Weather radio receiver question

[marksroberson]

Hello, I just thought about this, I live in Jefferson County, Alabama, my house is on the side of Red Mountain, the local Weather Radio transmitter is on red mountain as well (KIH-54) but the National Weather Service office is in a entirely different county It is at the Shelby county airport, so my question is how do they get the signal from the forecast office to the transmitter, I have been inside the office and they have a small antenna on the rear of the building pointed to Jefferson County, but do they use a different frequency to get the signal from the office to the transmitter, and if so does anybody know what that frequency is?

 

[mmckenna]

Not sure about your exact location, but around here they use a radio link in the 410-418MHz range. The signal is sent via this UHF radio link to the transmitter site where it gets rebroadcast on the familiar 162.xxx frequency.

Since they use directional antennas to focus the link radio signal, you may or may not be able to hear it. If you are near the path between the NWS office and the transmitter, you might be able to pick it up.

They do have other ways of linking to the transmitter sites, they can use dedicated phone lines (not dial up, but conditioned point to point circuits), microwave, etc.

Give the lower portion of the UHF band a listen and see if you can find it.

 

[mmckenna]

I went and found them again. Where I am (near Monterey California), I'm hearing the NWS link for two of their channels on:
417.925MHz
419.375MHz