One drawback to the base station is that the tone to confirm touches to the touch-panel display is VERY loud. You can disable the beep completely by opening the case and cutting a wire inside, but it would be nice if the beep was more muted when it was on (blocking the speaker hole on the back with a blob of glue brings the tone down to a reasonable level).

The WMR-968's capabilities are best exploited by using in conjunction with PC software hooked up the the serial port on the unit. Normally however, the software is not included with the unit.

Unfortunately as with most weather station packages in this price range there is no solar radiation shield included with the package, which means you'll have to find some way to mount the outdoor thermometer/hygrometer so the sun doesn't shine directly on it, or your daytime temperature readings will be worthless.

I built my own radiation shield including a solar powered fan, or you can buy a radiation shield. However buying one will set you back at least $60 for a passive shield alone (no fan) and up to several hundred dollars for a solar powered active shield. Keep that in mind when considering this unit, as other units priced higher may include solar shields.

The biggest black mark against the WMR-968 package is two separate hardware failures I had about a year after I bought it.

The first repair I had to make was to resolder a connection inside the anemometer due to a cold solder that broke in the middle of winter and caused the unit to become inoperative. (A cold-soldered connection is a poorly/improperly soldered electrical connection; something that shouldn't happen during assembly of quality electronics.) It took a change of batteries in the sending unit, several resets of the base station and lots of screwing around before I determined that the problem was internal to the anemometer. Then it took more time to discover what was wrong, where the connection was bad, and repair it. This was obviously not something that someone without a bit of electronics savvy (and patience) would have been able to fix.

Additionally this year my touch panel broke as well, having seen only normal use. One day I realized that the set-up and set-down and mute tone sections of the touch screen had stopped working. These buttons are central to programming the base station's functions. Again, through many hours of tinkering and experimentation I was able to determine what was wrong and where to wire in two switches to control the set-up and set-down so I could properly program the unit. I ignored the mute tone function as I never used it anyway.

Obviously both of the failures I suffered are major, and would require a return and/or warranty repair. And since both happened over a year after I bought the unit and the warranty period had thus expired, I would have been out my money for the unit or have had to pay for repairs or replacement had I not been able to repair it myself. Fortunately both problems were related to assembly/connections and not the major electronic components of the units. Regardless the package gets bad marks for quality of electronics assembly/construction.

The weather sensors themselves I've found to be quite accurate. I spent a fair amount of time cross-referencing my readouts with some nearby FAA aviation weather stations as well as conventional thermometers to check the accuracy of the WMR-968 readings. In the process I also discovered the importance of a good solar shield for the temperature sensor. The wireless functionality works well.

As for the physical construction of the units they are built reasonably well. The outdoor sending units/solar panels are housed in white plastic cases have gaskets on the backs and the cables to keep moisture out. The indoor units are made of white plastic. However it is a pain to replace the batteries in all the units as the backs are held on by several tiny screws, requiring a jeweler's screwdriver to remove.

The outdoor sending units come with a swivel head base for adjusting the angle of the solar panels that seem a little fragile as well. I broke the stem of one of the units trying to adjust it. Super glue came to my rescue there!

To mount the units you can use the U-bolts that come with the package if you have a fence or other round 1" or so diameter tubing, or you can use screws through the holes in the base if you're attaching to something else. There isn't any real direction given for mounting the units though, and you're left on your own to try to determine how and where to best do that.

That brings me to the documentation. The documentation is quite poor, omitting some very important information needed to setup and use the units. There are 8 pages of instructions, but they fail to adequately explain how to properly align and position the anemometer or many options as to how or where to optimally mount the units. It also fails to mention that the anemometer needs to be earth grounded to dissipate static charges that can build up on the unit, causing it to read errantly.

The documentation is also pretty sketchy on general troubleshooting. For instance, I discovered that a weak battery on the barometric sensor causes errant readings, something not noted in the docs. Overall the documentation is much too incomplete to be considered adequate and could frustrate someone not interested in experimentation and additional research. I can only hope that in the time between when I bought my unit and today Oregon Scientific has improved upon their manual...

Overall the WMR-968 offers a lot of bang for the buck, albeit with questionable quality in the electronics assembly. But it does offer all the standard instruments for a weather station, and they all read quite accurately. The physical construction of the outdoor sending units is good, except for some relatively minor complaints, including the many small screws holding on the backs, and the somewhat fragile swivel arms on them. The documentation for the unit is poor however, and you'll probably have to do additional research and experimentation on your own to get the most out of this unit.

I don't recommend this unit for someone who doesn't want to tinker with the unit itself. It takes some time, experimentation and outside research to get set up and working well. But if you're reasonably bright, handy and a tinkerer, you can't beat the price! I consider the Oregon Scientific WMR-968 a good starter package for a weather station, but question whether or not it will last over the long haul...

Tim