When I toured the NWS, many moons ago, they had a desk with a couple ham radios. They just need a ham operator to come in and operate them during inclement weather. Could you imagine how many "we're getting heavy wind and rain" reports they would get from people if they had their own TGs? 🙄Smh.
Umm none! Those TG's would be for direct reports from trained spotters with FD's, EMA's, SO's, PD's, etc, not like some nimbly whimbly whatever your thinking about. Works on AWIN just fine. And as a trained spotter, you know that it has to be 50 MPH or better winds before you even think about calling it in/texting/vids etc... And it has to be extreme flooding rains, wall clouds with rotation, dime or larger hail, funnel, or confirmed tornadic ground interaction, or actual damage from storm activity (limbs or trees down, powerline damage, roof/structural damage etc...) And in winter, all snow accumulations are welcomed, as are reports of true blizzard conditions etc...