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The Oregon WMR200A Professional Weather Station - A Big Improvement At The Top of Oregon's Range of Home Weather StationsBut Is The WMR200A The Best Home Weather Station For You?Oregon weather stations have been around for quite a long time, and over the last two years or so have shown considerable improvements in the range of models, signal range, and general user friendliness. They now provide a number of relatively inexpensive weather stations ranging from simple outside temperature recorders to full functional wireless weather stations. These generate a complete range of weather data including temperature, relative humidity, rainfall and wind speed and direction, and transmit it to an indoor receiver/console. The receiver acts as a barometer, and also provides inside temperature and humidity information. More information on these instruments can be found on the Oregon Weather Stations page. At the top end of the Professional Weather Station range is the Oregon WMR200A Separate transmitters give you the option of locating the sensors in the ideal position - for example with the wind and rain sensors in a fully exposed position but the thermo/hygro sensor out of direct sunlight - it is not well insulated. All sensors have a range of about 330 feet with no obstructions, but try to locate them as close as possible to the receiver to allow for the inevitable reduction in signal strength when it passes through walls, windows or the roof. The console/receiver has an AC adaptor, but the 4 AA batteries provided should be installed as a backup in case of power failure. 
The console has a reasonably large touch screen and is fairly easy to operate. It has a good sized data logger which will allow you to save record sets at 15 minute intervals for up to 291 days - less if you save your data over smaller time intervals. A USB cable allows you to connect the WMR200A to your computer, and you can download adequate basic software from Oregon.
Features
Recording Range
GuaranteeOregon provides a 1 year guarantee limited warranty covering defects in materials and workmanship, and provides a help desk service for advice. But read your guarantee card carefully as certain conditions apply. Click Here For Your Free 20 Page Report on Solving What Users ThinkReviews of the WMR200 by those who've actually bought it are mixed and average around 3/5. Here are a few fragments of reviews posted on Amazon. "Would recommend for a mid-price range station." "Save the time & frustration and buy any one of the Davis units the first time, it is money well spent." "I'd recommend it to any homeowner looking for a good quality, easy to install, wireless home system." The following is a part of a review in Amazon from Penitent1, who liked the weather station overall and gave it 4/5 stars "Rain gauge. Ok, I thought some previous reviewers were whining quite a bit about all of the screws. It can't be that bad I thought. Well, it is that bad. Come on OS, do better than that. Also, when I needed to reset the rain gauge, guess where the reset button is? That's right, behind the battery door with the 10 tiny screws. I guess I am whining now, so I better quit it.4. Display on the main unit - and this is my biggest complaint and disappointment. As one review stated, it seems dim. But after looking at it more, it seems that the face of the display is very reflective. Depending on the viewing angle, it will look darker or lighter. This is not a problem at all if you are close to the unit. But don't plan on reading it from more than 5 feet away, as the display washes out, and it just looks gray. I have few ideas on how to fix this problem, and will update if it is correctable.5. Noise Factor - the beep can't be disabled on the main unit. Every time you touch the screen, you get a beep, and it gets a bit annoying after a while." Comments And RecommendationsIn an ideal world, we would all have a big enough budget to cover one of Davis's robust home weather stations - the Vantage Vue or Vantage Pro2. But that's not always possible, and there are times when we must lower our expectations. And that's where the WMR200A comes into focus, along with similar instruments manufactured by La Crosse. These lower price machines are neither as well put together, or as easy to set up as the Davis models, and they come with their own set of problems. Some of these problems can be overcome by careful setting up or persistence with the help desk, but others can linger as ongoing sources of frustration. Sometimes you just need to be lucky enough to unpack a set of well made components. So here are a few things you should be aware of, and they seem to apply to just about every home weather station with a price tag under $300.00 It is very obvious that people have difficulties setting up the weather station - any electronic instrument that relies on radio communication between four different components is going to take some patience and effort to make it work satisfactorily, and it does appear that some of those who have had problems may not have given the instructions (which aren't too hard to follow) enough attention. The sensors are not very strong, and should be handled carefully. By no means all the problems can be put down to assembly problems - there do seem to be real problems with the quality of the sensors, and a common theme in many reviews, good and bad, is that Oregon's help desk and back up service can be poor. That is not to say that this is a bad product, although it will be interesting to see how long it will last in real world situations. But it looks like it will help if you are lucky and find four good pieces of equipment when you unpack the box. If not, read the guarantee carefully and don't waste time in getting replacements. And once you do get it set up, be prepared to put in some time on maintenance. Weather proofing all access plates, cable access areas and screw locations with grease or silicone will pay off, as will regular checks of the sensor attachments,moving parts such as the shafts on the anemometer, and general checks for things like dead bugs and live spiders in the rain gauge. You can find out more about weather stations and the weather they record by navigating from the Home Page, while up to date informationcan be found at the Home Weather Station Reviews Blog.
Competitive prices for the Oregon WMR200A Professional Weather Station And these days eBay has plenty of examples, many of them at "Buy It Now" prices where you don't even have to bid. It's a good idea to make sure that the vendor is an authorized Oregon seller to make sure that your guarantee and post sale service arrangements are strong. Click Here For Your Free 20 Page Report on Solving Last update 05/28/2011
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, designed for the North American market - the WMR200 is the UK/European equivalent
The three outside sensors - thermometer/hygrometer, rain gauge and anemometer for wind speed and direction - each transmit data to the receiver, and the wind and thermo/hygro sensors are in part solar powered. Although AA batteries are supplied, you will get more reliable and long lasting results if you replace these with lithium batteries, particularly if you have cold winters.