Customer Reviews

Oregon Scientific WR606 NOAA Desktop Weather Station

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I purchased this radio to replace a different brand radio that we lost in a flood last summer. The radio we had before worked perfectly but didn't have some of the features this radio had. When I hooked it up everything worked well except it wouldn't receive emergency weather alerts. I sent Oregon Scientific an e-mail asking if I needed an external antenna I never received a response. A month or two later sent them another email and they finally responded and said I probably had a defective radio and to send it in and they would replace it.

I sent thea radio back as they specified and now over a month later I still haven't heard back from them nor received a functional radio. I actually tracked the shipment and have a delivery confirmation so I know they received it. I sent two more emails this week trying to follow up and nothing....

I have many other Oregon Scientific products and I respected their products and company before this experience. But I have to admit I spent three times what the Midland radio cost(really four if you include the cost of the antenna I purchased to try to get it to work since I didn't hear back from them) for what I thought was a better quality unit. What I have now is a cool radio that doesn''t work and no response from the company. Actully, I HAD a radio but I sent it back to be replaced and now I have nothing.

Disappointing.

UPDATE - Even though the radio was a dud I am sure glad I purchased it from Amazon. I contacted Amazon customer service and unlike Oregon Scientific they actually employ customer service reps who monitor and answer e-mails. Within an hour of my e-mail to them they responded and wanted me to try giving Oregon Scientific one more chance to respond. I tried and again nothing...so two days later I followed up with Amazon and within 10 minutes they responded and gave me a full refund. Great customer service!

Now I'll buy a Midland radio like I should have in the first place....

The most important function of a NOAA weather radio is that it must reliably activate upon receipt of National Weather Service alert or emergency broadcast messages; it does not. The radio is intended to monitor NOAA weather radio stations and make an audible noise when a coded emergency message is broadcast (tornado watch, severe thunderstorm warning, etc.) The radio looks great and has all the described functions I was looking for. It receives the continuous NOAA broadcasts very well, has a built-in antenna that seems to function well, and has an additional external antenna connection that can be used if your reception is poor. However, despite crystal-clear reception of the NOAA radio signal, the radio does not activate reliably when NOAA alert messages are transmitted. It has activated for the weekly tests (giving a false sense of security) and it has activated for one severe thunderstorm warning, but it has never activated for any "watch" message (such as a "severe storm watch"), while another radio I own - of a different brand, set to the same channel, using the same S.A.M.E. codes, in the same room of my house - has activated for numerous watches while the WR606 remained silent and unchanged. I have repeatedly checked my settings and reception. I am absolutely positive that the settings are correct and the reception is always clear. I feel obliged to point out that Oregon Scientific has a history of selling weather radios that are defective in this way and has had to place a recall on some of their product lines because they did not activate properly. I suspect the WR606 has a similar defect. It's unfortunate because it would be a great radio design if it worked.

The radio comes with a separate transmitter module that can be placed outside. The module transmits temperature and humidity information to the radio for a convenient display of outdoor temperature and humidity conditions. The display itself is attractive and is momentarily backlit with orange illumination when the radio is pressed down (two spring-loaded push buttons on the bottom of the radio sense this). While there is a placard on the top of the radio that implies a button to press for lighting the display, the idea is that you press the whole radio down and depress the buttons on the bottom of the housing. While this may seem clever, this function interferes with the programming of the radio as there is a tendency to press these buttons unintentionally while pressing other buttons on the radio and the lighting of the radio interrupts the sequence. On the display there is an icon that indicates the receive signal strength (strong, weak, or non-existent). When set to a proper channel, mine always indicates a strong signal. One nice feature of the emergency alert broadcast is that the radio silences itself at the end of the emergency message, while many other brand radios will just play for 5 minutes before silencing and going back to monitor mode. Programming the location specific S.A.M.E. codes is typical in comparison to other units and S.A.M.E. codes can be programmed by paging through state and counties names if you prefer not to look up the 6-digit code. As mentioned above, it's too bad that the emergency alert function is not reliable in this unit.

Bottom line: Because of the unreliable NOAA alert function, the radio is not usable. It is also expensive. I'll return it and get two highly reliable radios for the same price.

My first WR606 radio would not alert (I have another weather radio that did, so it wasn't a reception issue). I contacted Oregorn Scientific to request a replacement radio. They replaced the radio and I have the same issue. I am trying on more time with Oregon Scientific as I like the radio design. I have other Oregon wehater radios and they work great. Design problem or quality control??

I purchased this and it works great. One gripe, when you have the radio function on standby so that it will receive alerts a light flashes on the unit. There is no way to turn it off, so I can't have it in my bedroom or it will keep me awake. Problem Solved: a piece of black tape over the light.

This was an ok unit but I thought i could turn the backlight on all the time since it was hotwired. Not so..........

I've had this product for a while but only recently had a few real alerts for severe thunderstorm warnings to give it the full workout (where I live is typically very calm weather wise). The first thing I noticed versus the weekly tests (which happen around 11:30 every Wednesday) is that a real alert turns the normally green blinking light into a red blinking light for the duration of the alert. There is no mention of the green-to-red light in the manual so I had begun to think it was always green.

I can pick up two WX channels at home (3 and 7, with 7 being the closer tower) so I keep it in "auto" mode so it'll automatically pick up alerts from either tower. Channel 3 has a lot of static, but the weekly tests still come through and turn the radio on. I can only recall one test week where the transmitter on 7 was off and it switched over to 3 for the test.

Overall I've been happy with this radio. The outdoor weather sensor is accurate when comparing it to the official weather report and taking my distance from the airport into consideration. I leave mine on "all areas" for alerts since it's quite rare for me to hear any alert here, plus I like to know what's going on around me anyway. If I ever happen to catch it broadcasting an automated alert I'll try to post a video review of it actually working.

As an aside, the first week I had the radio I didn't get the weekly test. The second week the test turned the radio on, played the alarm tone followed by static, and never turned the radio off. I didn't hear anyone reading the "this is a test" script either week and I was beginning to wonder if my radio was broken. Instead, I emailed the local NOAA office about this and it turns out there must have been a problem with our local transmitter because the alerts have come through every week after. The key to figuring it out was I left the radio on (not in automatic mode) and listened to the weather loop over the hour when the weekly test should have occurred; it was never broadcast correctly in the first place.

We have this sitting on a table in the family room so you can check it on the way out of the door each morning. It is easy to read and the large charater display allows you to read as you pass by. The NOAA feature is an essential if you live in Texas. Weather here can move from hot to cold, clear to a green tornado sky in the time it takes to walk to the mailbox. By using the appropriate code we can check the weather in West Texas where our daughter is in college. We will see how this works out during tornado season in the spring.