Customer Reviews

Oregon Scientific WR602 Weather Radio with Charge Cradle

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

The WR602 is an updated version of the WR108, which had some alert problems. Oregon Scientific changed the model number for the repaired version to avoid confusion. Do not purchase the WR108, which has been discontinued.

The WR602 works well. It has good reception, and once it's set up, is bascially a no-brainer. Plan on spending a few minutes to actually read the instructions and play with the unit when you first receive it, though. We had a nasty storm front hanging over Chicago for several days. Believe me, this radio does what it's supposed to. Over the course of a couple of days I received the weekly test, thunderstorm warnings, a tornado warning, and flash flood warnings, all relevant to my area.

One note: the instructions advise that *when changing batteries*, push the reset button in the battery compartment. This does not "wipe" the unit (location codes are retained), but it does "reboot" it. Apparently if you don't do this (at least on the older model), the unit may not alert properly. I have not had this problem, but your mileage may vary. All that should need to be done after a battery change/reset is to set the clock.

If you don't want audible alerts, you can put it into mute mode. Any current alert will show up on the screen, and the light will blink red, but there will be no audio.

Pros: You have the option of either selecting the station you wish to receive, or you can set it to automatically select the strongest station. You can program up to 9 different SAME codes to only receive alerts for a specific area(s). There is also a travel mode that switches the unit to automatic channel/receive all county alerts. By pressing one button you can ensure that you will receive alerts as you travel. Pressing the travel/home button again restores your home channel/SAME settings. The unit has rechargeable batteries, and will continue to operate during a power failure. The audio is both loud and clear.

Cons: When the backlight is used, the display is difficult to read except when looking up from the bottom of the radio. The status light could also be brighter.

Other Information: The radio responds to a specific alert signal sent out by the National Weather Service. When such an alert is broadcast on TV or radio, there is a distinctive "squawk" tone which precedes the message. Not every alert that is put out by a TV or radio station originates from the NWS (or more specifically the Emergency Alert System), and not every alert the NWS issues is considered important enough to "squawk". They reserve this for messages they consider of high importance. Per the National Weather Service / NOAA: "Only the most imminent life- and property-threatening hazards are broadcast with the SAME signal and 1050 Hertz warning alarm tone, where the public has to take immediate action to protect themselves and their property. An operational guideline is that messages are alerted only for hazards urgent enough to warrant waking people up in the middle of the night or otherwise interrupting someone's activities at any time." Don't necessarily expect to hear the alarm go off for watches. Your local NWS station decides what is important enough for the alert tone. When you do receive an alert, the display has a countdown timer that will delete the alert when it reaches zero (expires). Also, be aware that the alert tones (or as some have called them, the "siren") are BROADCAST. They aren't part of the radio. The "squawk" is what activates the radio, the tone that follows is intended to get your attention.

Incidently, weekly tests don't always happen when they're supposed to. If there's even a chance of a real alert happening, they will keep pushing the test back 24 hours at a time until there's no chance of a real alert being issued.

You can't disable specific alarms, but you shouldn't need to, since NWS doesn't issue alarms capable of activating the radio lightly. The weekly test will make noise for about a minute once a week, but it's useful in that you will know that the unit is still working. The radio isn't doing you any good if you only find out that it's not operating when you actually need it.

As to technical support, I had a couple of pre-purchase questions regarding the way the unit operated. I reached a live person quickly (2-3 minute hold time) and they answered my questions accurately. I've had no problems with the unit since I purchased it.

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.

Weather Radio & Charge Cradle We shopped almost a year for this, and a couple of times thought we might not survive to find it. We travel full-time in our travel trailer and don't watch t.v. or listen to local radio. Our first clue weather is turning bad is the sky or weird temperature or wind swings. But you need better information, especially if you live out of doors like we do.

This little weather radio has been great. We receive flood warnings, weather warnings, and weekly test notifications. The box included a belt clip and the radio is so small it is easily carried. We leave it in the charger in our camper most of the time and have occasionally put it on the truck dash while we travel.

We have used other Oregon Scientific products with very good results and expected the same with this product. We have no experience with other weather alert radios, but this one has worked very well for us and we would purchase the same one again.

I purchaced this weather radio for my sons christmas present, we set it up for our county and it would not alarm for any of the weather warnings we had for the three or four day's after christmas here in Michigan. I called the tech support and they confirmed all the settings were correctly inputed for our area and was told it would probably start working eventually!. I asked them what I needed to do to send it to them for a exchange and they paused and said "dont send it here, It will take months before you will see it back, Just send it back to amazon"

They where rude on the phone, I was on hold for a long time and you could tell that they are having many problems with this unit. I did send it back to Amazon and promptly recieved my refund.

It used to be that the NOAA weather-alert functions came in three varieties: on top-line walkie-talkies, in cumbersome base units, or integrated with AM and FM. NOAA is a wonderful radio alert-broacasting network, but sometimes it was a little hard to get a unit using NOAA without paying for extras.

Surprise! No walkie-talkie here, nor AM or FM. The Oregon Scientific WR602 is something to cheer about because it only does one thing (NOAA, including SAME) -- and does it very well. It's a constantly recharging unit that includes its own batteries. The unit can easily be turned on but put in "Standby" mode that will sound the alert when bad weather or disasters of various kinds are on the way. Best of all, the charger base holds the unit only about an inch higher, and its sides are barely wider than the unit itself. It's a durable job, too, as a clumsy trip-and-fall on my part did a little damage to me but none for the unit!

For forays into the field (and away from the charger base) you'll need AA cells; the nickle metal-hydride type is recommended, but alkalines work although they may poop out earlier. Keep some handy at home, too, for charger-busting home blackouts.

I am giving this radio a four-star rating insted of a five because the Owner's Manual, which better would have been named an owner's booklet, is a little terse for high-tech scardies like me. I could and did eventually figure it out, but what the "manual" really needs IMHO is a few more drawings, especially a graphic that would depict the various functions the LCD screen is capable of, and therefore where and what kind of (frequently arbitrary) symbols to look for.

Prices vary greatly; Amazon seems to be with or slightly cheaper than the pack at around fifty dollars. BTW I should mention that there are a lot of weather alert radios in the forty-to sixty-dollar range; they vary by function, and can include console models, portables and hand-crank dynamos with built-in flashlight. Sometimes instead of (or alongside) the NOAA weather bands come AM/FM and shortwave features, even the audio part of television. I myself wouldn't go out of the way to get TV audio, though, because after February 9, 2009, when television signals are set to go all digital, your TV band will no longer work.

I bought this unit because we live in a rural area where you can't here any tornado sirens. This device automatically broadcasts the NOAA alerts for our area. I keep it in the charger most of the time as battery life isn't that great. The backlight works great and you can choose to mute the unit if you like.

We love the venerable/trusty, yellow Oregon Scientific WR-8000 weather radio!! Gave one to all family members for Christmas, and wore off the labels during storm seasons. Only complaint for that one is minor: battery life, but only affects the clock; radio still performs great.

Since the old unit has been SOLD OUT for a few years, and we wanted a pair for each car, we only found the WR602 to be the approximate smaller size we like about the WR-8000. With hope based on the yellow radio, we ordered a pair of the new Oregon Scientifics from AMAZON...

But this new one -- WR602 -- kept being reset, with the whole memory dumped and erased! Finally we determined that the difficult to turn on/off button would erase the works when that button was held down too long to turn off the unit after use!! The setup required needs a sharp point like a toothpick on the recessed "reset" button near the battery connector to go into setup mode. And this mode is a pain to step through. If you love menus you'll love this "radio." But we do NOT.

Another problem we don't have with the old yellow WR-8000 is that the WR602 will pause the radio message for a second or two, then continue on. It is just like when the WiFi radio stops due to high internet traffic and reports that it is busy "buffering" the streaming audio...

Save us from the computer-base modern world of so-called improvements, and just give us the old-time radio! (That goes for the current 'radio programming' in spades.)

a.customer -- UNHAPPY victim of the bean counters who drive most product design in this millenium

Item arrived on time and in good condition. No complaints thus far. Easy to set up. I like the fact that you can minimize the counties to ward off unwanted alerts in the middle of the night. Kudos.

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.

We bought this based on positive user reviews.

The WR602 worked really well for five months+. Then, we no longer received weekly emergency Alert tests nor the 24/7 radio weather broadcasts. The LED indicator went blank and showed "weak battery" although it had ONLY been used in the charge cradle. If we removed it from charger to reset and reprogram it, as soon is it is replaced back into charger, the screen blinked and lost the settings. If we removed the "rechargable" batteries and simply left it in cradle to reprogram it, the 24/7 radio worked, but still no emergency Alert signal.

UPDATE: As a "work-around" -- after removing batteries I placed the radio (rubber-banded) into the charger cradle for a solid fit, then RESET everything, while it sat in the charger/cradle. With rechargable batteries & cord completely removed, it now works well as a (non-portable) weather radio and "alerts".