Earthquake warning/monitoring frequencies

Hello,

I hope I am posting in the right forum, please let me know otherwise.

My simple question is if there is any UHF or VHF frequency that broadcasts Earthquake or Tsunami warnings or monitors any activities.

Something like the Youtube Live channels that monitor earthquakes and have a simple announcements.

Example
. "There was an earthquake in Japan with magnitude of 5.4 at 15:45 local time,"

I have used the search function but I only found a thread from 2009
https://forums.radioreference.com/california-radio-discussion-forum/159058-earthquake-freqs.html

I have monitored the NOAA VHF weather channels but they never mention any earthquake or tsunami activity.

I have also seen mention of using Twitter for monitoring earthquakes, because their sensors are much much faster that any of USGS's sensors.

However, I think that when things go wrong, radio is more efficient, and more reliable, than any high tech sources, like cell phones, tablets, laptops.

thank you guys.

foggya,

I have set up earthquake notifications over text message.

ENS is text service.. https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/feed/

I also noticed that they offer the twitter service.

Why not have you own seismograph? Check out : https://shop.raspberryshake.org/

I recorded an event near Fiji that was 6522 miles away.

ab5r said:

Why not have you own seismograph? Check out : https://shop.raspberryshake.org/

I recorded an event near Fiji that was 6522 miles away.

Click to expand...

That's very impressive, it has to stay home right? It looks pretty small but I assume it is not portable.

Have you connect it to a Amateur Radio repeater or you just get email notifications?

celbaseman said:

foggya,

I have set up earthquake notifications over text message.

ENS is text service.. https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/feed/

I also noticed that they offer the twitter service.

Click to expand...

Text service is great but would it work during local or regional power outages?

On the other hand, it seems it is more feasible and economical to use existing infrastructure like cell phone service and twitter. I guess a good old analogue radio broadcast is asking for a little too much.

Thank you everyone for all suggestions.

No,, they are not intended to attach to Ham repeaters. They are actual seismographs that record quakes when they happen. You might check out their website for full details. There are some YouTube videos out there too, Here is a display of worldwide distribution: https://raspberryshake.net/stationview/

Too much detail for here and not directly related to radio. However, many owners are ham operators too.

Thank you, these shake boxes might be an interesting thing to pick up.

This relates to only to an immediate local area, but if anyone is interested:
I saw this description about Earthquake alerts on the NOAA Weather radio (NWR) website:

NWR also broadcasts warning and post-event information for all types of hazards – including natural (such as earthquakes or avalanches), environmental (such as chemical releases or oil spills), and public safety (such as AMBER alerts or 911 Telephone outages).


Broadcasts are found in the VHF public service band at these seven frequencies (MHz):

162.400
162.425
162.450
162.475
162.500
162.525
162.550

I listened on a VHF radio and don't recall hearing any of these alerts on these frequencies, just a regular forecast.

Then I looked at their "receiver information" and realized maybe I need a special device capable of receiving these alerts.

Public Alert ™ Devices with NWR All Hazards Logo

+1 for NOAA radio - it will be an official source of information in any emergency/disaster, weather related or otherwise.

1stEmComm_Responder said:

+1 for NOAA radio - it will be an official source of information in any emergency/disaster, weather related or otherwise.

Click to expand...

@1stEmComm_Responder,

do you think it is possible to setup NOAA alerts on analog VHF radio? e.g. baofeng, or yaesu, etc...

Check out SAME Alerts: "Specific Area Message Encoding, or SAME, is the technique the National Weather Service uses to direct weather watches and other EAS messages to certain geographical areas."

https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/SAME

1stEmComm_Responder said:

+1 for NOAA radio - it will be an official source of information in any emergency/disaster, weather related or otherwise.

Click to expand...

That’s why I program them as receive only in my radios. If the weather ever gets funky around me, I can pull up the weather radio bank and click to my local channel.

I am a little confused as to what "Time Frame" are you wanting?

Before - event; FORGET IT

Post - event: TV, News Radio, Internet, NOAA Radio and many outlets local and distant

Immediate; Your own seismograph (purchased or DIY

Are you just wanting to ne notified or actually see the EQ on a seismogram?

Most amateur VHF radios cover the frequencies for NOAA as the 162.xx is not far from the 2 meter ham band. An inexpensive Weather radio will come with the frequencies and S.A.M.E. and cost under $50.00 The drawback is that they broadcast only information to regions and do not include areas outside of their coverage area.

Im not sure if your seeking old style telemetry or actual voice audio.
UNR (University of Nevada Reno) or DRI (Desert Research Institute,Reno) still use at least 3 VHF Highband freqs which a friend of mine who worked for USGS told me that active system i can hear is old technology they transmit a solid tone continuous until there is an earthquake including very minor ones then the tone will start eratic tone changes that after a few start to slow down and return to the single solid tone when its in standby but everytime we have a little shaker here so of Reno,Nv i can turn to those freqs and hear the shaking including after shocks i will post the VHF Highband Analog freqs at end of post as far as audio voice here i have the weather freqs programed that use f.i.p./s.a.m.e. codes i think there called and will sent of alarm and a broadcast for hazard weather follows, as i have read these are supposed to work for amber alerts and maybe earthquakes to but last time i used that feature and it works good for weather alerts the data ive discovered only broadcasts weather. There is a NOAA site online i believe that explains this system EAS (Emergency Alert System) and can give you more info than what im posting. Uses same types tones heard on TV when they do weekly tests.
Freqs for Seismonintoring that i can hear are:

162.59375 Mhz NFM
163.39375 Mhz NFM
163.60625 Mhz NFM

I believe these freqs are using 6.25 Khz
I dont know the exact locations of these sensors but they are not weak at all and can hear them in many places just south of carson city,nv and there may be more in other places i just havent tried to search out freqs because even if the epicenter is 75 or 100 miles away these still pick them up one thing i noticed is when a decent one hits nearby it seems to peg the tone with little change wavering till it starts to settle down.

ab5r said:

I am a little confused as to what "Time Frame" are you wanting?

Before - event; FORGET IT

Post - event: TV, News Radio, Internet, NOAA Radio and many outlets local and distant

Immediate; Your own seismograph (purchased or DIY

Are you just wanting to ne notified or actually see the EQ on a seismogram?

Click to expand...

I just wanted to be notified of earthquakes that just happened and that would give me some time to take cover if necessary, I read somewhere that earthquakes and tsunamis can travel quite a distance and if you are living on top of the same seismic fault you might have some time to prepare. anywhere between few seconds to few minutes.

I think the TV outlets pretty much ignore most of the earthquakes, unless there is something spectacular to showcase, and that means waiting a day or two until you see it on TV,

Even USGS won't show an eathquake activity for a while, sometimes the delay is 5 minutes, or few hours, that is surprising to know but I guess sometimes the logistics of processing information at late hours is not easy.

I have been monitoring NOAA radio, but sofar I haven't heard any earthquake or tsunami watches, advisories etc,,,

gvranchosbill said:

Im not sure if your seeking old style telemetry or actual voice audio.
UNR (University of Nevada Reno) or DRI (Desert Research Institute,Reno) still use at least 3 VHF Highband freqs which a friend of mine who worked for USGS told me that active system i can hear is old technology they transmit a solid tone continuous until there is an earthquake including very minor ones then the tone will start eratic tone changes that after a few start to slow down and return to the single solid tone when its in standby but everytime we have a little shaker here so of Reno,Nv i can turn to those freqs and hear the shaking including after shocks i will post the VHF Highband Analog freqs at end of post as far as audio voice here i have the weather freqs programed that use f.i.p./s.a.m.e. codes i think there called and will sent of alarm and a broadcast for hazard weather follows, as i have read these are supposed to work for amber alerts and maybe earthquakes to but last time i used that feature and it works good for weather alerts the data ive discovered only broadcasts weather. There is a NOAA site online i believe that explains this system EAS (Emergency Alert System) and can give you more info than what im posting. Uses same types tones heard on TV when they do weekly tests.
Freqs for Seismonintoring that i can hear are:

162.59375 Mhz NFM
163.39375 Mhz NFM
163.60625 Mhz NFM

I believe these freqs are using 6.25 Khz
I dont know the exact locations of these sensors but they are not weak at all and can hear them in many places just south of carson city,nv and there may be more in other places i just havent tried to search out freqs because even if the epicenter is 75 or 100 miles away these still pick them up one thing i noticed is when a decent one hits nearby it seems to peg the tone with little change wavering till it starts to settle down.

Click to expand...

I have looked at the NOAA and EAS, but as far as I understand you need a certified device to receive the alerts. I think cell phone are capable of receiving these alerts but I think only while the cell towers are online,

Not all NOAA radios can receive alerts, and some that could receive them don't filter these alerts based on your preference, location etc,....

than there are maybe 2-3 Midland NOAA radios which are great but are kind of bulky and I think there is also a high-end Uniden Scanner that can handle them.

I think these UNR and DRI frequencies might be a great resource, I will try to tune in. Thanks a lot.

I also wanted to clarify that even if you never see the earthquake coming it could be usefull to find out about aftershocks which are sometimes more dangerous than the first shake.

Foggya, where are you living? Are in a quake prone area. I wouldn't worry too much about Tsunamis unless you are close to a body of water: ocean or even lake. There have been instances of LARGE landslides into lake and create a tsunami, bun infrequent.

I am not sure that one can be "notified" of an forthcoming event in time to take action, seconds or minutes. Learn a much as you can about seismology and earthquakes.

I have been monitoring local and regional EQs since 2007; currently with my RaspberryShake seismograph here in North Central Texas. Truthfully, there is not many EQs to record in Texas. Oklahoma has quite a few hydraulically induced quakes from Fracking. However, California usually has several each day.....Minor ones and not felt.

Aftershocks are usually LESS that the original, but can contribute to destruction IF the original are a LARGE magnitude quake.

Interesting hobby.

foggya said:

I just wanted to be notified of earthquakes that just happened and that would give me some time to take cover if necessary, I read somewhere that earthquakes and tsunamis can travel quite a distance and if you are living on top of the same seismic fault you might have some time to prepare. anywhere between few seconds to few minutes.

Click to expand...

Having lived in California most of my life, I've been through a number of large earthquakes.

While they can travel quite a ways, it's on the order of a few seconds at most. I've been on the phone with people or listening to AM radios stations and will hear someone say "I think that was an earthquake" about the same time I feel it.

foggya said:

I think the TV outlets pretty much ignore most of the earthquakes, unless there is something spectacular to showcase, and that means waiting a day or two until you see it on TV,

Click to expand...

True. There are many small earthquakes every day, but they are not felt, do no damage and don't warrant making the news. Unless it is a "swarm" of earthquakes, they don't talk about them.

foggya said:

Even USGS won't show an eathquake activity for a while, sometimes the delay is 5 minutes, or few hours, that is surprising to know but I guess sometimes the logistics of processing information at late hours is not easy.

Click to expand...

The delay is due to the processing of the information. A seismograph will tell you there was an earthquake and how strong it was at that station. What the USGS does is to take data from many seismographs and plot the epicenter and magnitude. That takes some time.

foggya said:

I have been monitoring NOAA radio, but sofar I haven't heard any earthquake or tsunami watches, advisories etc,,,

Click to expand...

You won't hear earthquake warnings. I have heard tsunami warnings, though.

Predicting earthquakes isn't something that has been perfected yet, so no government agency is going to announce predictions.
Many researchers are working on ways to do this, and have been for decades, but it's still in the research phase. The issue is that earthquakes large enough to provide useful information are not common enough or frequent enough to provide enough data.

Many years ago we had a site that had a remote earthquake sensor. We supported the network connection for it. The data was being fed back to a university in Germany.
I'm currently involved in getting a few connections to remote seismographs for a research project UC Berkeley is doing along the same lines. The connections are all IP based, so nothing you can monitor with a radio.
I do have another site that has a USGS seismograph being fed back via a phone line. Having had to repair the line a few times, I can tell you that it's just a steady audio tone that supposedly changes pitch when the sensor vibrates. Luckily/unfortunately I've never been clipped on the line when there was an earthquake…

So, earthquake predictions are not an exact science, yet. But it's being worked on.

Best thing you can do is be prepared at all times, and hang on when it does happen.