Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This product has been discontinued and is being sold on clearance at this time. ** Warning -- The product as pictured by Amazon does NOT represent the actual unit being sold. Search for BAR321HGA for a picture of the actual unit being shipped as of May 2008. **
After spending several hours playing with this, I can understand why it's no longer a part of Oregon Scientific's family of products.
In addition to the earlier review for the BAR321HGA, which I agree with (especially in getting the base unit to recognize the remote sensor), I'd actually go further in criticizing this product for its completely unintuitive operation. Eight(!) buttons on the side of the base station control the unit's functions, but several important programming sequences require two keys to be held in tandem. There is absolutely no way anyone is going to be able to use this product without tethering the terrible user manual to the base station. You'll need to refer to it constantly.
The base station is virtually unreadable from across the room. When running from the power cord, this unit desperately needs the option of leaving the backlight on continuously. No such option.
Other instructions in the manual don't seem to correlate with the actual unit either. Certain product features are given a passing mention in the manual, but without any significant details (changing languages, understanding "zones" when setting up the unit, etc.)
The unit sets the clock from a longwave radio signal from WWVB, transmitting from Ft. Collins, Colorado. Unfortunately, those of us on the east coast tend to experience weak signals and considerable interference owing to all of the electronic devices we tend to run in our homes these days. Even when placing the remote sensor outside, it can take 24 hours or more to "lock" onto the time signal station.
The "talking" feature is nominally useful. The female voice is very clear and natural sounding, but she only announces the time, temperature, relative humidity, and "forecast." No barometric pressure is vocalized, and the "forecast" in a best guess based on the trend in barometric pressure, and is more of a general guess than anything useful.
For these reasons and those from the earlier review, I am returning the product to Amazon. Nobody wants to wade through a manual to operate one of these things, and with the unit being difficult to read, and the voice feature more gimmick than useful, you'd do better looking elsewhere.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Oregon Scientific BAR321HG Talking Weather Station
The BAR321HG Talking Weather Station monitors the temperature and humidity in up to five locations, automatically sets itself to the U.S. Atomic Clock, and displays the weather forecast in easy to read graphical icons. Voice announcements of time and weather can be set as alarms or at regular intervals.
Click here for more information about Oregon Scientific BAR321HG Talking Weather Station
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