Weather Radio that Scans

box23 · #1 (**permalink**) 03-28-2009, 03:29 PM

I know this is kind of a weird question, but does anyone know of a weather radio that can scan all 7 weather channels and alert as normal if it hears a tone on anyone of them?

The idea would be to have it mounted in your vehicle or where ever and be able to roam through the coverage areas of each transmitter. Since it is scanning you wouldn't have to worry about changing the channel it is listening on. Also in the fringe areas between two or three transmitters you wouldn't have to choose the best channel, it would do it "automatically."

All the weather radio receivers I have seen need to be set to one channel.

The only other good way I can think of is to use a commercial radio like a Motorola HT1250 and program it with "paging" channels. One for each of the weather channels with the ability to alert on the 1050Hz tone, and just scan all 7 of those channels.

Thanks

fineshot1 · #2 (**permalink**) 03-29-2009, 11:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by box23

I know this is kind of a weird question, but does anyone know of a weather radio that can scan all 7 weather channels and alert as normal if it hears a tone on anyone of them?

The idea would be to have it mounted in your vehicle or where ever and be able to roam through the coverage areas of each transmitter. Since it is scanning you wouldn't have to worry about changing the channel it is listening on. Also in the fringe areas between two or three transmitters you wouldn't have to choose the best channel, it would do it "automatically."

All the weather radio receivers I have seen need to be set to one channel.

The only other good way I can think of is to use a commercial radio like a Motorola HT1250 and program it with "paging" channels. One for each of the weather channels with the ability to alert on the 1050Hz tone, and just scan all 7 of those channels.

Thanks

In order for any receiver to decode any kind of tones it must be "on the channel" and not in scan mode.
What you are looking for is a receiver that can monitor 7 or more channels at the same time with tones decode but as far as I know only gov agencies have and use them.

milf · #3 (**permalink**) 03-29-2009, 01:17 PM

Correct, as far as I know only the aphabet boys have that type of technology. Only thing close to it would be an actual scanner and have it scanning the weather chans. But to do the thing you want, youd need to program multiple FIPS SAME alerts into say.... seven scanners lol. And as far as I know there isnt anything with eneough FIPS memmory slots to cover a whole state, much less multiple states, so youd need only the primary counties in the areas youll go through.

Or you could have a weather radio, and a scanner... Have the weather radio just scanning the chans, and have the scanner dedicated to a specific set of areas on SAME... ???

Or if your really hardcore, two scanners, and a weather radio. WX scanning the NOAAA, one scanner dedicated SAME, the other on the Emergency Management stuff.
But then youll be seriously becoming a spotter/chaser, and need the laptop, cams, and a HAM ticket and radio, and maybe even a CB to let other motorists with a CB, and truckers know of big bad wx coming in. If you do end up fully loaded, please post some pics, welove great set ups.

box23 · #4 (**permalink**) 03-29-2009, 02:07 PM

Ok, I didn't think there was an actual weather radio that was able to do it.

Where I live is right in between three NWR transmitters. Depending on the day anyone of two can be the stronger signal. By driving, anywhere really, the strongest can change to a different one, or none can be heard.

I have an HT1250 from my ambulance department which will alert when we are paged even though it is scanning the channels. There is also a "Paging" channel programmed in which mutes the speaker and monitors our dispatch channel. When we are paged it acts just like a pager.

I'm thinking that if you were to program such a radio with 7 channels, one for each weather channel, that you could set them up as paging channels waiting for the 1050Hz tone. The radio could then be set up to scan all 7 of these paging channels. That way the radio would just be scanning until one of the channels alerts which will open the speaker allowing the message to be heard.

Even though the transmitters are continuous I don't believe it matters to the radio because it is only looking for the tone and not whether the channel is busy.

As far as FIPS and SAME, I want to hear everything, not just for a specific location, just whenever the tone is sent. I use my PRO-97 in this fashion sometimes by just setting the weather channel to priority. When it hears the tone, it alerts.

I'm thinking this might be a good topic for the Motorola forum to see whether it will work as I'm thinking.

burner50 · #5 (**permalink**) 03-29-2009, 02:22 PM

Oh man.... That would suck... From my house I can hear a signal on at least 5 of the 7 channels... That thing would never shut up.

w8jjr · #6 (**permalink**) 03-29-2009, 02:28 PM

One quick note No scanner today will decode SAME while scanning.
They will detect the 1050Hz alert tone but will not decode the SAME data.

scanfan03 · #7 (**permalink**) 03-29-2009, 09:49 PM

I use my Kenwood TK-250 as a weather alert radio and it will hang up on the Weather channel with the 1050Hz tone enabled while scanning. So I doubt it can be done.

byndhlptom · #8 (**permalink**) 03-30-2009, 07:22 PM

Your idea is pretty close to what I'd like to have.

A scanning weather monitor that you could program for specific warnings (severe thunderstorm, tornado?) that would only stop scanning if it decoded the alert. With so small of a freq span to scan (only seven freq), it should scan super fast, thus would be able to 'catch' the digital data. When I'm out watching or traveling, not knowing which frequency that I may be close to or area of coverage makes it challenging to figure out which freq covers where i'm at. In my car I typically can rx 4-5 sites regularily.

With todays tech, the state/county codes could be in a look-up table, so when it alerts, it displays the state/county(s), type of alert, etc.

I'd definitely be seriously interested in a mobile unit...

rdale · #9 (**permalink**) 03-30-2009, 09:36 PM

Unfortunately the digital data comes BEFORE the tone, so you'd miss parts of it if you ever are scanning, so it'd be unusable.

byndhlptom · #10 (**permalink**) 03-31-2009, 07:53 PM

per the SAME protocols on the NWS site, they send the digital data three consecutive times for each alert with a delay between each set. If the scan circuit is only looking for data, it should stop on the first string and be able to decode the next two without a lot of difficulty. If I was proficient in micro code, I'd try decoding it myself, but that's not a skill I've got. I still think it would be possible, but whether it is cost effective is a whole other story.

A quick digital decoder able to capture the data, a digital detect scan circuit, and a fast switching synthesizer should be the basic requirements for the radio.

A monitor mode to manually listen to a selected channel, an alert scan mode to monitor all channels for your preset alerts, maybe an automatic "active" channel detect (find recievable channels), a great mobile weather scanner!

my $.02

tom

milf · #11 (**permalink**) 03-31-2009, 09:04 PM

Or just join FEMA, or the FAA and get one of their sets.

Or just use your laptop. Weatherbug, or some of the other weather software with alerting capability, google earth, bokmarks to all your local doppler radars provided by the local media... And a top of the line scanner.... and a trusty ole wx radio.... You basically have a mobile command center right there....

rdale · #12 (**permalink**) 03-31-2009, 09:20 PM

Neither FEMA nor FAA has a weather radio that scans all frequencies and waits for a SAME alert tone. Not sure where that started.

rubicon05 · #13 (**permalink**) 04-01-2009, 10:26 PM

i was just wondering how hard would it be to make a program that would work like trunking, put your 7 freq's in the group, and all the same codes as your alpha tags, have it stop on the 1050 carrier, and have it decode the message?

rdale · #14 (**permalink**) 04-01-2009, 10:45 PM

Because once the 1050Hz tone is broadcast, you've already missed the digital info.

There's just no demand for something like this.

UPMan · #15 (**permalink**) 04-02-2009, 09:05 AM

When I was at RS, the portable WX radios I designed did exactly that. If carrier dropped on the currnet channel, it would scan until it could receive another channel. Because it was intended for travel use, SAME was not an issue (are you going to reprogram a WX radio to your current county every 45 minutes as you drive?).

In areas where there is site overlap, NOAA duplicates alerts for the overlap region on both sites, so site selection is not critical to receiving alerts.

kc0qlz · #16 (**permalink**) 04-02-2009, 12:22 PM

i have a ft2800m and it scans for the weather alert.
as far as an regular scanner for weather radios,they don't make one

rdale · #17 (**permalink**) 04-02-2009, 01:20 PM

kc0qlz - what this thread about is scanning for the SAME code information. Your FT2800 does not do that.

box23 · #18 (**permalink**) 04-02-2009, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rdale

kc0qlz - what this thread about is scanning for the SAME code information. Your FT2800 does not do that.

Actually, I started this thread about being able to scan the 7 channels and be able to receive the alert tone on any one of them. At no time did I mention wanting to receive the SAME messages, although most responses were referring to that. As I mentioned before I occasionally use my PRO-97 in priority mode to listen for the tone on one specific channel. I don't use SAME because I don't really care where it is. This way whether it is for my area or not, I'll still hear it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by UPMan

Because it was intended for travel use, SAME was not an issue (are you going to reprogram a WX radio to your current county every 45 minutes as you drive?).

Exactly. SAME is for limiting when the radio will alert you personally when it receives many alerts that may not pertain to you. Such as at night when you only want to hear a tornado watch or warning for you and not hear the flash flood warning that is 4 counties away. If you are traveling, you would want to hear everything.

Quote:

Originally Posted by scanfan03

I use my Kenwood TK-250 as a weather alert radio and it will hang up on the Weather channel with the 1050Hz tone enabled while scanning. So I doubt it can be done.

Is this with the audio coming through the speaker? In that case it would hang up. With my idea the speaker would be muted. Although, I am beginning to think that it would still hang up because the channel is broadcasting continuously. But if the radio is dedicated to this function, as I would have it, if it's hung up on a channel it is able to receive the tone, which is the whole idea.

Where the ability to scan would come into play is when you are out of range of that particular transmitter, the radio would resume scanning and find the new channel. This would be happening automatically, and at any time if an alert is broadcasted the radio would open the speaker and you could hear it. Kind of a set it and forget it way to hear everything everywhere.

rdale · #19 (**permalink**) 04-02-2009, 05:10 PM

Sorry about the confusion

SAME is more than just pinning it down to your county, it also includes the type of watch/warning being issued.

n5ims · #20 (**permalink**) 04-02-2009, 05:32 PM

Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but my Midland weather radio will scan the NOAA channels and lock on the strongest. When that drops, it will search to find what is then the strongest signal and stop there. This feature is automatic, although you can press a button to rescan if your signal gets noisy.