Oregon Scientific WR602 Weather Radio with Charge Cradle

OMG! This is great! I don't know what the people saying it is difficult to set up are doing, but I just glanced at the directions and had it set up in minutes. Mine stays in the charger base, no trouble at all. (I do have to keep it up where my cats can't get to it, as when the alarm goes off they don't like it and it is very "battable" HA!) I have a Midland and the static is horrible, this one has none, and we live in the "boonies" of W Nebraska. VERY pleased! I know I will like the portable aspect of this, two weeks ago I was working in my garage and didn't even know we were in a tornado alert until I went into the house and got my cell phone and saw that I had gotten a text alert. There were several tornados in my area that day - and my Midland never went off - to be fair to Midland it was working fine before (except for the static). And yes....the codes and channel were set properly. I think you will be pleased w/ this if you purchase it.

this radio is working great so far. no issues and im getting all the info i need with no problems. Even went off for an evacuation done for a fire north of me. Great unit but the only down fall is the directions. They need to explain things better in this unit. ****UPDATE 2/3/10**** I have been having some issued with the alert not going off for some flood warnings we have experinced this winter. It will go off for the weekly test and that is it. I have contacted the company and worked with them to resolve the issue. They are going to be replacing my unit in a few days.

This radio works fine for me. I seem to have a strong signal in my area. The radio indicates signal strength, but it doesn't seem to work well, it either shows full strength or zero, even though it's capable of displaying several intermediate levels. Regardless of the indicated signal strength I can hear the weather statements and receive alarms/alerts with no problem. The LCD display has a pretty limited viewing angle, you have to hold it at just the right angle to view it well. You can't turn off alerts, they time out on their own. I'm not sure how long it takes, but it's many hours. It gets a bit old seeing the Wednesday test scroll across the screen over and over. The rechargeable batteries last 2 or 3 days, with the radio in standby most of the time, and a few minutes of listening to the radio each day. For a trip of any length you will need to bring the charger or switch to regular batteries. These are minor issues, overall I'm happy with it.

I got the WR602 to replace my older Radio Shack 12-254 Handheld SAME (WR) Weather Radio. The 12-254 still works, but wanted to replace it. And boy did I score gold. This WR602 from Oregon Scientific has one very unique feature that I have never seen in any weather radio. It is programmed with all of the NEW updated TYPE codes from the NWS, but it also has built-in to it, the complete NAME-TO-CODE database of all COUNTIES of the USA and all of its territories and possessions. Which means, you select the proper STATE NAME from the list, then you select the proper COUNTY NAME from the menu, and SELECT it, it automatically translates the COUNTY NAME code into the actual FIPS code needed by the radio. No having to go to the internet, and LOOKUP any FIPS codes at all. It has everything built-in. The NAMES and FIPS are all inside the radio. Example: I'll use my location as example. You select Name from the MENU, then select Missouri, then select either 'City of St Louis' (029510) or 'St Louis' (029189) from the menu, and it automatically puts the correct FIPS CODE into the memory position. No lookups or writing down codes at all. Btw, NOTE, St Louis County and St Louis City are completely independent locations. St Louis City does NOT reside in St Louis County. One of the very few major US cities to have this arrangement. Auto NAME-to-FIPS CODE translation... This is a wonderful feature. No other SAME (WR) has this, that I am aware of. Very, very cool and convenient feature for those of us that TRAVEL around and do not want the hassle of looking up the FIPS county codes on the internet. The only CON is that it does not have CANADA in there. Though, CANADA uses the exact same frequencies and SAME technology with FIPS codes. You can still manually program in FIPS codes if you want to (for CANADA's identical system). The TRAVEL/HOME key is excellent. This allows you instantly switch between your configured radio's HOME settings and to the ALL FIPS and AUTO 7-CHANNEL SCAN. One single key press does that. No more having to fiddle around with the radio's programming if you leave HOME. Press one single button, and your good to go. I love this radio. Its awesome. The two features I mentioned above set it apart from all other WR devices that I have ever owned.

The radio is good, battery terrible lasting less than 12 hrs, my old model still lasts about 36 hrs on an 8 yr old battery. Works well in Canada if you can get a signal, we have poor coverage here.