The following is a review of this Weather Station hardware by WeatherMatrix Founder Jesse Ferrell, who uses and reviews multiple Electronic Weather Stations as a hobby. The key for the ratings is shown below.

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The following is a review of several WMR-918/968 weather station units obtained in 2000 and 2001. For more information about this station, including manufacturing details, see the main page. These stations were reviewed for approximately 20 months from installation.

P R I C E :

This station will sell for $399 when sold by Radio Shack in Summer 2001. It is also sold by Oregon Scientific for $495. This cost is considerably under other wireless full-featured weather station (matching the price of the LaCrosse station). Because of the amount of power used by the sensors, they do recommend lithium-ion batteries, especially for low-sunlight areas, such as high latitudes. These can run you an additional $30.

F E A T U R E S :

This is a full featured station which includes Pressure & Humidity as well as Temperature, Rain and Wind which are typically standard with Electronic Weather Stations. Also calculated are Dewpoint, Rain Rate, Yesterday's Rain, Wind Chill, and Heat Index.

I N S T A L L A T I O N :

Installation was difficult and frustrating - we had to purchase a very small Phillips screwdriver and take out and put back in 24 tiny screws to install the batteries in the sensors. Once this was done, the installation was fairly easy and convienient, since the station is wireless.

Like with the WM-918, the thermometer sensor, although in a pagoda, was originally painted black, which made it very had to shelter from solar radiation. Later versions changed to a white sensor but it still absorbs solar radiation and must be shielded from the sun.

R E S O L U T I O N :

The resolution is very low and might not be sufficient for the scientific user. The resolution was not improved over the WM-918 model. For example, the pressure is measured every 0.03"Hg every 15 minutes (as published in the specs), which makes for a really choppy graph (as can be seen from the Live Observations from my WX-200).

With the WM-918 unit, temperature and humidity are polled every 10 seconds and Wind Speed every 5 seconds. This polling time, though not unusual for low-priced stations, could mask out maximum wind gusts. The WMR-918 uses the same instruments, but the polling time is slightly worse.

Why? Because the FCC limits data transmissions in the 400MHz range to 12 seconds, some temperature/humidity data will eventually be lost. The latest wind speed in the 12 seconds is sent with the WMR-918 and early WMR-968 models, but the highest wind speed in the 12 seconds is sent with the WMR-968 unit that Radio Shack will begin selling in Summer 2001. The latter is the better of the two choices, but as with the WM-918 model, a higher wind gust might have been lost in the 5-second instrument polling.

A C C U R A C Y :

Same as WM-918. According to WeatherMatrix Member Ed Edelman's Electronic Weather Stations Accuracy Table, the Accuracy of this station is the lowest of all reviewed for Rain and Pressure, and ranked next to last for all other features. The Pressure accuracy of +/- 0.21"Hg would not be acceptable for most meteorological purposes. This station was not tested independently of the above accuracy claims. Because this is a wireless unit, the accuracy depends somewhat on the resolution, see above.

R E L I A B I L I T Y :

DEPENDS ON WHAT MODEL YOU GET!

About two weeks after testing, the anemometer on our original WMR-918 stopped functioning and never came back into service. Other users of the early model reported similar problems.

With the WMR-968 model, which began shipping in Spring 2001, most problems with sensors failing were fixed by:

• 1.) Using a larger solar panel for the wind sensor, which polls frequently and would run out of power in cloudy areas
• 2.) Redoing the fitting around the instruments so water did not leak in and kill the batteries... and
• 3.) Allowing more room between the solar panel and the back of the instrument, to avoid failures caused by overheating in low-latitude areas.

It is important to remember that people with bad experiences are much more vocal than those with good experiences and the percentage of any malfunctioning stations versus the number shipped is likely small. However the fact that the unit we tested had problems does not make us any more comfortable with this station's reliability rating.

We give it a "Fair" because of the early problems, but we do note that those have all been fixed with the newer version, the WMR-968. Make SURE that you get the latest version of the station when purchasing. For more information on the differences between the models please see the FAQ Page.

S U P P O R T :

DEPENDS ON WHERE YOU PURCHASE IT!

Radio Shack should repair or replace this station for you, although we have not tried this, typically support through a local store is better than through a remote company.

This station is also sold by Oregon Scientific who has generally not had good support reviews. We officially gave up on getting a replacement anemometer for our WMR-918 after repeatedly asking Oregon Scientific to do so. After several months they finally said they would send a replacement, but then after an additional year, they did not, so we gave up.

We give it a "Fair" rating because of the combination of the Radio Shack and Oregon Scientific support.

DISCLAIMER: WeatherMatrix is NOT currently responsible for advertising for IDT/Huger/Oregon Scientific/Radio Shack.