MIDLAND WR300 Weather Radio by Midland
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Digital camera reviews of MIDLAND WR300 Weather Radio
Digital camera Review: A Piece of Junk
Summary: 1 Stars
I purchased this radio after my Radio Shack weather radio died after 18 mos. of use. It is much easier to use. The radio reception stinks. The weather broadcast for our county originates in our town. Yet, the Midland radio cannot receive it clearly. Midland told me to try an external antenna. It made no difference. They then had me send it back for warranty repair. They sent me a new unit that is no better than the first. I NEVER had a reception problem with my Radio Shack radio. Save yourself the headaches and buy something else.Digital camera 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.
Digital camera Review: A great radio
Summary: 5 Stars
A weather radio is only as good as the strength of your reception. The weather service in Ohio only puts out 500 watts compared to twice that of some states yet despite the fact that I live in a sub-ground apartment near lake Erie this radio pulls in every alert I programmed it to.
I really like the sleek design, nice job Midland. Instructions are easy to understand and you'll have the unit working in no time.
My advice is to write down your local weather code and tape it to the back of the radio so you don't have to go online and look for it later. The good news is that this radio doesn't lose memory function when the back up battery is removed. That it such a pain to deal with with other models.
The alarm is substantial enough to wake me out of a sleep and the AM/FM reception is strong with a nice speaker. There are other features to speak of but my advice to you is to buy this unit. It's well designed and looks great anywhere in the house or boat
Digital camera Review: A great warning radio.
Summary: 5 Stars
We recently purchased this after moving to the southern Illinois area, and programed it for several surrounding counties thinking it better to be safe than sorry. During the terrible storms and tornadoes a couple weeks ago, this radio went off constantly and kept us aware of all weather alerts. We have since reprogrammed to just two counties, but it always gave us the alert before we saw it on TV. This has set my mind at ease, especially since the severe weather and tornadoes occurred at 3 a.m. when we were sleeping. My only complaint is that I wish you could turn the volumn down a little more than the lowest setting on the alert since I'm a pretty light sleeper. However, anyone that needs to have it loud to be woken up won't be disappointed.Digital camera Review: A great way to prepare for emergencies
Summary: 5 Stars
We bought this radio for the same reason everyone else does, and it is wonderful. We also bought a portable radio by Oregon Scientific to take with us in the car...it's not nearly as good as this one. The Midland allows you to turn off alerts that you don't want to hear. The display is easy to read, and the instructions are pretty decent. This is the one to buy!