and warnings to the one you are interested in. Press the RIGHT arrow to select/deselect the siren for that watch/warning. Press the menu button to save your selection, and exit the programming option. You must repeat each of those steps for each alert you want to change. With 80 different alerts, this is a lot of button pressing.
The programming option SHOULD let you select/deselect the siren for the alert you have selected, then move to the next without exiting the programming option. I was unable to determine a way to do this.
Additionally, the unit has a plug on the back for a 'programming cable port'. The manual gives no indication of how this might be used.
This unit can also function as a radio alarm clock. The setting of the alarm time is nearly as tedious as the changing of the siren settings.
I know that Midland has worked very hard to make a good weather alert radio, and I don't know of any others that do as well. I just wish that they made their alert selection simpler. They have the physical buttons on the unit to do this, the programming should be easy.
Customer Review: Great emergency radio, with mediocre clock radio
Summary: 4 Stars
I purchased this radio for the express purpose of monitoring emergency NOAA weather notifications, and for listening to local weather broadcasts. In this regard, it is a high performer, and truly does its job well, allowing full personal input of signal discrimination with the S.A.M.E. programing. The radio doubles as a bedside clock radio. While one might view this as a bonus, and while I should not reasonably expect this secondary feature to be a ratings consideration, I must rate the WR-300 downward in this regard, for the following reasons.
When all is said and done, between emergency notifications and passing tornadoes, the utility of a bedside clock radio surfaces as its more oft-used feature. I can't help note that clock radio technology is fully into its sixth decade, with all refinements having been standardized in even the cheapest radios for the last 30 or more years. One can reasonably expect Midland to incorporate every bit of such elementary radio architecture into its WR-300, but they didn't. The AM/PM indicator is preposterously small, and is almost impossible to read under any circumstances. It may not even be number 6 font! While its handy luminous panel may be optionally lit at all times, and is a move in the right direction for those who desire to see the face at all times, it cannot be dimmed, illuminating the entire room with a bright blue glow. Sadly, too, it can only be programed to one alarm. For those who like to awaken at a different times on different days, this is a serious oversight. Even a second analog switch for this would have been nice. One complaint I do not share with others is the one concerning the incessant beeping during program changes. As in most electronic devices, the repetitive beeps are buffered by simply holding the key down. And, the clock radio does have a snooze alarm, an innovation of the mid-1950s.
All complaints about the clock radio aside, the Midland WR-300 is a really nice emergency radio, which can save lives and get your attention. I cannot recommend it more for this.