162.475 in Silver Spring, MD ????

[JamesO]

Just noticed that 162.475 started booming in the other day in the D.C. area. Listened to it for a while, channel indicated if was being transmitted from Silver Spring, MD. There is also a beep tone in the background every 5 seconds. There a appears to be voice that indicates "This is a test of access channel for NOAA Weather Radio"???? Cannot quite make out the synthesized voice. Station ID appears to be WWF30.

I checked the NOAA web site and there is no indication of a transmitter in Silver Spring as of the web site update of April 26th.

Anyone know what is up and is this a new transmit site that is here to stay??

I think the Washington D.C. area could use this new transmit site, as the other closest sites were Manassas, VA or Baltimore, MD and there is spotty or weak coverage in the D.C. area indoors.

JamesO

 

[TinEar]

James, I can't find anything in the FCC database - although I'm not sure the FCC has jurisdiction over a NOAA transmitter. And the WWF30 callsign does not compute either in their database - again this may be because they don't have jurisdiction. I guess one more weather station wouldn't hurt in this area. It's certainly a good NOAA freq though...
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/coverage_by_state/nwrmd.htm

 

[JamesO]

I came up short on details as well. It may be a new transmitter site, possibly to do with Homeland Security?? As it appears that NOAA Weather Radio is now billed as NOAA All Hazards radio, to include Amber Alerts and other types of disasters.

I hope it is here to stay as I think the D.C. area needed more robust coverage for better building penetration. I think the Manassas transmitter is about 35 miles outside of D.C. and it appears NOAA tries to have a transmitter about every 50 miles on the average.

I found this earlier this week when hitting the WX button on my PRO-96. I was glad to hear something stronger than the Manassas 162.55 MHz signal.

JamesO