Weather Freqs don't work?

[62Falcon]

I was given a Radio Shack PRO-2042 scanner. It works great except I cannot get the weather frequencies. What gives? Did the weather radio change in some way recently? Thanks!

 

[gewecke]

I was given a Radio Shack PRO-2042 scanner. It works great except I cannot get the weather frequencies. What gives? Did the weather radio change in some way recently? Thanks!

Check your antenna,then make sure you have a NWS station near you.
n9zas

 

[WA1ATA]

There are several NOAA Wx stations for San Jose. Transmitters are located on Mt. Unhumun, Mt. Diablo, and one up around Redwood City. Freqs are still the 162.400 to 162.55 MHz sort of range, steps of 0.25MHz.

Are you receiving other VHF signals, such as Santa Clara County Sherriff on 156.21? It's a powerful and very active signal.

You might also just plug in the freqs directly, to make sure that you haven't accidentally put the radio in a mode where it only turns on the Wx audio when there is an alert.

 

[62Falcon]

Thanks everyone for your relpies.

Yes, I'm getting San Jose PD, SJC approach and departure, HAM; everything so far except the weather frequencies. I have 10 weather channels preprogrammed into my scanner; none of them work. The frequencies match the ones posted above and listed for my area. I also have a hand held scanner and I have entered the frequencies manually and they do not work. Funny thing is, I used to get the weather on my handheld a while back (some years ago and in Campbell). I'm puzzled why I cannot get it while I can get everything else. ??? My base unit has the standard antenna and is in my home office near a window. I live in the downtown area of San Jose towards Alum Rock. Am I in a weather radio black hole maybe?

I have a Radio Shack Pro-43 and a Radio Shack PRO-2042 with OptoScan 535 enhancement.

TIA for your help!

~Falcon

 

[62Falcon]

Problem Solved!

I managed to get the weather radio channel on my HH scanner yesterday at 162.5500 Mhz. Hooray! However, I cannot get it to work on my base unit. None of the 10 weather channels work! I entered the 162.5500 Mhz frequency to an empty channel it I get nothing. Hmmmm.......???

I got the scanner free from a person getting out of the hobby so I don't know its history. In the User Manual it states the weather frequencies will not work in the UK. D'oh! I guess the scanner came from there and that explains my problem. Moan!

Anyway, thanks to all who replied. I really appreciate it!

~Falcon

 

[Retired911Guy]

In the User Manual it states the weather frequencies will not work in the UK. D'oh! I guess the scanner came from there and that explains my problem. Moan!

~Falcon

I think you may be misinterpreting what the manual says.

"It says the weather chls will NOT work in the UK",
NOT "the weather chls will Not work in the US"

This is because the scanner is made to operate in the US and the PRE-programmed weather chls are NOT the same as the weather chls in the UK. (if they even have chls).

You may be just getting front end overload. I just visited my brothyer in SJ at Xmas time and showed off my GRE 600 (he still uses the older bc780s) and the weather service worked fine, think I got 3 or 4 chls.

BUT, I did use my FM broadcast band (88-108) filter which reduces front end overload by a ton.

He always complains about VHF overload and intermod so I put my filter on his scanner and it worked great.

May or may not work for you, just a thought.

Dave

 

[62Falcon]

Thanks Dave for your post.

I was also having a problem with the OptoScan 535 add on board so I decided to perform a hard reset to see if it would cure my problems. Bingo! The weather button now works and I get the broadcast at 162.550 Mhz. Woo hoo! The downside is I have to now reprogram it. Oh well. I can't complain. I got a doozy of a setup for free I've since learned. Now to get the RS-232 PC interface to work. Thanks!

~Falcon