Topic: In the market for a new wx radio

[Anole]

My OS WR102 bit the dust recently and I want to replace it. In all honesty I wasn't all that happy with it anyway. This is my downstairs radio. I currently have a Radio Shack 12-261 that overall I'm pretty pleased with but I'd like to get something different just to have some diversity.

I want SAME and Public Alert Certified would be nice but is not required.
I don't need AM/FM but if it has it no big deal.
If it's portable fine, if not, that's ok too.

I'm looking at the following:
Midlands WR100
Midlands WR300
Reecom R1630
First Alert WX-268

I'm currently leaning heavily towards one of the Midlands. I like the features on the First Alert but reviews seem pretty mixed.

Any opinions would be welcomed!

[atlantic]

I purchased a Midlands WR300 about a year ago to replace an older worn out Midlands unit I had had for over 10 years I think and I am very pleased with it. Good reception and I like the features although I don’t use them all. I’m one that not only wants to know what going on in my county and the ones next door, but have it opened to receive alerts from all counties serviced by our local NWS.

Only complaint is that my wife says it too loud and always turns the volume down or turns it off when I am not around ( won’t go there) and it is hard to tell when it’s turned off. There isn’t any LED telling that it’s on like my older units had, just an LCD display with a CH number and symbol in the bottom right had corner.  I know I could keep it turned down but that won't be any fun. Other than that I would recommend it.

[Anole]

Thanks for the input!

[capeweather]

Larry, I run the Reecom R1630 and think its a pretty good piece of equipment. I like it because it has an audio output jack that I use to connect to my soundcard for streaming. The only downfall that I've seen is after several days of being on it will just shut itself off and I have to turn it back on for the livefeed. Also, when the audio output has a plug in it it disables the speaker so I really don't even hear it unless I'm on my own site. Don't know if you ever listened to it but I have it going on live now since TS Chris is approaching. I also added the antenna to help improve reception so you may hear a little buzzing going on because its getting emi from my UPS. Need to move it somewhere else but for now I guess it will do.

http://www.capeweather.com/noaa-weather-radio.html

http://www.reecominc.com/r1630.htm

Chris

[wuhu_software]

Chris,

Another user reported that their audio was shutting off automatically. Apparently if one or more SAME codes are entered, the radio will shut off after an alert is active the goes inactive. This may include the weekly tests.

If you disable the SAME codes for streaming, the auto-shut off problem may go away.

Larry, I run the Reecom R1630 and think its a pretty good piece of equipment. I like it because it has an audio output jack that I use to connect to my soundcard for streaming. The only downfall that I've seen is after several days of being on it will just shut itself off and I have to turn it back on for the livefeed. Also, when the audio output has a plug in it it disables the speaker so I really don't even hear it unless I'm on my own site. Don't know if you ever listened to it but I have it going on live now since TS Chris is approaching. I also added the antenna to help improve reception so you may hear a little buzzing going on because its getting emi from my UPS. Need to move it somewhere else but for now I guess it will do.

http://www.capeweather.com/noaa-weather-radio.html

http://www.reecominc.com/r1630.htm

Chris

[carterlake]

Larry, I run the Reecom R1630 and think its a pretty good piece of equipment. I like it because it has an audio output jack that I use to connect to my soundcard for streaming. The only downfall that I've seen is after several days of being on it will just shut itself off and I have to turn it back on for the livefeed. Also, when the audio output has a plug in it it disables the speaker so I really don't even hear it unless I'm on my own site. Don't know if you ever listened to it but I have it going on live now since TS Chris is approaching. I also added the antenna to help improve reception so you may hear a little buzzing going on because its getting emi from my UPS. Need to move it somewhere else but for now I guess it will do.

http://www.capeweather.com/noaa-weather-radio.html

http://www.reecominc.com/r1630.htm

Chris

Hey Chris,

If I could ask... what are the exact steps to get this streaming?

You run a jack between the radio and the mic port on the PC sound card... and then?

[capeweather]

Hi Tom,
I actually use a little program called Simplecast. Along with Simplecast I use Shoutcast which acts as the server for the audio out. They both work together to allow me to stream. Below is the link to the Simplecast product so you can read up on how it works. It's very cool because it gives you statistics on how many current listeners are on. Also you can set the bandwidth to allow more users. (I currently have mine set to 8kbps which is plenty for audio). This will give me about 6 listeners at one time without loading down my bandwidth.

http://www.spacialaudio.com/products/simplecast/ - Simplecast

http://www.shoutcast.com/ - Shoutcast (Acts as server from local machine)

Chris

[capeweather]

Chris,

Another user reported that their audio was shutting off automatically. Apparently if one or more SAME codes are entered, the radio will shut off after an alert is active the goes inactive. This may include the weekly tests.

If you disable the SAME codes for streaming, the auto-shut off problem may go away.

Larry, I run the Reecom R1630 and think its a pretty good piece of equipment. I like it because it has an audio output jack that I use to connect to my soundcard for streaming. The only downfall that I've seen is after several days of being on it will just shut itself off and I have to turn it back on for the livefeed. Also, when the audio output has a plug in it it disables the speaker so I really don't even hear it unless I'm on my own site. Don't know if you ever listened to it but I have it going on live now since TS Chris is approaching. I also added the antenna to help improve reception so you may hear a little buzzing going on because its getting emi from my UPS. Need to move it somewhere else but for now I guess it will do.

http://www.capeweather.com/noaa-weather-radio.html

http://www.reecominc.com/r1630.htm

Chris

Thanks for that information! I went through the manual and disabled the alerts hoping this will correct the problem. I'm sure that's what it was because it did seem to just shut off from time to time. By disabling the alert does this also disable the S.A.M.E.? I will see if this helps. Right now I have my radio back up, could somebody tell me if the quality sounds ok? It's been offline for almost 2 weeks and I did some tweaking. Thanks.

http://www.capeweather.com/noaa-weather-radio.html

[wuhu_software]

Chris,

Another user reported that their audio was shutting off automatically. Apparently if one or more SAME codes are entered, the radio will shut off after an alert is active the goes inactive. This may include the weekly tests.

If you disable the SAME codes for streaming, the auto-shut off problem may go away.

Larry, I run the Reecom R1630 and think its a pretty good piece of equipment. I like it because it has an audio output jack that I use to connect to my soundcard for streaming. The only downfall that I've seen is after several days of being on it will just shut itself off and I have to turn it back on for the livefeed. Also, when the audio output has a plug in it it disables the speaker so I really don't even hear it unless I'm on my own site. Don't know if you ever listened to it but I have it going on live now since TS Chris is approaching. I also added the antenna to help improve reception so you may hear a little buzzing going on because its getting emi from my UPS. Need to move it somewhere else but for now I guess it will do.

http://www.capeweather.com/noaa-weather-radio.html

http://www.reecominc.com/r1630.htm

Chris

Thanks for that information! I went through the manual and disabled the alerts hoping this will correct the problem. I'm sure that's what it was because it did seem to just shut off from time to time. By disabling the alert does this also disable the S.A.M.E.? I will see if this helps. Right now I have my radio back up, could somebody tell me if the quality sounds ok? It's been offline for almost 2 weeks and I did some tweaking. Thanks.

http://www.capeweather.com/noaa-weather-radio.html

Chris,

I am not familiar with the radio operation myself. I believe the user had to disable the SAME codes altogether so that the radio did not turn off the audio after the alert. Let me know what you find out.

The stream sounds clean to me. Volume is good.

I do hear a little sound that resembles a small horn. It beeps every few seconds. Not sure if that is from the NWS stream or the audio card?

[capeweather]

Yes, the small horn sound you are hearing is something I'm going to have to look into. It's not coming from the radio so its probably has something to do with my soundcard. It's an older SB16 card and I probably should update it with something newer. A few other people have pointed that out to me as well. Thanks for the update.  

[capeweather]

Chris,

Another user reported that their audio was shutting off automatically. Apparently if one or more SAME codes are entered, the radio will shut off after an alert is active the goes inactive. This may include the weekly tests.

If you disable the SAME codes for streaming, the auto-shut off problem may go away.

Larry, I run the Reecom R1630 and think its a pretty good piece of equipment. I like it because it has an audio output jack that I use to connect to my soundcard for streaming. The only downfall that I've seen is after several days of being on it will just shut itself off and I have to turn it back on for the livefeed. Also, when the audio output has a plug in it it disables the speaker so I really don't even hear it unless I'm on my own site. Don't know if you ever listened to it but I have it going on live now since TS Chris is approaching. I also added the antenna to help improve reception so you may hear a little buzzing going on because its getting emi from my UPS. Need to move it somewhere else but for now I guess it will do.

http://www.capeweather.com/noaa-weather-radio.html

http://www.reecominc.com/r1630.htm

Chris

Still had a problem with it shutting off after a few days. Called Reecom and they told me to disable the weekly test as well. I did this and will update if it continues to shut off. Does anybody have an idea when the weekly test is done? I'm sure it's scheduled at different times depending on the station ID.

[Mark / Ohio]

....Does anybody have an idea when the weekly test is done? I'm sure it's scheduled at different times depending on the station ID.

10:00am - 12:00 noon time Wednesdays at my local.  Looks to be a national time of testing:

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/outages.html

[capeweather]

Ah ha! That explains why my radio turned off today! Tech Support at Reecom told me to disable it and that should solve the problem. Thanks a lot for the schedule.  

[Anthony]

I have the all hazards radio from radio shack. It is a portable unit that runs on 3AA batteries. The radio has SAME and will accept upto 10 countie (FIPS) codes. I've only had the radio about two weeks and the only allerts that I've heard are the weekly tests. The only draw back is the radio is hard on batteries. A set of batteries usually lasts about 4 or 5 days. You can however purchase an adapter for the radio and plug it in.