The customer should be respected..., (What's this?) Off the bat, the weather radio portion of this radio does work well. It does all it's advertised to do... when it works. The unit I received failed within a few days, and the only way I found out about it was that it didn't note the weekly test. Am & FM worked, but the weather section didn't. I gave this radio as a gift to my wife who was attending school in a tornado prone area of the country. By the time we actually got to her school, set up the radio, and noticed that the weather portion of the radio stopped working, it was to late to return the radio as defective. Reecom refused to budge on this issue.
Second issue, I enquired if the radio was properly protected from static or magnetic pulse damage. (crossed diodes inexpensively could protect the front end, and proper shielding would ward off pulse) Though I asked by email, and on the phone... Reecom refused to answer the question.
Third issue, they would not honor the warranty unless I PAID $7.50 for "Return Shipping" Which actually cost about $4.50 US Priority mail. (They want to MAKE MONEY on a radio returned as defective? Really??)
Fourth issue, no warranty whatsoever on the wall power supply. (Really???) Sad.
Last issue, if this radio was just a small AM/FM radio for everyday use... I could see SOME of their issues, but in most cases YOU & I are buying this radio as an EMERGENCY radio, and you are going to want to RELY on it. Sad to say Reecom just doesn't inspire confidence, (especially with little white tags on the bottom warning of "loss of warranty service if removed", you can't check if they put it together properly, or if it's shielded, unless you want to pay full price for repairs... for a somewhat unreliable radio. Given the track record, I need to buy a radio to BACK UP THIS radio. Not something you want in an emergency radio (NOAA are you listening?)
So...
Perhaps the best weather alert radio out there for the money., (What's this?) I have had this alert radio for 3 or 4 months and I have nothing but good things to say about it. The radio shipped directly from Reecom and it arrived within 2 days of ordering it through Amazon. The radio was pretty easy to program, so if you have an average understanding of how electronic gadgets work, it's pretty user friendly. There are a couple of things someone considering a purchase should know about this radio:
1) SAME technology: This radio has SAME capability, which allows you to program a code number that is assigned to your county by NOAA. The code number is encoded into the alert message. You must look up the SAME code for your county through NOAA's website or by contacting them in your area.
Excellent Weather Radio, (What's this?) It was an absolute blessing to have our NOAA Weather Radio by REECOM during the outrageous & deadly tornado season this Spring! We live in N.W.
Exactly as advertised, (What's this?) Recently our town stopped using tornado sirens due to budgetary constraints. As such, we needed to find a good weather radio to sound alerts. I researched and found we definitely needed the S.A.M.E. function. There is nothing worse than hearing every alert for towns that are far away and will have no impact on you, especially at 3:00 AM.
We had narrowed the radios down, and found we could get the midland one or this one. I bought this one thinking that if I didn't like it, I would return it for the Midland. I unpacked it, and programmed it, and am very impressed. The ability to individualize it is amazing. You can not only select the counties you want to hear alarms from, but can also select which alarms you want to hear, and what noises you want to hear with which alarm. For example, if you want to hear a beeping for "flash flooding" and a tone for "tornado watch" you can. The options are nearly endless. It also stores the alarms. So, if you're at work, and you come home, you can scan to see if there was a tornado watch for your area during the day. OK, that might be kind of dorky, but you can do it (I admit to being dorky.)
The programming of the radio is about what you'd expect. You can have your favorite radio stations programmed in the memory. I think most every radio does that now days. The reception is good in my area. It has 2 alarms and you can wake to beeping or radio. This has replaced my regular alarm clock and it is smaller, and does more than the old alarm clock.
Al in all, the does everything you would need it to.
review, (What's this?) Seems to be as advertised.
Programming is a little difficult. You have to read and try, read and try until you get it right.
Nice weather radio, (What's this?) I just bought it a few weeks ago but so far I like it. Easy to program and good reception at home and while out camping in a National Park. Only shortcoming I've noticed so far is that the lowest radio volume setting is still pretty loud: the wake up music jolts me (and my wife) up in the morning.
A Warranty or Guarantee? They Win You Lose, (What's this?) Reecom R-1650C Weather Alert All Hazard Radio with S.A.M.E and AM/FM Clock RadioBased upon my experience this company's warranty provides no protection to its customers. Rather, they appear to have a business model which guarantees they will make a profit on every item shipped whether or not it is defective.
First take a look at their warranty. As I read it, it is written to protect Reecom 100% and not you. The warranty almost tells you not to expect any real customer support. A good indication is that there is no warranty on the AC adapter. If it is defective upon arrival, you are stuck with a defective adapter.
Now here is what I experienced. My Reecom R-1650C radio did not work on battery power (also reported by another reviewer) , although it did work with the AC adapter.
Very mixed feelings about this weather radio., (What's this?) I purchased the weather radio at the end of June 2011 and received it pretty quickly. This was a good first sign because I think it ships directly from the company. I thought that was pretty good service. The setup was also pretty stright forward. I never had a weather radio before and I followed the step by step directions. It is really nice that you can limit the warnings to one or multiple counties. I have mine limited to just one county so I don't get extra warnings. As the product description states, you can also adjust how your receive many of the less severe warning types. I don't want to be woken up at 3AM for a severe thunderstorm warning, but wake me up for a tornado warning. You can accomplish this with this radio.
The alert siren on this thing is pretty loud. I have it turned down to 1 and it is still very loud. I wish the lowest volume setting went even lower. I know the product is designed to keep you safe, but it should let the user choose an acceptable volume so they don't die of a heart attack when the thing goes off at night while sleeping.
Now to the bad part. After having the product for a month and a half it stopped working. It failed to receive any of the NOAA broadcasts. I contacted customer service. They were helpful in walking through some trouble shooting steps and helped determine that it needed repairs. Their policy is that the customer is responsible for shipping costs both ways.
Works great, (What's this?) If you follow the steps in the manual it is easy to program. So far have only had watches (thank goodness) and I have it programed only to use the light. Don't need to wake up to a blaring alarm in the middle of the night just for a watch. It even counts down how long the event is supposed to last. I recommend this radio. AM/fm works good to even though I have no need for it.
Very disappointed-REECOM R1650C-Unreliable, (What's this?) I purchased my first radio in Sept of this year. It was difficult to set up but finally got through it. 2 months later the radio display froze up and no settings would respond. I contacted Reecom and they told me to send back with $14. After some discussion they agreed to $7.50. Why should I pay if it's their product that's bad ?
I rec my second radio in exchange. I took it out of the box, plugged it in and left it on my kitchen table for about 3 weeks. Never even got a chance to set it up as I travel often. I noticed it on 12/8 and the display had gone blank. It will not respond with power cord or batteries. Absolutely dead. Contacted Reecom again. They want $14 to exchange again. Second bad radio within 3 months. I refused to pay more money for a product which has proven to be junk. I'm throwing the Reecom in the trash and buying a Midland.
Easy Programming, Effective Time Display and Auto-Count Down for Up To 25 Active Alerts Defeat Siren Function, selectable up to 48 individual alert messages S.A.M.E. Technology, 7 NOAA Weather Channels, 90 dB siren, voice alert, and flashing LED E.O.M (End Of Message) Detection - Automatically go back to the state immediately before alert receiving (radio previous state) Digital AM/FM Clock Radio, Auto Station Search, 16 Station Memories, Sleep Function
Easy Programming, Effective Time Display and Auto-Count Down for Up To 25 Active Alerts.Defeat Siren Function, selectable up to 48 individual alert messages.S.A.M.E. Technology, 7 NOAA Weather Channels, 90 dB siren, voice alert, and flashing LED.E.O.M (End Of Message) Detection - Automatically go back to the state immediately before alert receiving (radio previous state).Digital AM/FM Clock Radio, Auto Station Search, 16 Station Memories, Sleep Function. The Reecom R-1650 is a desktop weather alert radio with AM/FM clock radio and all digital operations, equipped with Reecom's proprietary technology which can quickly track and decode S.A.M.E. alert signals. In case of power outage which usually happens during emergency period, the R-1650 will run on back-up battery (4 'AA' size, battery not included) for more than 185 Hours in standby mode operation. This is the most valuable and unique feature found in the Reecom alert radios. In the mean time, the R-1650 radio also features in 1). Easy programming, the R-1650 lets you to select down to single county and suppress other alerts. 2). Receiving over 80 emergencies, including Tornado Warnings, Amber Alerts (for missing children), Severe Weather, terrorist attacks and more.... 3). Back light LCD display with wide angle viewable. 4). Effective Time Display and auto-count down for active alert(s) (up to 25 active alerts). 5). Flashing LED lights display the severity level of the emergency (Warning, Watch or Advisory / Statement). 6). 25 Event Memories with Date / Time Log which you can scroll back through the received alerts and tests with date and time accordingly.7). 26 County Code memories available.8). Defeat Siren Function, up to 48 individual alert messages you can enable or disable. 9). Digital Volume Controls, the siren and voice volumes are independently settable, with a wide range from very low to max 90dB loudness of which 16 volume levels for each siren tone and voice. 10). Automatically switch from AM/FM radio to All Hazards / Weather Alert.
