Ambient Weather WS-2801A Advanced Wireless Color Forecast Station w/Temperature, Humidity, Barometer

Actually the non-color version (back lighted) of this unit is easier to read from a distance. The remotes that come with this unit will work well as the 1-3 remote sensors on older units too.; in my case the remotes connected to my much older Ambient WS-0265 station. Surprisingly, my older Ambient WS-0265 picked up the signals from the remotes at little farther distance than this new unit did.Very easy to set up, and the display is beautiful in colour. The remotes read accurately against each other.The minimum and maximum temperature / humidity readings are a must feature. Atomic Clock works perfect and barometer is a great feature and takes a shot at predicting the weather.This is all you really need to have without getting tangled up with an outdoor weather station and all those extra gadgets to maintain.

This weather station replaced an earlier model that died after 14 years. We like the black background as it is easy to ready the white info shown on the station. Works great and very helpful info for us.

I know this is a long review but you may benefit from our experience after reading it.This is a terrific weather station for the price! I read through all the reviews before purchasing and noted all the negatives. Then, BEFORE BUYING, I thoroughly read the online PDF manual and found that many of the negatives I had noted were actually issues that other buyers encountered because they may have not read the manual in advance or post purchase. A few of the negatives turned out affect me as well:1. The actual setup needs to be reviewed prior to doing so. It IS a bit finicky. I followed it exactly and did not encounter a problem but pre-reading the setup procedure helped me immensely. RTFM.2. The sensor's orientation seems to affect the signal strength. I purchased a sensor shield into which I placed the sensor. That turned out to be good idea which allowed me to rotate the sensor within the shield. When first mounted, the base station had a weak signal from the sensor. I then rotated the sensor within the shield so the front of the sensor (with the display) faced in a direct line to the base station. The signal strength on the base station then reached the maximum. The manual does not mention sensor rotation vis-a-vis signal strength, but it may be worth a try if your signal is weak.3. The display's orientation can, indeed, be an issue. We found best position for viewing is to orient it within about 30/35-degrees of its perpendicular center. This should be fairly easy with the stand as long as it is not high or low on a shelf. Ours is mounted at eye-level on the wall.A note on its accuracy. We live within a 25-mile radius of three Class C/D airports; each of which has an Automated Weather Observation System (AWOS). These systems generate periodic weather reports known as Meteorological Terminal Air Reports (METARs) and can be accessed over the internet. As a pilot, I routinely depend on METARs to report weather conditions. I can tell you that, in my location, what is reported by the WS-2801A is always within the range reported from the three local Class C/D airports.Also note that you can calibrate the outdoor (channel 1) temperature, humidity and relative barometric pressure as well as the temperature and humidity on the two additional sensor channels. We tracked the outdoor data and the averaged (same time) METAR from our local airports for a week before we made any calibrations. By comparing these data sources, we were able to determine the calibration offsets needed to bring our WS-2801A within the averaged data reported from the airports. It has been over 2-weeks since calibration and the data is still spot-on!As for the other problems reported here, I believe many of them stem from not carefully reading the manual and, thus, having expectations beyond that which the WS-2801A can support. For instance, the manual clearly states that the pictograph representing the forecast needs "at least one month for the weather station to learn the barometric pressure over time" (page29). Further, on page 30, the manual states "the reason the current conditions do not match the forecast icon is because the forecast is a prediction 24-48 hours in advance" and "in most locations, this (24-48 hour) prediction is only 70% accurate." It has not yet been a month since our final calibration so we are not yet expecting the forecast pictograph to be accurate. After the 1-month time frame, I will be using the pictograph for a very general forecast but will rely upon the National Weather Service for timely and sensitive data like determining if frost is likely overnight.Finally, there ave been several mentions that the automatic date and time (RCC) setting does not work. The manual states (page 12) that "in some locations RRC may take a couple of days to receive the signal." And, in fact, the RCC signal is actually received by the sensor and forwarded to the base station. When first installed, the sensor interrupts its weather-sending operation after the first 30-seconds to try to receive the RRC signal. If it fails, it will try every 2 hours until a signal is received. Please note that the time signal is actually an AM radio signal (from WWVB) and is usually fairly weak during the day. Therefore, signal establishment may occur at night in most locations. We installed ours on a Thursday and it wasn't until Saturday morning that I noticed the RCC icon on the base station. Since then, I've noticed that the sensor seems to wait 1-week (each Saturday in our case) before trying to reset the time and date. The manual does not mention this but it seems logical that the day and time of the successful RRC signal reception be remembered by the sensor for next time. It also seems plausible that there is a "hard-coded" update frequency of once a week.Please read the manual before buying so you understand the capabilities (and limitations) of this excellent home weather station!

After a couple of weeks, it is still working perfectly. The instructions are great, providing a relatively quick start for a device with lots of configuration options that are important to make it work well (e.g., setting offsets for barometric pressure), but if you just accept the defaults it should probably work fine. The instructions are written in clear English, with helpful information to confirm you're on the right track (e.g. "after putting batteries in the remote, the remote should show the temperature". The screen can be made totally dark, which is important to me. One can set the date/time manually, which is valuable in places where the radio signal for time is poor. I'm not entirely sure I understand the numeric gauge next to the pressure, but the up/down/sideways arrow below it does seem to indicate which way the pressure has been changing recently.Other reviewers have expressed disappointment that the batteries for the indoor unit are just for a backup and you need to have it plugged in. I tried unplugging mine, and it seemed to still update the data; the screen just went dark, though I could still peer at it and see the information, and also the screen would light up for a little while when I hit the brightness button on the top. They recommend non-rechargable batteries but mine is working fine with Eneloop AAA's.The one thing I'd like would be an option to continuously display dew point instead of relative humidity, but since I can just press the button to see dew point, this is not a big deal.

this station has every function we were looking for. high / lows temps & humidity . indoor temp & humidity. moon phases, forecasts . calibration modes....very nice case with folding support leg....good screen that can be see across the room. dims nicely and also a screen shut off. and an alarm clock with snooze! the manual is straight forward and in english. the only hic cup was making sure to follow start up sequence closely. bind the remote to the console while in the room at about five to ten feet away. this isn't stated in the manual so we installed the batteries in the remote sensor and walked at outside to hang sensor in place. we waited over nite for the console to recognize the remote. the desire to push buttons was there but the manual states DO NOT PUSH BUTTONS until remote has recognized console. we checked out the remote this morning and faintly remembered reading about other stations needing to be very near the console to bind. brought the remote into the room and presto! instant bind.we scoured the net for a station that had all the goodies...this one has rave reviews...and now we know why. this ambient product is well desiged and exudes quality had great reviews and the osprey station looks like our next upgrade. thanx Ambient!