Weather Alert, Check out the NOAA Weather Radio Service
By Joseph Parish

Branded as the “Voice of NOAA’s National Weather Service”, the weather radio service of NOAA is a national public service supplied to us by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA of the U.S. Department of Commerce. It is a nationwide complex of radio stations propagating nonstop weather related information directly from the closest National Weather Service office. It transmits local weather conditions, distributes agricultural and marine weather and advise us of critical storms. There are in excess of 560 stations with 985 transmitters within the 50 states, neighboring coastal waters, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Pacific Territories. Most of the Continental states have several stations setup for emergency weather information. On your local weather station, you will find relayed data relating to official Weather Service notices, forecasts, watches and other hazard related information broadcast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The announcements are on tape and they repeat every five minutes, and updates take place hourly.

NOAA operates on the high frequencies between 162.40 MHz to 162.55 MHz, so you will be unable to tune in with your regular AM/FM radio. Instead, you need to purchase a special receiver capable of picking up signal within the designated weather band or a dedicated receiver that receives weather band signal exclusively. These radios are generally convenient and small and many of the radios currently on the market today come equipped with a warning receiver built into them so that they automatically activate an alarm when NOAA announces an imminent disaster or natural disaster.

While cooperating with the FCC Emergency Alert System, the NWR is designated as an All Hazards national broadcasting network, making it a sole supplier for wide-range emergency and weather information. The system when used in conjunction with the Federal, State, or Local Emergency Management agencies as well as other public officials, NWR can broadcast post-event information and warnings for all nature of hazards including natural disasters such as avalanches and earthquakes, oil spills and chemical releases, as well as 911 telephone outages and AMBER alerts.

Broadcasts of NOAA take place in the VHF public service band at these seven frequencies (MHz):
 

Copyright @2008 Joseph Parish