Issue setting up SAME Alerts on PSR500

[dennisjamesnc]

All,

I am a relative newbie to scanning, so be gentle. I have a Grecom PSR-500 and I am using WIN500 s/w to program it. I live in Central North Carolina, in Wake County, right on the Harnett County line.

I am having trouble understanding / configuring the PSR-500 so that I can hear the SAME (Specific Area Message Encoding) Weather Alerts on my scanner. I have had SAME Alerts set up for my county on my scanner for several weeks now, but I have yet to hear a single alert. Not even a weekly test. I am not sure if I have the SAME alerts set up properly in the scanner, if there just have been no alerts or if I have just missed the alerts that my scanner received. I keep the scanner running most of the day as background noise and usually take it with me when I go out. I would say I get a good 10 to 12 hours of listening time each day.

Here is the SAME information for Wake County, NC from NOAA
NWR North Carolina County Coverage

County / SAME # / NWR Transmitter / Freq. / Call Sign / Watts / Remarks
Wake / 037183 / Chapel Hill / 162.550 / WXL58 / 1000 / None
Harnett / 037085 / Chapel Hill / 162.550 / WXL58 / 1000 / None

I have checked the above transmitter on the weather channel on my scanner and I pick it up loud and clear (4 or 5 bars).

I guess first things first, I would like to validate that my scanner is set up properly to receive these alerts.

In WIN500 this is what my “Weather Settings” tab looks like;

SAME Entries:
## / Alpha Tag / FIPS Code / Event / Alert Tone / Enable / Lout
01 / Wake Co. / 037183 / *** / Default / Checked / Not Checked
02 / Harnett Co. / 037085 / *** / Default / Checked / Not Checked


Weather Channel Attenuation
Not Checked 1 – 162.400000
Not Checked 2 – 162.425000
Not Checked 3 – 162.450000
Not Checked 4 – 162.475000
Not Checked 5 – 162.500000
Not Checked 6 – 162.525000
Checked ......7 – 162.550000


Weather Priority Settings
Use channel.......= Wx Priority Off
Check interval.....= 60 (x10 mS)
Alarm timeout.....= 0 (seconds)
1050 Hz qualifier.= 20 (x10 mS)
Listen time.........= 90 (seconds)

Note; All of the above “Weather Priority Settings” are the PSR-500 default settings. I don’t really believe that the “Weather Priority Settings” have anything to do with the SAME entries, but are rather only vaguely related. Please correct me if I am wrong on that point.

I have a couple of questions;

1. Per the common definition of attenuation, I would think that under the “Weather Channel
Attenuation” options that option number 7 should not be checked. I would like some guidance
on this. Attenuation to me means “Lower or pad that signal by some amount”. This seems
counter-intuitive to me to attenuate the signal that I am trying to receive the SAME Alerts on.
2. Maybe I do not understand how these SAME alerts would hit my scanner. If I am in the scan mode,
should the SAME alert break in and scanning be halted ? It is my assumption that is how it would
work, but I can not find any specific information in the PSR-500 user manual that properly explains
this.

Thanks in advance for any help,

Dennis James

[fmon]

Have Priority Enabled on Win500 General Settings tab. Your area SAME is at NWR North Carolina County Coverage

Set SAME coding as in this image.

You will need to set scanner for SAME STBY by pressing WX, then F2 (stby). However, with the settings as described above, the scanner will shift to WX alert when it hears the 1020 KHz tone but you only get SAME info if scanner is set to STBY meaning no scanning.

[fmon]

1. Per the common definition of attenuation, I would think that under the “Weather Channel
Attenuation” options that option number 7 should not be checked. I would like some guidance
on this. Attenuation to me means “Lower or pad that signal by some amount”. This seems
counter-intuitive to me to attenuate the signal that I am trying to receive the SAME Alerts on

.Att is usually set when in area of strong interferanc from nearby towers not associated with SAME.

2. Maybe I do not understand how these SAME alerts would hit my scanner. If I am in the scan mode,
should the SAME alert break in and scanning be halted ? It is my assumption that is how it would
work, but I can not find any specific information in the PSR-500 user manual that properly explains
this.

Not SAME alert, but a WX alert of some type of weather warning will brake in while scanning, providing...your scanner is not in use for more then 10 seconds with coms thus not hearing the 1020 KHz tone. In General Settings tab, check TGRP interrupted to override the 10 second problem.

[dennisjamesnc]

FMon,

Thank you so much for your help ! I think you've answered my questions. One of the things that had me confused was the fact that I could not scan while I was in the stand-by mode waiting on a SAME alert. This just did not seem right to me. I was thinking "surely Grecom didn't design a scanner like this with all the other thought they put into the design".

I think the key for me is that I must have the "use channel" set to channel 7, "Priority Enabled" checked and "TGRPs interrupted" checked. I am still a little confused; With the set up like you suggested, will I receive all SAME alerts that are broadcast on channel 7 or will I only receive the ones that are set up in my SAME entries list ?

Thanks,

Dennis

[dennisjamesnc]

Fmon,

One final question .... How did you get that image from your WIN500 file embedded in the text of your post. I tried to do that and got frustrated and ended up typing everything out.

Thanks,

Dennis

[fmon]

Originally Posted by dennisjamesnc

I think the key for me is that I must have the "use channel" set to channel 7, "Priority Enabled" checked and "TGRPs interrupted" checked. I am still a little confused; With the set up like you suggested, will I receive all SAME alerts that are broadcast on channel 7 or will I only receive the ones that are set up in my SAME entries list ?

1. Channel 7 is my area setting, use which ever is strongest in your area.
2. If settings are "Priority Enabled" checked and "TGRPs interrupted" checked Youcan be scanningand a 1020 KKz tone will alert scanner to go to WX for current alert broadcast.

But you must disable scanning using WX>F2(stby). This will mute scanner and hold on SAME (STBY) until one of the enabled codes are alerted via the WX.

[ibagli]

Originally Posted by dennisjamesnc

With the set up like you suggested, will I receive all SAME alerts that are broadcast on channel 7 or will I only receive the ones that are set up in my SAME entries list ?

You will receive all alerts. This is because the scanner is listening for the tone that accompanies alerts, not the actual SAME data. To have a reasonable chance to catch the SAME data, it has to be constantly listening to the NOAA channel.

[fmon]

Originally Posted by dennisjamesnc

Fmon,

One final question .... How did you get that image from your WIN500 file embedded in the text of your post. I tried to do that and got frustrated and ended up typing everything out.

Thanks,

Dennis

Alt Print Screen to place in clipboard.
1. Open Paint then paste
2. Click Select rectangle in Paint
3. Hold left key at top left of area you need to cut from the image, then drag to rignt then down to select total view of new image
4. Open Edit in Paint and select Cut then close paint click no to save
5. Open new Paint and paste in new image
6. Save then close Paint
7. Open image in a graphic editing software to set the editing options

i use Microsoft Digital Imaging (my son in law is a big shot at Gates Enterprise, aka Microsoft). However, I think there are many free imaging software's available.

[dennisjamesnc]

Originally Posted by ibagli

You will receive all alerts. This is because the scanner is listening for the tone that accompanies alerts, not the actual SAME data. To have a reasonable chance to catch the SAME data, it has to be constantly listening to the NOAA channel.

So what I'm gathering is I've got two options with this scanner;

A. Scan and listen for the Wx alert tone and then get all alerts that are broadcast from this particular weather tower I'm listening to or ...

B. Use the scanner similar to a stand-alone weather radio (no scanning) and then receive only the SAME alerts that I want.

Have I got it or did I confuse something again ?

Thanks for being patient with me guys !

Dennis

[grumpy_hermit]

I'd just spring for a good weather radio and forget about using your scanner for S.A.M.E. alerts unless (1) it's all you have available and (2) you are expecting bad weather. I use and generally recommend the Midland WR-300. It actually allows one to lock out individual S.A.M.E. alerts to avoid getting annoying stuff that isn't relevant.

[sjlamb]

Originally Posted by grumpy_hermit

I'd just spring for a good weather radio and forget about using your scanner for S.A.M.E. alerts unless (1) it's all you have available and (2) you are expecting bad weather. I use and generally recommend the Midland WR-300. It actually allows one to lock out individual S.A.M.E. alerts to avoid getting annoying stuff that isn't relevant.

He hit the nail on the head here. Given the low cost for a dedicated Weather Alert Radio w/ S.A.M.E, it just doesn't make much sense to leave your scanner sitting in weather alert mode. A Weather Alert Radio is something you generally want to leave on 24/7 in the "alert mode" for when and if the worse is on the horizon. The one in the attached photo just sits on my desk, in "Alert Mode"..... waiting.