NOAA Radio Southard

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tech2461

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With KWO35 NYC still off the air, I'm wondering how far into Middlesex County the NOAA transmitter in Southard is covering? Does anyone in the North Brunswick, New Brunswick, East Brunswick, Milltown area have any experience with receiving this station?
 

mondaro

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Hello, currently while KWO-35 is down I am carrying the Southard feed on RR from Harrison, NJ - Hudson County.
I believe Middlesex County NJ is covered full time by that transmitter as well. NWS - Upton tells me
that they are making progress in restoring KWO-35 but I have no time table when it will be back
on the air. Hope that helps. - Tony
 

tech2461

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Thanks but I was looking for someone that lives in those areas I mentioned to tell me how the Southard transmitter signal quality was in those areas.
 

tech2461

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Oh, and while you mentioned it, KWO 35 could have been back on the air a long time ago IMHO...Drop a 300 watt transmitter like Southard on a tower in the Watchung range along Rt22 in the Warrenville/Green Brook area and another up in the Ft. Lee area. In fact NJ Public Broadcasting has a tower that's 350ft up on a 650ft hill in Warrenville. Plenty of high rise buildings in the Ft. Lee area right up by the GWB that are close to 500ft high. The Warrenville tower would have put an excellent signal in all of Union, Richmond, Middlesex, Somerset and North Monmouth Counties. The site by the GWB could easily cover Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, West Chester and Putnam. The transmitters at Highland, NY and then Southard, NJ would have picked up from there. Queens is being covered by a station on LI very well. The lower power would have likely solved the interference issues on the Marine VHF band. Just my opinion.
 

mondaro

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Oh, and while you mentioned it, KWO 35 could have been back on the air a long time ago IMHO...Drop a 300 watt transmitter like Southard on a tower in the Watchung range along Rt22 in the Warrenville/Green Brook area and another up in the Ft. Lee area. In fact NJ Public Broadcasting has a tower that's 350ft up on a 650ft hill in Warrenville. Plenty of high rise buildings in the Ft. Lee area right up by the GWB that are close to 500ft high. The Warrenville tower would have put an excellent signal in all of Union, Richmond, Middlesex, Somerset and North Monmouth Counties. The site by the GWB could easily cover Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, West Chester and Putnam. The transmitters at Highland, NY and then Southard, NJ would have picked up from there. Queens is being covered by a station on LI very well. The lower power would have likely solved the interference issues on the Marine VHF band. Just my opinion.

Completely understand your frustration, we pitched the similar ideas to the NOAA Weather Focal point and the Science operation officer at the NWS Upton, but like everything, in the government, the transmitter's new site is caught up in red tape, I think its insane to so without that emergency transmitter now going on the second severe weather season, they are under the impression these phone apps where a short term solution I don't think so.
 

jlp

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With KWO35 NYC still off the air, I'm wondering how far into Middlesex County the NOAA transmitter in Southard is covering? Does anyone in the North Brunswick, New Brunswick, East Brunswick, Milltown area have any experience with receiving this station?

I monitor from Kendall Park (South Brunswick) with an SDS100 with a 18 rubber duck VHF/UHF and receive them ok. With the 100 connected to the outside scanner antenna mounted up around 30', Southard comes in with a RSSI signal of -75 (quite good)
 

tech2461

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Ah Kendall Park...Part of my old stomping grounds. I started out monitoring South Brunswick PD when they were on 39.98MHz. Thanks for the info.
 
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jlp

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Ah Kendall Park...Part of my old stomping grounds. I started out monitoring South Brunswick PD when they were on 39.98MHz. Thanks for the info.
I wonder if radio coverage was better then vs now being on 800mhz? I know on low band the HT coverage was probably bad

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk
 

rr60

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Southard signal strong here n Somerset County (with elevation).I have just programmed SAME codes. The NOAA website reveals very few SAME codes for this site. I always entered Hunterdon to get advance warnings. Anyone know if Southard has expanded SAME codes as a result of 162.550 extended outage? As far as I am concerned SAME alerting still has its place and is helpful during severe weather outbreaks. Missing KWO-35. Edit I picked up the phone and someone answered at Mount Holly. Understood the question and got me an answer right away. No Hunterdon. Welcomed the suggestion and will look into it.
 
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rr60

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Anyone getting Tornado Warnings on Southard? I am getting other alerts but the Tornado Warning just issued did not come over.
 

jtsjc1

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I live right next to Monroe and I get Southard loud and clear with the NOAA radio and scanner.
 

rr60

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Mine did not go off last night for the warning in Northwestern Ocean and Northeastern Burlington.
My alert receiver is on Southard 24/7 this year. I have noticed several different warnings for it’s coverage area have not been broadcast. I do think it has a problem. If the office in Mount Holly can’t hear the station I wonder how they know alerts are being sent out.
 
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