MIDLAND WR300 Weather Radio by Midland
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Digital camera reviews of MIDLAND WR300 Weather Radio
Digital camera Review: 2 years later and no reception
Summary: 1 Stars
I absolutely loved this weather radio for 2 years and have kept it plugged in and turned on through the spring and summer storm months. All of a sudden this week I noticed through TV my area had a tornado watch but my radio didn't alert me, even though it is properly set and the antenna is in the same position it always is (and never had a problem with reception before). I have tried everything the manual says to do and after reading the 1 star reviews on here to see if anyone else had this problem after having the radio for awhile I have come to the conclusion that this is a design flaw.
Don't be fooled by the positive reviews which are written by people who just started using the radio. I am a huge weather fanatic and LOVED that the radio allows you to program in counties and codes of alerts you want to hear but literally overnight it just does not work anymore. I can't get ANY weather station signal but I get the AM/FM signal just fine. I am very upset about this!
Digital camera Review: 4-1/2 Stars
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great weather alert radio. I bought it this spring when we were having constant severe weather here in Nebraska and our old weather radio had seen better days. More than once it alerted me to severe weather when I had no idea anything was nearby. I particularly like the power/battery option. I leave it plugged in but know it'll still work if the power goes out (which it did a few times this spring.) It's also easy to program to your own county's alerts. And you can easily switch back and forth between the National Weather Service broadcast and your local AM or FM station broadcast.
I like this so well I'm buying 2 more to give for Christmas this year. The ONLY reason I'm deducting half a star is because of the beep every time you make a change (radio channels at every point: 95.1 95.2 95.3 etc.) But Amazon doesn't give a choice for half a star so overall I'd have to rate it at 5 stars. (Beep is only annoying when you change settings.)
Digital camera Review: 50 mile range w/o optional ($20) outside antenna
Summary: 2 Stars
You need to see where the latest NWS transmitter is at. Unit works in St. Louis, but not at my home. FM radio works great. I'm afraid of buying the optional window antenna. If I new it would fix my reception problem would be no brainer. Good luck.Digital camera Review: A Challenge to Program
Summary: 3 Stars
The radio was a bit of a challenge to set up and program with regard to date, day, time and for your correct local NOAA Emergency Radio frequency. And the reception was not that great either, but that is caused more by the geographic location, is not really the fault of the radio, and can be improved with an optional external antenna.Digital camera 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.