NOAA Weather Radio
This is a service
provided by the National Weather Service. It is a network of
FM radio stations across the US. These stations broadcast
weather information 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Programming originates from a local NWS forecast office. In
the past few years there has been a great effort to expand this
network, new transmitters are being installed and older ones are
being upgraded.
During benign weather,
programming usually consists of forecast, current conditions,
weather synopsis, and sometimes special broadcasts. During
severe weather routine programming is interrupted with alert
messages taking priority.
The NWR signal is
receivable on almost all scanners, as it is around 162 MHz.
Specially designed radios will alert the user when an alarm product
is issued. Newer radios use SAME technology, Specific Area
Message Encoding. SAME uses the Emergency Alert System (EAS)
technology for encoding alarm products. This allows the user
to specify which county the radio should alarm for and different
classes of products, which are statements, watches, and warnings.
There are seven
frequencies used by the NWS. Follow the link under references
for more specific frequency and coverage information.
Reference -
General:
NWS NOAA
Weather Radio Site
Products:
Midland Communications
Oregon Scientific
Radio Shack
