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Reviews For: Reecom R-1630 NOAA WX RADIO with SAME

Category: Receivers: Weather Alert

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Review Summary For : Reecom R-1630 NOAA WX RADIO with SAME
	Reviews: 8	MSRP: 60
	Description: Actual Size: 203mm X 138mm X 47mm (8" X 5.43" X 1.85") S.A.M.E. Features: Monitors up to 20 user selectable counties or ALL counties Defeat Siren Option to let users to suppress siren but display the alert message on the LCD 10 memories for Hazard / Weather events storage Voice mode alert / warning siren mode selectable Alert Message Display / Indicators: Including Amber Alert, NWS Alerts and E.A.S Alerts Effective Time count down function Event Alert Message and Effective Time Display on LCD at a Glance LCD Backlight Display e.g. Responding Alert Types: - Child Abduction Emergency (Amber Alert) - Tornado / Hurricane / Severe Thunder Storm / - Flash Flood / Flood / Special Marine / Winter Storm / Blizzard - High Wind / Tsunami / Avalanche - Fire / Volcano - Chemical Spill / Radiological Hazard / Hazardous Materials - Civil Danger / Shelter In Place - Nuclear Power Plant Warning - Earthquake Warning - 911 Telephone Outage Warning - Tropical Storm Warning / Watch - Dust Storm Warning - And More... Indispensable in school, childcare centers, health care facilities, business and homes Alert level indicators for Warning, Watch or Statement General Features: Digital PLL tuning all seven (7) NOAA channels from 162.4MHz to 162.55MHz 50 miles reception range Easy Programming with flashing icon assistance Loud audio dual tone alert ( > 90dB loudness level) Time Function: built-in real time clock and auto-calendar / week day display Digital Volume: Sixteen (16) Adjustable Levels UL listed AC / DC adapter Battery backup for more than 30 hours in alert standby mode when AC failure Four (4) AA batteries (6 Volt DC) operation and battery back-up (Batteries Not Included) Low battery detection and indication. External Jacks: External antenna jack for an even stronger signal in remote areas, e.g. RA-1601 External Antenna External alarm out socket / jack for other accessories, e.g. Reecom Strobe/Flash Light RA-1603 (e.g. hearing / visually impaired, flashing light, in/outdoor siren / alarm). External audio output jack for real time NOAA broadcast through external audio power amplifier (for use in school / child center and other critical facilities) One Year Warranty
	Product is in production
More Info: http://www.reecominc.com/index2.htm
# last 180 days	Avg. Rating last 180 days	Total reviews	Avg. overall rating
0	0	8	4.8

KJ4I	Rating:	2016-05-08
The best on the market			Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have owned my Reecom for about 7 years and it has never once failed me. The only thing that did fail me was the local NOAA Transmitter during a particularly bad weather event back in April 2011. The Reecom just works and does what it does very well. I like the fact that you can set it so that you won't be bothered by certain things like a flash flood watch at 2 a.m. These are very user programmable and that is what I like. They are built of quality and they have a very loud and crisp sound from the speaker. After owning several other brands and not being particularly happy with them the Reecom fit the bill. One thing I really like about these units is that after the watch / warning announcement they go back silent so that you don't have to do it manually. You won't go wrong with a Reecom.

K0CBA	Rating:	2011-06-18
Sure like this one.			Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I imagine most WX radios have S.A.M.E. so that's that. What I really love about the ReeCom is that you can page thru all the alert types and set it to not sound off for them. Sounds like a minor feature but if for example you live in an area 'flash flood' watches or warnings are meaningless it is nice to not hear them especially at 3am (when, it seems, most flash flood warnings are posted). It still will flash an amber LED for watches and a red one for warnings so if it is for something you have set to not alert, you will see that a notice has been issued and you can see what it is/was on the display. I agree that the shape of the thing is a bit awkward and a method for wall mounting it would have been nice but this should not dissuade you from choosing the ReeCom.

K7ZZY	Rating:	2011-01-06
The best			Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Finest weather alert radio I've ever owned! Highly recommended. I spotted it in my local thrift store for $4.99 Looks like it just came out of the box.

WT3844	Rating:	2010-06-19
4.9 STARS			Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
THIS AS THE 1650 IS A GREAT WEATHER RECEIVER.ABORE WAS RIGHT THE PLASTIC DISPLAY WINDOW ON ONE OF THE UNITS I ORDERED WAS OFF.A LITTLE HOT GLUE FIXED IT UP.ON THE SAME RADIO IT VIBRATED WHEN LISTENING TO WEATHER.IN DISMANTLING THE RADIO I FOUND THE SPEAKER LOOSE .I RETIGHTENED SCREWS AND TIGHTENED DOWN CIRCIT BOARD IN RADIO.FIXED THE PROBLEM.THE OTHER 1630 I ORDERED HAD NO PROBLEMS WHATSOEVER.THESE RADIOS PERFORM FLAWLESSLY SO FAR.I HOPE THEY CONTINUE TO PERFORM THIS GODD IN THE FUTURE.

TPERKINS	Rating:	2010-05-07
Excellent Weather Radio			Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The Reecom R-1630 is an excellent weather radio. I bought mine a few months ago after reading an exhaustive amount of reviews. As you might know by now, the Midland radios receive good reviews as well. I was about to buy one, but something kept urging me to purchase the Reecom. Now I am thrilled with my purchase. The R-1630 has all of the features you need in a weather radio, with a few exceptions. I really wish it had keyhole slots on the back so it would be possible to hang it on the wall and, even though I am not currently using it, I wish that the external “audio out” jack were not directly behind the telescoping antenna. I love that this radio has an “end of message” feature that will return the radio to its previous status after the alarm. In other words, when the NWS issues a warning or watch, the radio will sound the alarm for eight seconds then turn on the radio (voice) so you can hear the message; at the end of the message the radio will turn off again. I never have to get up to find out what is going on. I also like that the radio will show the remaining time of the alert. For example, you can look at the screen for the latest alert, or look at the memory for previous alerts, and see the alert will expire in five hours and twenty-three minutes. This radio will be an excellent investment in your family’s safety.

W3PCJ	Rating:	2008-12-15
Much better then the last 4 I had.			Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have had both the Reecom R-1630 and the R-1650 for about 2 weeks now. In the past 30 years we have had 4 Radio Shack (RS) models. So I can only compare the Reecom to the Radio Shack models. I was very surprised at how big and heavy they were. They were no harder to set up then the other SAME units I have had. I was disappointed though that it did not have a key slot in the back where I could put it on the wall. I have the R-1630 hooked up to my outdoor scanner radio antenna and the R-1650 sitting next to the window facing the NOAA transmitter tower about 20 miles away. I also have my old RS model next to it. All 3 radios are set to receive all alerts as I wanted to see how well they did with both base antennas and the supplied out of the box antenna. In the last 2 weeks there has been 2 alerts and 2 tests on Wednesdays. I have to say I was very surprised that the RS model only worked on the tests and did not work on the actual alerts. Both test days were nice days with a clear 5/5 signal. The 2 alerts were both on bad weather days with audio signal 3/5 with the supplied antenna and 5/5 with the one on the outdoor base antenna. I was hoping to give my RS model to a friend of mine that lives in a trailer park but I think I’ll just get him a Reecom instead. I will definitely recommend a Reecom to all my friends and family.

N5CSU	Rating:	2008-04-25
Lots of Features			Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I ordered this radio based on the reviews here on eham.net, and I'm glad I did. This model has the most features I've ever seen on a weather radio. I especially like disabling the siren and having a "voice alert" only; it may save me from a heart attack from those midnight alerts! Another feature I like is the radio's memory; you can scroll back through alerts and tests by date and time going back a week or two. The Reecom has performed flawlessly in its first month of operation in east Texas, where the nearest NOAA transmitter is about 35 miles away. It replaces a Midland WR-100 that missed most of the alerts!

AB0RE	Rating:	2006-05-30
Good weather radio with a few quirks			Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased four of the Reecom R-1630 weather radios directly from Reecom Inc. After owning the weather radios for a little over a month, here are my initial impressions: Customer Service: 3/5 If you order factory direct from Reecom you must do so via fax. They do not have provisions to accept internet orders, which I found odd (this is the 20th century; right?). A representative from Reecom had a question about my order and called the Monday following the weekend I faxed my order in. The represenative was both courteous and knowledgeable about their product line. I had a follow-up question shortly after receiving the weather radios. I called the company and left a message on their voicemail. I never did receive a reply. This is not acceptable customer service. Design: 4/5 Overall the design of the radio is okay. One thing that is a bit concerning is that the display is not slanted to render it readable when the radio is set on a desk. And, the radio has no keyhole slots in the back in which to mount it on a wall. So it's not ideal for either a desktop or a wall-mounted installation (Where am I going to put this thing? :-). A couple keyhole slots in the bottom of the case would add very little to the production cost and make wall installation considerably easier. The radio is a bit bigger than what it appears on the company website. After seeing all the empty space on the inside of the radio I think a the plastic enclosure could be re-designed to make a more compact, sharper looking enclosure. Another "glitch" in the design of this radio is that the audio output jack is placed right behind the telescoping antenna, making it difficult or impossible to plug in an extension speaker while still keeping the antenna vertical. The backlight of the display is not very bright. Reecom should look into brighter lights behind the display. Also, it'd be nice if there was an option to have the backlight always on if hooked to AC power. The back of the radio (and the manual) indicate that a 10-12V DC input voltage is needed to power the radio. If one were to interpret this literally it would mean that you could not power this radio from your ham radio power supply or inside your vehicle. I would tend to think that if one were to power it this way (13.8 - 14.4VDC), these voltages would still be within range of the internal voltage regulators of the R-1630. I called Reecom to confirm this was the case but, as mentioned above, I never received a response. So if you get the R-1630 and attempt to hook it to a higher voltage than recommended, please let me know how it goes for you. Quality of Construction: 3/5 A few construction problems surfaced in the radios I purchased. Of the four radios, two of the plastic display windows were laying loose in the box when they arrived. It appears the double-sided tape Reecom uses to secure the display to the plastic enclosure does not offer sufficient adhesion. One of the radios failed the "rattle test". After opening the radio I discovered a small chunk of plastic that had broken loose from the inside of the radio. I'm still puzzled how that could have broken loose. Another construction problem found on all four of the units is that the base of the radio is not level. When you press the buttons on the front of the radio it will rock back and forth. Although this is just a minor nuisance I'm puzzled how every one of the radios could leave the assembly line with this problem. Ease of Use: 5/5 Before I purchased the R1630 I owned a Midland WR-300. The Midland was somewhat complicated to program and the front of the WR-300 had so many buttons it'd often take several attempts to figure out how to mute the alert when the siren went off in the wee hours of the morning. I sold my Midland WR-300 on a rummage sale and took a gamble on the R1630, hoping it would be easier to use. I found the Reecom much easier to program and use. Part of the increased ease of usage may be attributable to the R-1630 not having a built-in alarm clock and AM/FM radio. (Note: The Reecom R-1650 does have these features built-in so it presumably would be more difficult to use.) Setting the clock, date, alert mode, and county codes on the R-1630 was easy. I'd estimate it took less than five minutes. Reecom thoughtfully included a quick setup guide that made reading the manual cover-to-cover unnecessary. My primary intention for trying the R-1630 was to find something more user-friendly and I could not be happier. Functionality: 5/5 Bottom line is that this radio works great. It has a good set of features including: voice or siren alert; single, multiple, or all county alert modes; siren defeat for each type of alert (tornado, thunderstorm, flood, weekly test, etc); all weather channels are pre-set in the menu; customizable alarm socket function; etc. I think Reecom did a good job at including all the necessary features in the R-1630 without over-complicating it. The receiver on this radio is very good. It picks up the weather channel well without the need for an external antenna in my location. (Note: The radio does have an external antenna jack, but it is a phono jack so you'd need an adaptor from Radio Shack.) Really, the functionality is where this radio shines. It has already sounded for several alerts in my county (and the surrounding two counties) and has performed flawlessly. What more can I ask for? Overall: 4/5 Although I picked the radio apart in the review above I would recommend buying it. As I've only owned a couple weather radios I cannot say how this thing stacks up against other competitors' products (Oregon Scientific, etc). I can say without hesitation that I'm happy with my purchase and would definitely purchase another R1630 if I needed an additional unit in the future. You'll notice that most of my complaints are related to the cosmetics and minor design defects, but the bottom line is that this radio works well and that should be the major factor during while you're shopping for a weather radio.

Category:

Receivers: Weather Alert

Product:

Reecom R-1630 NOAA WX RADIO with SAME

Summary:

Rating:	Time Owned:
Great! Good OK Needs Help Poor Awful!	0 - 3 Months 3 - 6 Months 6 - 12 Months More than 12 Months

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