Customer Reviews

Oregon Scientific WRB308Z Emergency Public Alert Radio and Weather Docking Station

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

 

 

The hand-held Alert Radio works great. I'm glad I got it. It does everything it is supposed to do, minus the automatic atomic clock setting. (I must be too remote). But the alarm is wonderful, reliable, and setting it to just your own counties is easy to do. The weather station is alright, but it is just a fancy BIG screen showing the temp and humidity for indoors and out. So save your money and just get the Alert Radio with just the plain base. It uses less space and will work just as well without all the fluff.

We got this unit to keep in our camper. We are always worried about storms creeping up on us when we are in the middle of nowhere. The remote temperature/humidity sensor works great. The weather radio works great. The base unit is a bit disappointing. The weather forecastrer is wrong about 90% of the time. We would be just as well off without the forcaster. The only real benefit is that it will let us know the temperature/humidity inside the camper, and charge the weather radio. If we really want to know what weather is coming, we just have to listen to the local forecast on the weather radio.

First... this unit is discontinued. Second, it is really unpleasant to use with controls that are very obscure and embedded in sub menus. Third, the screen is almost impossible to read. Fourth, unless you don't mind everything stated, buy it at severe discount. Otherwise.... steer clear.

We've had ours for three or four years and have just replaced the rechargeable battery pack in the radio. Everything works fine, except that it's annoying to have to reset the time zone every time we get a power outage. Ours picks up temperature and humidity information on two different channels, so someone else in our neighborhood must have one as well, but it's not one of our immediate neighbors, so it must have a decent reception range. The weather radio works: we hear the regular test transmissions as well as the actual warnings; it's handy to be able to carry the radio down to the basement with us and keep monitoring the situation after the initial alert has been given.

He's into science, especially anything weather related. This gadget offered everything he wanted to observe. I'm thrilled he loved it so much and that it's features where robust enough for him.

The remote temperature sensor works great, but the weather prediction function doesn't and isn't a true "forecast" in the same sense as what you would expect from [...] or accuweather. It's basically a barometric sensor that uses changes in atmospheric pressure to determine if it will rain or snow in the next 24 hours, and it's about 70% accurate. I bought it for the emergency weather alert function but that doesn't work the way I thought either. You have to set it up to your "zone" or zip code and while I have decent technical skills and figured it out(after 20 minutes) be advised this unit requires more than average technical ability to set it up and keep it operating. On average I have to reset the time zone once every other month, more if the unit loses power. It's not hard to do, but I keep the manual handy to refresh my memory because without it, you'd be lost, since it's not intuitive. While I'm not so dissatisfied with the unit that I'd ask for a refund, I wouldn't buy another one of this model.

I have had this setup for over a year. It works well when programmed correctly. The only downside is that the docking station/alarm clock does not have a battery back up. If the power goes out the portable radio works well, but the base station resets which causes the portable radio to also reset its time when it synchs.

This item is way too complicated, and the basic function of warning does not work. At least I can't figure out how to make it work. It will be going in the trash shortly because right not it is just taking up space and not performing the important task for which it was purchased. I'll buy one at a store where I can make sure it works.