So close. Tempted to get hand crank USB charger. Not thinking it would store a whole lot in the solar charger for phone capabilities. I'm going to pass. Maybe if it were $5 or even $5 each. Meh
I've bought all the other weather radios sold and haven't used any of them. So tell me, why am I having such a hard time resisting this deal? I'm pretty sure it's the flashlight and solar panel. Someone please tell me how much this sucks so I can resist!
i've always wanted to be awakened in the middle of the nite by a weather alert that doesn't pan out or that does but by the time i realize it, my house has already been airlifted to just outside the emerald city. here's my chance to make that a reality!
Well look who the ol' tornado dropped outta the fucking sky, Twofer Tuesday that filthy temptress. Much like nature she can be elegant and beautiful and at the same time she can be one insane and dangerous bitch. Imma stay clear of her today and hold out in the cellar until this shit storm passes.
I bought the last emergency radio and I finally heard it issue a weather alert for the first time this weekend. It scared the crap out of me until I figured out where the noise was coming from. Couldn't yank the cord out fast enough. Rain advisories shouldn't be that scary.
I can't find a single goddamn positive review of this weather radio. It's probably not worth $11 for one, much less $22 for 2. it's not even waterproof.
There have only been 11 replies to this topic, but already the specs are hidden because 'the topic's getting long'. I've noticed this on quite a few short threads lately and think it's taking things a little far.
@PurplePawprints Perhaps Meh is keen to hide the specs from people as soon as they possibly can. (You can use this as a reason not to buy today if you want.)
@PurplePawprints Yea I don't think the new auto-hide is working too well in several topics. I've seen some odd choices for what it "hides"... it almost looks like its being done by hand.
@thismyusername From what I can tell, it's automatically hiding everything except that last ten comments (not including sub-comments). At least, that's what it's doing in this topic. I haven't gone through and counted the others.
@PurplePawprints There was a note on this somewhere in the forums- I think they recently dropped it from 25 to 10 comments, but I'm too lazy to look it up.
@sammydog01 Ah, I most have missed that. I guess it makes sense in some threads, but they should figure out a way to make it never hide the specs then.
@PurplePawprints I can see that now that you mention it... I'm not sure they need it now that it seems to be caching the page (and not to mention the image throttling which helps the most I think). Agreed that mediocrebots posts should have some sorta override :)
@PurplePawprints@eyewerks@thismyusername I think the TL;DR mode feature still works fine with the specs comment for a few reasons. First, if you're clicking the "more specifications" link on the homepage we don't hide the specs comment. Second, if you're visiting the topic for the first time we don't hide the specs comment so that everyone sees the specs at least once. Also, we never hide the specs comment if you're an anonymous user (maybe you're visiting the first time from Slickdeals, Reddit, or some other referrer).
Basically, we're trying to get older comments out of the way for our repeat forum visitors (like you guys) so you don't have to scroll over the same comments over and over again. And if you actually do need to see the all the comments you can click that button and they instantly appear without any delay. We're hoping this prevents long running Fuku-length topics from killing themselves because they grow too large.
Thanks, @cengland0. @shawn Thank you for the detailed explanation. I guess I've never noticed the safeguards because I'm always logged in and usually check the new product thread within the first posts. Anyway, it looks like you've really thought of every situation as far as the specs are concerned. Great work! I should never have doubted you!
Last Oregon Scientific WX radio I bought died after a few weeks of basically no use. I'm not sure it's even worth getting a warranty replacement. Sure as shootin not going to buy two more Oregon Scientific paperweights. Good night and good meh.
I'll never be stuck without a crappy FM radio at the drive in again (unless I forget to charge it ... Meh, oh well). I wonder if it will be loud enough to hear over the planes and trains in San Jose?
@dalekjoe It will be here, at the drive-in in VT. I never hear your San Jose planes & trains. And if you forget to charge it, you crank it. But that's noisy.
So here's what I'm gonna do: I'm gonna wait until morning and run it by the now-sleeping wife. By which time they will be sold out and she'll probably give me the thumbs up. And then I'll regret it. Along with all of the other things I bought that I probably shouldn't have and that are making me feel guilty and otherwise hesitant now.
@eyewerks Oy. If only I'd been bar mitzvahed. ;-) Actually, though I'm ostensibly a goy, I have this feeling down in my gut that my people were part of the Sephardim. And for other reasons, I've kinda always wished I were Jewish. No, not enough to convert. But I keep telling myself I'm gonna drop into synagogue some day . . .
And as it turns out on the radios, having slept on it and read a few of the reviews, I'm no longer enamored. But I enjoyed my regret for a moment.
@jzmacdaddy plus the one on Amazon. I build and repair radios, new and antique. Components inside are crap with a failure rate to sell the bad ones in bulk to save landfill costs. Wish MEH would stop pushing junk no one would buy elsewhere.
I bought the last 2-for-Tuesday weather alert radios duo (the Cobra ones) and one died immediately. So I ended up with one crappy one at twice the price. Not falling for that again.
Wait a minute! I see no batteries in the pic.. Who stole the batteries? No rechargeables? I know about the AAA's their not included, I wanna see the rechargeables!! A sell rests on seeing everything included (or is that empty chamber reserved to hide your stash?).
@unkabob The rechargeable battery is internal and not removeable / serviceable as I understand it - the slot for the AAA's is for standard alkaline batteries to use as another (additional) power source. At least that it what I gather from speaking directly to someone that has one of these (if I indeed understood him correctly). He mentioned there were two generations of this radio - the images here may be of the first gen. The lack of SAME (Specific Area Message Encoding) support is the deal killer for me. It will alert way too often without SAME.
@Pavlov ... Well that sux, I took a chance and bought a pair.. hope the batteries last awhile.. at least it's solar, wind-up and alkaline capable, that may compensate my impulse a bit, thanks for the info.
Tangental, but related… if @Meh would like to look into a digital shower radio, I'd be all over that, even with crappy reviews. (No analog! With memory buttons would be great too!)
@haydesigner Well then you could get a Lifeproof case and take your phone into the shower with you. Duh. Or, never mind. I can't decide which. ;-) http://www.lifeproof.com/en/
So this reminds me of my beloved beach and camping radio/flashlight/weather radio combo, but better. Old analog one from Woot had the world's tiniest radio dial, with no reference numbers on it. It is impossible to pick your preferred beach music station in advance and tune to it. You just twisted the dial slowly until a song you liked was heard.
This Oregon Scientific is improved by having digital tuning. According to the package, I can charge it via USB before I leave home, or let the kids crank it for a while. Worst case, throw a spare set of batteries in it. VOILÀ! Beach and campsite music has returned, and the flashlight gets me back to my tent.
If weather threatens, I can turn on the weather alerts to know if I need to seek shelter (we had a tornado come through a campground here in VA in the past few years), but I don't plan on keeping that enabled on a pretty day.
So I am in for a set. Good price for a portable radio for the beach, fishing and camping, and is an upgrade to my beloved green one where you listened to whatever station you stumbled over.
Oregon Scientific has them on sale for $35. Note that the phone charger only works from hand crank - not the internal battery or solar. Further, the USB charger output is likely not regulated as the manual very specifically tells you how fast to crank for it to work properly, and that not all phones will accept it. In other words, true emergency use only - where possible damage to your phone will be worth it if you can just get that last text message out. I'd consider instead using it to charge a portable power bank style cell phone charger, then using that the charge the phone. It's a little less efficient, but the power bank will more likely accept the charge without complaint, and will more safely charge the phone. Further, with the right usb-DC adaptor cable, you can run this radio from the power bank. A much better battery option than the included battery pack.
The internal battery is a user-replaceable 600mAh Ni-MH. You should be able to replace it if needed (batteries plus and others can make compatible packs if you are worried about availability). Chances are good that like the cell phone charger there's no real regulation or intelligence in the power circuitry, so don't expect the batteries to last for years. I'm guessing the radio will work with active cranking when needed even if the batteries are dead. Keep a set of AAA batteries packaged with the radio for emergency use (not in the radio, that will only lead to sadness years later...) It comes with no plug-in options for charging, which is silly. A simple USB cable to DC plug would have been cheap to include.
Regarding the solar panel - it's not much more than a gimmick. I suppose you could consider it a trickle charge to keep the battery topped off, but it takes 30 hours of strong, direct (ie, arizona cloudless sky at high noon with you aiming the solar panel directly at the sun) light to charge the battery. The fully charged battery would last 7 hours on a full charge with the AM/FM or NOAA radio turned on (and much less for the flashlight or siren). Put it inside a window sill where indirect light is available and it may not add anything measurable to the battery at all. Depends completely on having good rechargeable batteries, though - it won't power the radio directly, nor charge your phone, and the batteries are the weakest part of this radio. Again, just keep a set of AAA batteries available for real emergencies.
It doesn't have SAME, as far as I can tell from the manual. It does detect weather alerts, so you can have it on standby, but as the weather radio service covers such large areas, expect to receive a lot of alerts for areas not including yours.
For $11, it's a great deal - you do have to understand its limitations, though. If you don't already have an emergency radio then it's easily worth it. The digital tuning is worthwhile, and being able to charge a phone in a pinch could come in handy, but the types of emergencies where this feature would come in handy would also probably bring down the cellular network (Sandy, Katrina, 9/11). Still, text messages often go through even under very adverse conditions with just one bar of service, so it may still be useful for that.
@sligett Yes, I should have worded that differently. It has a charging port, but doesn't include the charger or cables to charge it. A USB to DC adaptor cable would have been cheap to include (and cheap to make, for DIYers) so it's silly they didn't at least include a USB charging cable.
Lack of SAME is a deal breaker on this one. I picked up a smaller LaCrosse unit (albeit without gimmicky solar cell or hand crank) for $15 at the local warehouse club. This is just meh.
@jdinnis I agree. I got the Cobra el cheapo weather radios. They'd be fine for when we have an actual storm and want updates/warnings, but without SAME, we would receive alarms for everything everywhere.
Aren't the amber alerts that kept my phone ringing off the hook for the past 3 weeks the same thing as emergency weather alerts? (with the added bonus of realizing how many kids are getting abducted these days)
My radios arrived today! The two were less than the price of the one Ambient Weather WR-299 I bought at Amazon and they seem much more solidly built. I'll still try to get the WR-299 repaired...
Mine arrived yesterday. One is already acting stupidly flaky, even after following the instructions provided in a chat session with Oregon Scientific. I was gonna give the other one to my dad for Father's Day but thinking I may opt for a 12 pack of his favorite beer instead.
Anyone have a defective one? I bought 2 and 1 is not working at all. Can't set the clock nor listen to the radio. The only thing that works is the siren. :(
@shaine228 It's happened to a few. You should have a warranty card in the box, that's your best bet for getting something fixed or replaced, since the warranty for this particular item is provided by Oregon Scientific for 1 year.
Oregon sent me 2 replacements, and the second worked. The one I gave my dad was DOA and he had to order a warranty replacement too. Meh needs to make sure their vendors are doing proper QA-- clearly this was a deal because the units are lousy.
@shaine228 Both. Meh suggested I contact Oregon Scientific. I did a live chat with an OS tech support person and they took care of it for me. Just tell them you bought the radio from meh.com in June 2015 and they'll take it from there.
Specs
Condition: New
Warranty: 1 Year Oregon Scientific
Estimated Delivery: 6/12 - 6/16
Shipping: $5 or free with VMP
What’s in the Box?
2x Emergency Weather Radio
2x Rechargeable battery
2x User Manual
2x Quick Start Guide
2x Warranty card
Pictures
Two Radios
Side view
Crankin’
Battery
Retail packaging
Price Comparison
$79.99 List, $53.58 (For 1) at Amazon
Reviews for the inferior analog version, if you’re curious
Find a relevant price comparison? Please share it in a comment in this thread
Warranty
90 days
Great here in south fl for hurricane season, but meh
Can someone just tell me when these zombies are coming? This would make my shopping decisions a lot easier...
@ptrjon They are likely to arrive before SmartPost delivers your radios.
@sligett So we got plenty of time is what you're sayin?
So close. Tempted to get hand crank USB charger. Not thinking it would store a whole lot in the solar charger for phone capabilities. I'm going to pass. Maybe if it were $5 or even $5 each. Meh
@sohmageek mark it on the calendar folks. I said meh wife said buy it now.
@sohmageek I'd give u 10 stars if I could for this one
@wildmomo Thanks. I don't think I have to tell you that we purchased one pair.
@wildmomo - ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ plus the star you added.
1 cruddy review....
@jmhsrv It is a pretty cruddy review, doesn't really explain what's wrong with the radio, just says 'I couldn't figure it out so it's poop!'
I've bought all the other weather radios sold and haven't used any of them. So tell me, why am I having such a hard time resisting this deal? I'm pretty sure it's the flashlight and solar panel. Someone please tell me how much this sucks so I can resist!
@PurplePawprints It's not purple. Don't buy it. There is only a one-star review for it at Caleba's as well.
@heartny Yeah, I've been seeing those posts. The urge to buy is receding. Also, why don't they ever sell purple stuff anymore? It's making me sad.
@PurplePawprints The lack of purple makes me sad too. Where's Barney?
@Barney, Save us Barney-Wan Kenobi!
@heartny @PurplePawprints @Saffer49 Maybe the lack of purple products has weakened @Barney like the fairies in Peter Pan.
Do you believe in @Barney? Post purple if you do!
@PurplePawprints @Barney you want purple stuff to buy? http://www.thepurplestore.com/
@PurplePawprints @heartny @Saffer49 @jqubed I believe in purple. It will return.
@SIMBM Thanks! I've shopped at that store (online).
i've always wanted to be awakened in the middle of the nite by a weather alert that doesn't pan out or that does but by the time i realize it, my house has already been airlifted to just outside the emerald city. here's my chance to make that a reality!
Well look who the ol' tornado dropped outta the fucking sky, Twofer Tuesday that filthy temptress. Much like nature she can be elegant and beautiful and at the same time she can be one insane and dangerous bitch. Imma stay clear of her today and hold out in the cellar until this shit storm passes.
I'm in. Several features that I don't already have, combined with one feature that I do already have.
loyal-unexpected-toucan
@mehdaf There's only one thing that no one expects and it's not a Toucan.
@badmnky well, I cancelled based on all the negativity. I didn't expect that...
@badmnky - The Spanish Inquisition?
I bought the last emergency radio and I finally heard it issue a weather alert for the first time this weekend. It scared the crap out of me until I figured out where the noise was coming from. Couldn't yank the cord out fast enough. Rain advisories shouldn't be that scary.
@heartny You need to take rain advisories more seriously, you can die in two inches of water!
@badmnky I live in a second floor apartment, so two inches doesn't scare me. Unless the building sinks because of it.
@heartny the water doesn't care what floor you're on, it wil find a way, it's devious.
@heartny two inches, measured from the second floor?
I can't find a single goddamn positive review of this weather radio. It's probably not worth $11 for one, much less $22 for 2. it's not even waterproof.
...unbecoming-extreme-pancake.
@flynnski Why would it need to be waterproof? If you listen to it, you can just avoid getting wet!
There have only been 11 replies to this topic, but already the specs are hidden because 'the topic's getting long'. I've noticed this on quite a few short threads lately and think it's taking things a little far.
@PurplePawprints Perhaps Meh is keen to hide the specs from people as soon as they possibly can. (You can use this as a reason not to buy today if you want.)
@PurplePawprints Yea I don't think the new auto-hide is working too well in several topics. I've seen some odd choices for what it "hides"... it almost looks like its being done by hand.
@thismyusername From what I can tell, it's automatically hiding everything except that last ten comments (not including sub-comments). At least, that's what it's doing in this topic. I haven't gone through and counted the others.
@PurplePawprints There was a note on this somewhere in the forums- I think they recently dropped it from 25 to 10 comments, but I'm too lazy to look it up.
@sammydog01 Ah, I most have missed that. I guess it makes sense in some threads, but they should figure out a way to make it never hide the specs then.
@PurplePawprints I can see that now that you mention it... I'm not sure they need it now that it seems to be caching the page (and not to mention the image throttling which helps the most I think). Agreed that mediocrebots posts should have some sorta override :)
@PurplePawprints @shawn explains the change from 50 to 10 messages before collapse here: https://meh.com/forum/topics/the-forum-does-a-new-thing#556076f9fd4185ac0d85bfb9
@PurplePawprints @eyewerks @thismyusername I think the TL;DR mode feature still works fine with the specs comment for a few reasons. First, if you're clicking the "more specifications" link on the homepage we don't hide the specs comment. Second, if you're visiting the topic for the first time we don't hide the specs comment so that everyone sees the specs at least once. Also, we never hide the specs comment if you're an anonymous user (maybe you're visiting the first time from Slickdeals, Reddit, or some other referrer).
Basically, we're trying to get older comments out of the way for our repeat forum visitors (like you guys) so you don't have to scroll over the same comments over and over again. And if you actually do need to see the all the comments you can click that button and they instantly appear without any delay. We're hoping this prevents long running Fuku-length topics from killing themselves because they grow too large.
Thanks, @cengland0. @shawn Thank you for the detailed explanation. I guess I've never noticed the safeguards because I'm always logged in and usually check the new product thread within the first posts. Anyway, it looks like you've really thought of every situation as far as the specs are concerned. Great work! I should never have doubted you!
Reviews for the analog look good, so the digital one should be just as good if not better, right? Meh, I'm sold... http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/reviews/B007HCGN4G/ref=mw_dp_cr
Last Oregon Scientific WX radio I bought died after a few weeks of basically no use. I'm not sure it's even worth getting a warranty replacement. Sure as shootin not going to buy two more Oregon Scientific paperweights. Good night and good meh.
@AlexNoVA it was worth it... they replaced them with a WR-601N AND a BAR-208HGA.
@thismyusername the replacements really do kick ass!
I'll never be stuck without a crappy FM radio at the drive in again (unless I forget to charge it ... Meh, oh well). I wonder if it will be loud enough to hear over the planes and trains in San Jose?
@dalekjoe It will be here, at the drive-in in VT. I never hear your San Jose planes & trains. And if you forget to charge it, you crank it. But that's noisy.
So here's what I'm gonna do: I'm gonna wait until morning and run it by the now-sleeping wife. By which time they will be sold out and she'll probably give me the thumbs up. And then I'll regret it. Along with all of the other things I bought that I probably shouldn't have and that are making me feel guilty and otherwise hesitant now.
FML. Sigh.
@joelmw All this guilt and regret. Had someone only given you an emergengy weather radio for your bar mitzvah you wouldn't be having this crisis.
@eyewerks Oy. If only I'd been bar mitzvahed. ;-) Actually, though I'm ostensibly a goy, I have this feeling down in my gut that my people were part of the Sephardim. And for other reasons, I've kinda always wished I were Jewish. No, not enough to convert. But I keep telling myself I'm gonna drop into synagogue some day . . .
And as it turns out on the radios, having slept on it and read a few of the reviews, I'm no longer enamored. But I enjoyed my regret for a moment.
@joelmw Avoid the temptation. I hear the adult circumcision thing is a bitch.
Crap. Stay clear. Haven't seen one good review.
http://www.cabelas.com/product/Oregon-Scientific-NOAA-Crank-Emergency-Radio-WR/1589467.uts
@craigcush Well that's just one bad review. I bet that guy didn't crank it enough.
@jzmacdaddy plus the one on Amazon. I build and repair radios, new and antique. Components inside are crap with a failure rate to sell the bad ones in bulk to save landfill costs. Wish MEH would stop pushing junk no one would buy elsewhere.
This makes me wonder what happened to the weather radio I got from Woot, back in the day. I wonder if it's lonely?
@awk Mine also, it's in a drawer, I know where it is and the poor thing has never been used. So I don't think I need more then one.
I bought the last 2-for-Tuesday weather alert radios duo (the Cobra ones) and one died immediately. So I ended up with one crappy one at twice the price. Not falling for that again.
@tnarg42 should do a warranty replacement... you get a decent weather radio AND a bonus weather station if you do ;)
It doesn't have SAME, so you get alerts from all over the region instead of just local. But the usb hand crank sounds cool.
@sammydog01 This says it does have SAME http://www.weatherstationstore.com/weather/equipment/emergency_alert_weather_radios/Oregon_Scientific_weather_radios.asp
@steelersluver I did not see where the link said it did have SAME. I checked the manual and I did not see it there either. http://www.weatherconnection.com/manuals/WR202.pdf
@steelersluver This says it does not have SAME http://www.weathershack.com/product/oregon-scientific-wr202.html
Bought them to throw in the camping/bugout bag. I'm thinking these will get charged/discharged rather infrequently.
Wait a minute! I see no batteries in the pic.. Who stole the batteries? No rechargeables? I know about the AAA's their not included, I wanna see the rechargeables!! A sell rests on seeing everything included (or is that empty chamber reserved to hide your stash?).
@unkabob What's in the box says 2x Rechargeable battery. Weird.
@Pamtha built in rechargeable in the specs, very much past it's useful life as is old.
@Pamtha .. Yeah but in pictures the battery link doesn't show them, only an empty space for a rechargeable battery.
@craigcush ... So, it IS a stash pocket.. hot damn!
@unkabob The rechargeable battery is internal and not removeable / serviceable as I understand it - the slot for the AAA's is for standard alkaline batteries to use as another (additional) power source. At least that it what I gather from speaking directly to someone that has one of these (if I indeed understood him correctly). He mentioned there were two generations of this radio - the images here may be of the first gen. The lack of SAME (Specific Area Message Encoding) support is the deal killer for me. It will alert way too often without SAME.
@Pavlov ... Well that sux, I took a chance and bought a pair.. hope the batteries last awhile.. at least it's solar, wind-up and alkaline capable, that may compensate my impulse a bit, thanks for the info.
Sucked back into VMP by a radio. Well, technically, TWO radios. Though I'm confused WHY IN THE WORLD. Grassy-Garbled-Cactus
Tangental, but related… if @Meh would like to look into a digital shower radio, I'd be all over that, even with crappy reviews. (No analog! With memory buttons would be great too!)
@haydesigner What if it was a shower weather radio that only told you it was raining in that very spot (your shower)? That would be sufficiently meh.
@haydesigner So we've got a towel bar right next to the shower. These fit nicely on it and have far better volume and sound quality than the two or three shower radios I've tried. https://meh.com/forum/topics/2-for-tuesday-mediocre-bluetooth-speakers
@haydesigner I would not like to look into it.
@joelmw... Thanks :) I already have some Bluetooth speakers, but I'd like to be able to change the station while I'm in the shower.
@haydesigner Well then you could get a Lifeproof case and take your phone into the shower with you. Duh. Or, never mind. I can't decide which. ;-)
http://www.lifeproof.com/en/
So this reminds me of my beloved beach and camping radio/flashlight/weather radio combo, but better. Old analog one from Woot had the world's tiniest radio dial, with no reference numbers on it. It is impossible to pick your preferred beach music station in advance and tune to it. You just twisted the dial slowly until a song you liked was heard.
This Oregon Scientific is improved by having digital tuning. According to the package, I can charge it via USB before I leave home, or let the kids crank it for a while. Worst case, throw a spare set of batteries in it. VOILÀ! Beach and campsite music has returned, and the flashlight gets me back to my tent.
If weather threatens, I can turn on the weather alerts to know if I need to seek shelter (we had a tornado come through a campground here in VA in the past few years), but I don't plan on keeping that enabled on a pretty day.
So I am in for a set. Good price for a portable radio for the beach, fishing and camping, and is an upgrade to my beloved green one where you listened to whatever station you stumbled over.
This sounds perfect for the people who insist that cell phones should have FM radios.
@TerriblyHuang or go places with no cell coverage in the blistering hot sun with sand and water everywhere. Beach radio!!!!
I'm rolling thunder, pouring rain. I'm coming on like a Hurricane. My lightning's flashing across the sky; you're only young, but you're gonna die.
Flashlight YES!
Oregon Scientific has them on sale for $35. Note that the phone charger only works from hand crank - not the internal battery or solar. Further, the USB charger output is likely not regulated as the manual very specifically tells you how fast to crank for it to work properly, and that not all phones will accept it. In other words, true emergency use only - where possible damage to your phone will be worth it if you can just get that last text message out. I'd consider instead using it to charge a portable power bank style cell phone charger, then using that the charge the phone. It's a little less efficient, but the power bank will more likely accept the charge without complaint, and will more safely charge the phone. Further, with the right usb-DC adaptor cable, you can run this radio from the power bank. A much better battery option than the included battery pack.
The internal battery is a user-replaceable 600mAh Ni-MH. You should be able to replace it if needed (batteries plus and others can make compatible packs if you are worried about availability). Chances are good that like the cell phone charger there's no real regulation or intelligence in the power circuitry, so don't expect the batteries to last for years. I'm guessing the radio will work with active cranking when needed even if the batteries are dead. Keep a set of AAA batteries packaged with the radio for emergency use (not in the radio, that will only lead to sadness years later...) It comes with no plug-in options for charging, which is silly. A simple USB cable to DC plug would have been cheap to include.
Regarding the solar panel - it's not much more than a gimmick. I suppose you could consider it a trickle charge to keep the battery topped off, but it takes 30 hours of strong, direct (ie, arizona cloudless sky at high noon with you aiming the solar panel directly at the sun) light to charge the battery. The fully charged battery would last 7 hours on a full charge with the AM/FM or NOAA radio turned on (and much less for the flashlight or siren). Put it inside a window sill where indirect light is available and it may not add anything measurable to the battery at all. Depends completely on having good rechargeable batteries, though - it won't power the radio directly, nor charge your phone, and the batteries are the weakest part of this radio. Again, just keep a set of AAA batteries available for real emergencies.
It doesn't have SAME, as far as I can tell from the manual. It does detect weather alerts, so you can have it on standby, but as the weather radio service covers such large areas, expect to receive a lot of alerts for areas not including yours.
For $11, it's a great deal - you do have to understand its limitations, though. If you don't already have an emergency radio then it's easily worth it. The digital tuning is worthwhile, and being able to charge a phone in a pinch could come in handy, but the types of emergencies where this feature would come in handy would also probably bring down the cellular network (Sandy, Katrina, 9/11). Still, text messages often go through even under very adverse conditions with just one bar of service, so it may still be useful for that.
Manufacturer:
http://store.oregonscientific.com/us/digital-handheld-emergency-alert-radio.html
Manual:
http://global.oregonscientific.com/manual/WR202.pdf
@stienman The manual shows how to connect an AC adapter. It's $13 at Oregon Scientific. The rechargables look like common cordless phone batteries (again, looking at the manual). http://www.weatherconnection.com/manuals/WR202.pdf
@sligett Yes, I should have worded that differently. It has a charging port, but doesn't include the charger or cables to charge it. A USB to DC adaptor cable would have been cheap to include (and cheap to make, for DIYers) so it's silly they didn't at least include a USB charging cable.
Daunthing aged iron
This is how I'm NOT feeling about this.
Lack of SAME is a deal breaker on this one. I picked up a smaller LaCrosse unit (albeit without gimmicky solar cell or hand crank) for $15 at the local warehouse club. This is just meh.
@jdinnis I agree. I got the Cobra el cheapo weather radios. They'd be fine for when we have an actual storm and want updates/warnings, but without SAME, we would receive alarms for everything everywhere.
Sold out? That was unexpected...
@mehdaf Haha, my drunk self apparently had some good sense last night.
Aren't the amber alerts that kept my phone ringing off the hook for the past 3 weeks the same thing as emergency weather alerts? (with the added bonus of realizing how many kids are getting abducted these days)
My radios arrived today! The two were less than the price of the one Ambient Weather WR-299 I bought at Amazon and they seem much more solidly built. I'll still try to get the WR-299 repaired...
Mine arrived yesterday. One is already acting stupidly flaky, even after following the instructions provided in a chat session with Oregon Scientific. I was gonna give the other one to my dad for Father's Day but thinking I may opt for a 12 pack of his favorite beer instead.
@jtlynn23 Did you ever get it fixed or replaced? I just opened the other one of two i bought and the 2nd one is not working.
@shaine228 I had to do two replacements with Oregon to get one that worked. The one I gave to my dad was also DOA and he's awaiting his replacement.
Anyone have a defective one? I bought 2 and 1 is not working at all. Can't set the clock nor listen to the radio. The only thing that works is the siren. :(
@shaine228 It's happened to a few. You should have a warranty card in the box, that's your best bet for getting something fixed or replaced, since the warranty for this particular item is provided by Oregon Scientific for 1 year.
Oregon sent me 2 replacements, and the second worked. The one I gave my dad was DOA and he had to order a warranty replacement too. Meh needs to make sure their vendors are doing proper QA-- clearly this was a deal because the units are lousy.
@jtlynn23 Thanks for the tip. Did you contact meh or Oregon Scientific to get them replaced?
@shaine228 Both. Meh suggested I contact Oregon Scientific. I did a live chat with an OS tech support person and they took care of it for me. Just tell them you bought the radio from meh.com in June 2015 and they'll take it from there.