Weather Radios First Alert model WX-167
Radios in General
There are many different types of radios that are useful in emergencies. Commercial stations broadcast information to the public; police, fire, ambulances, highway departments, utilities and other organizations use radios that the public can monitor; and most importantly, the National Weather Service ("Weather Bureau" to us old folk) is constantly broadcasting weather information.
"Scanners" are radios that quickly tune in and out of several stations until they find one with a live broadcast as opposed to nothing being broadcast. When a scanner finds a live broadcast, it stops and listens, until the transmission is over. Then the scanner goes on to the next station. Users almost always are scanning several police, fire and other emergency broadcast stations. Weather Service frequencies can also be scanned. Schoharie Hardware has some table models and a portable, all at about $100.
Frequencies and Channels. Each licensed broadcaster is assign a frequency which it may use. Frequencies are given in numbers of hertz, such as kilohertz and megahertz. When using scanners and weather radios, a frequency is often assigned to a channel by the using device. 162.550 megahertz is a frequency that the Weather Service is licensed to use in this area. It uses this frequency to broadcast Albany area weather announcements on its New Scotland broadcast tower.
The weather radios given us by the city have that frequency on channel 7. Other radios may have that frequency on a different channel.
People using scanners can usually program them as desired, for example putting 162.550 on channel 1, or channel 10. In this area, the Weather Service also uses 162.400 MHz, on a broadcast tower at Stamford used by the Binghamton office of NWS.
During flood emergencies, water flow is broadcast every half hour on the county fire frequency, 46.180.
Understanding NWR, EAS and SAME
EAS means Emergency Alert System. Alerts are for emergencies
only. EAS alerts are broadcast on commercial stations.
NWR alerts are mostly weather-related alerts, but they have been expanded
to include hazardous material alerts, nuclear alerts, and other such non-weather
alerts. Also, the NWR alerts are for watches, warnings, and informational
statements, while the EAS alerts are for emergencies requiring action.
Most
weather radios will allow you to choose what kinds of alerts you want to
hear.
SAME stands for Specific Area Message Encoding. SAME is a system that allows your radio to receive only the messages that apply to a specific location (for example, Schoharie County). SAME further allows the owner of the weather radio to omit many of the various types of alert. For example, if you live inland, you don't need coastal alerts, and may want to block them to reduce the number of alerts you might otherwise
get.
SAME codes describe the type of alert identified by three letters that scroll across the LED on warning radios. There are four types of codes that end with the following: W for warnings, A for watches, E for emergencies, and S for informational statements. The first two letters in any alert describe the specific alert. For example, Flash flood watch would be FFA, Flash Flood
Warning would be FFW, hurricane info statement
would be HUS, etc. There are a few exceptions that they don't want to change because they have been used for so long, but the above is mostly correct. SAME codes can be found at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/nwrwarn.htm#B
Some weather radio models (for example, the First Alert WX-268) simultaneously monitor both the NWR SAME codes and an EAS station. [The WX-167radios distributed by New York City are not is this category and this section does not pertain to them.] NWR monitoring is automatic -- the strongest station in the area is chosen by the radio. But you have to select an EAS radio station for your weather radio. The best EAS station to select is one that is configured to receive first alerts. In our area that would be any of these:
EAS Stations
FM: WMYY - 97.3 FM WYJB 95.5 FM — AM: WGY - 810 AM WROW - 590 AM
Another discussion of the weather radio services may be found at the Ambient Weather Website. The firm sells weather-related equipment including weather radios.