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 is a very good weather radio which, in all but one feature, improves on previous Oregon Scientific weather radios. The improvements are that it is easier to program this radio for local conditions even if you do not know the SAME code for your location. This makes the radio far more functional as a true portable weather radio than prior versions. It also provides a scrolling display of the various warnings that are in effect in your location. Finally, it can run on both rechargeable and standard batteries, so you can save by not using batteries at home and use them when traveling. The bad part? There is a display light which flashes either green or red depending on whether any warnings are current in your locale. The light is woefully dim and nearly impossible to notice in daylight. This diminishes from being able to make one quick glance at the radio and know if a warning was received by the radio while you may have been away from the radio. To me that is a glaring fault because the purpose of the radio is to warn and including a poorly designed function does not help its basic purpose. The good features outweigh the bad feature. Were it not for the inadequate warning light this radio would get 5 stars.

I love gadgets and quickly opened and started the setup for this weather radio. My excitement quickly turned to disappointment when I placed it upon the charger and found that the red charging light did not illuminate ... after some basic trouble shooting (trying different outlets, checking to make sure the plug was in securely, checking to see if the device was actually charging despite no light, confirming that the battery connection was secure), I ultimately determined that the radio was not coming in contact with the metal components of the charging cradle. Not wanting to send it back and incur additional expense, I cautiously attempted to pry the connections in the base up slightly so they would come in contact with the radio when placed in the cradle. I was successful in getting the charging cradle to work, but I have to wonder what the longevity is of this device if something this obvious isn't working at delivery. What ever happened to quality control? That said, the radio was pretty easy to set up and seems to be working as expected.

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.