G5 as a weather radio?

I use my G5 for the Minnesota ARMER system and it works great. I don't use any of the paging functions however. I recently programmed in all of the 7 weather frequencies. I know the NWS uses a 1050hz tone to alert. For those of you who use the paging functions, is there a way to set the G5 to be silent and only alert with the 1050hz tone is received?

That would be an expensive weather radio -- but I can't see why it would not work.

How would you set up the paging? I tried a few things and can't even figure out how to set the hz tone

I have the Noaa Wx alert tone activated on my G5 and it works great. Set it up as a single long tone. Just remember the difference between the 1050 hz tone vs a wx radio with your local zipcode alerts. If your wx radio frequency services a large area you will be alerted to all wx alerts. nothing specific.

How do you set up a single long tone?

Here is how I set mine up.

The NWS in your area must use a P25 trunking system. I am trying to use this on VHF (162.55)

G5 as weather /NOAA tone?

@sixsigbb I see what you did there. You enabled MD1200 and 2-TONE Protocol in step #3 of the PPS so they show up on #4 Group ID settings. Then enabled long tone on 1050.0 in the 2-Tone bracket. But WHAT Talk group ID did you use in the MDC/UDC talkgroup setting? the graphic is blocking the view? FFFF? That way it's a wildcard? or E000 - Hex? or nothing? Interesting set-up. I simply have my NOAA on an Analog ZONE itself with a free-scan between 162.400-162.555 so I can use it to monitor wherever I go.

Johnnydollar2, I got my G5 in May of 2017—— and setting up an analog zone for all 7 NOAA freq. is exactly how i did it also. I have to admit I am curious on this alert set up though. Kind of like that idea.

Yes, it IS a pager after all and will hear that 1050.0 tone. But do "Binding features" need to be enabled or anything else? I wonder? because it doesn't populate in my ZONE lists anywhere even when enabling FFFF for Talkgroups etc. Will it simply hear that TONE on it's own set up the way HE has it?
That's part of the reason I got the VHF model too, to hear NOAA .. that time of the year is coming fast for Severe weather alerts.

Johnnydollar2 said:

Yes, it IS a pager after all and will hear that 1050.0 tone. But do "Binding features" need to be enabled or anything else? I wonder? because it doesn't populate in my ZONE lists anywhere even when enabling FFFF for Talkgroups etc. Will it simply hear that TONE on it's own set up the way HE has it?
That's part of the reason I got the VHF model too, to hear NOAA .. that time of the year is coming fast for Severe weather alerts.

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This is what I am trying to figure out also, what TC or Wildcard? Or like you said, "will it hear it on it's own"? I have used it to monitor the RR's also-------heck of an expensive analog VHF receiver , but actually VERY sensitive . Even with the 700/800 antenna. I set up several "band" search ranges in one of my zones, works pretty good (slow) but able to be done. Just so people don't think I am crazy ---I DO monitor several large trunked systems also.

G5/Weather

Yeah. Too bad this wasn't posted a few days ago. ILLINOIS just had it's March Tornado Drill on the 6th If I remember. I could have set it up and tested it.

Johnnydollar2 said:

Yeah. Too bad this wasn't posted a few days ago. ILLINOIS just had it's March Tornado Drill on the 6th If I remember. I could have set it up and tested it.

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Check NOAA's site for WX Radio. I'm fairly certain they still send a test tone on 1050 every Wednesday at 11 AM I think. That's for the older receivers that do not have SAME decoding. They also send a SAME test around the same time. Most consumer SAME WX Radios will usually display that the SAME test is in progress but they usually have the alert tone muted by default for the SAME tests. The 1050 tone test will sound the alert on older receivers as they can't distinguish between a test or real alert.
If a VHF G5 is set correctly, it should alert each week when they send the 1050 test tone.
If there is bad WX in the area, they do cancel the 1050 tone test but SAME tests can still be done with bad WX in the area.
Decent SAME receivers will display a check or warning message if they do not receive a SAME test encoded signal once per week.
I know there are a lot of rural schools and manufacturing plants that still rely on the old 1050 tone activated receivers so I can't imagine they would have stopped performing the tests.
A lot of home users turned their radios off because of the weekly tests. They can be annoying. SAME decoders solve that problem plus SAME allows them to narrow down to a specific county or smaller area so they are not setting off alert radios across the transmitters entire coverage area.

NOAA also does not use any form of P25 or other digital radio systems for the end user alerts. Pure wideband analog emissions on VHF. SAME encoding does use a form of digital for its message format but it is sent over a standard analog FM carrier.

1. Entered all 7 noaa frequency's in the conventional frequency list.
2. I made a Protocol for NOAA Alert in the Protocol list page.
3. In the group Id settings page, I made a new group for NOAA Ch1 (which is my local site). leave TGID to none. In 2-Tone column, set your 1050hz tone for long tone. I have my alert tone set for #1.
4. Made a zone for WX. And set it up to receive NOAA ch1. And enabled the NOAA Ch1 tone at the bottom of the tone page.

Ahh, So it's a conventional frequency monitor in an individual WX zone, just listening for that tone? like with a fire freq listening for a tone out?

@Kruser - Yes, I think it's 10AM here on WED. I've heard the dogs barking out there when the siren goes off.

Johnnydollar2 said:

Ahh, So it's a conventional frequency monitor in an individual WX zone, just listening for that tone? like with a fire freq listening for a tone out?

@Kruser - Yes, I think it's 10AM here on WED. I've heard the dogs barking out there when the siren goes off.

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You got it. It's a single long tone though.
As far as the sirens go, those are usually controlled by a county or city EMA district. Siren tests are usually not done as often otherwise you would have some ticked off people if they tested them each week!

Seems like everyone has answered the initial question, but thought I would share how we do weather alerting in my county............

I've got both a VHF G1, and a VHF/7-800 G5, on which I have weather paging set up for both that includes on our local dispatch channels/talkgroups, and on the NOAA channels themselves.

In the G1 I have it set up with the paging stuff for my agency, the VHF conventional stuff for surrounding counties, as well as the NOAA weather freq's with the 1050 Hz tone as a Long C (Long Tone) for weather. There are two zones set up for weather. The first weather zone is set up to monitor and page, and the second weather zone is set up for Selective Call only. When the pager activates on the 1050 tone it's set up to sound the EAS ( Emergency Alert System ) tone since that's normally the first thing you think of when you hear it.


On our local VHF conventional & P25 system (7/800 Phase 1) system when a Thunderstorm Watch or a Tornado Watch is issued the dispatcher will hit either the standard or two tone "warble" alert tone to clear the talkgroup for an announcement. For Thunderstorm Warnings they will set off the Countywide/Storm Warning Quick Call II tones. If it's a Tornado Warning then they'll activate both the storm warning tones, along with our Long C Tornado Warning tone.

On my G5 I have two zones set up for weather just like I do on the G1 however it's rarely used for that. When the Long C activates on the G5 I have the alert for that tone set up with the EAS tone as well.

I live in the Piedmont of North Carolina, which is about 30 minutes north of Charlotte, and we usually have a pretty busy spring & summer storm system around here. Our local NOAA transmitter frequency is 162.5250. 99% of the time during storm season the G1 stays parked on that channel, including at night just in case, along with other times outside the season if severe weather is predicted (such as when we're expecting and significant snow storm, etc). Both the G1 & 5 work great for this.

Thank you, that was very helpful.