To KB2GOM, and anyone else. I live smack dab in the middle of the country (St. Louis) and I have received transmissions on 161.650 for many many years. Every day, without fail. It is a 'simulcast' (?) of our local 162.550 NOAA station. Are they possibly doing something different? The 161.650 signal is weaker than the local station, so it could be coming from some other location other that the local tower. We have three major rivers in our area, Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois. Could it be a faint signal provided by the U.S. for any Canadian vessels navigating those rivers?
Does anybody else like to DX NOAA weather radio?
- Thread starter KB2GOM
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nd5y
Member
There is no reason to do that. Marine radios can switch between US, Canadian and International channels. The 10 weather channels are the same in US and Canada.
It's probably an image. I can get the local 162.475 on 161.565 or 161.575 depending on if the receiver has a 450 kHz or 455 kHz 2nd IF.
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That is very strange. 161.650 is marine channel 21 and is allocated for Coast Guard-only use in the US, but for continuous weather broadcasts in Canada. I can't see why a US station would be re-broadcasting weather on a Coast Guard working channel.
On the possibility of it being an image - @scanman1958 since you have been hearing this signal for years, I assume you have heard it on multiple radios?
161.650 is a preprogrammed frequency in my Uniden scanners along with the seven US frequencies. I believe there is a total of ten frequencies programmed in the group. When I want to search the weather channels I get 161.650 along with our local channel. Not sure what else to tell you.
nd5y
Member
It's an image then.
Ya'll are right. I was crazy to think that just because it was a frequency that was preprogrammed, and that Uniden was nice enough to put those Canadian channels in, that it would work perfectly. Boy was I dumb. I took an open channel on both my old bc895xlt and bc898t and programmed 161.650 and wallah! I heard our local NOAA WX channel. I guess it helps that I live just under two miles from the 1500ft TV tower that the NOAA antenna is on. Thanks guys and gals. Anything else to cover????
KB2GOM
Active Member
In my book, anyone who is willing to learn is not "dumb."
To quote Sherlock Holmes, "When you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
Well done!
When I pass within 2-3 miles of a local NOAA Weather Radio that transmits on 162.425 I hear the exact same signal on 161.520 MHz on my Icom 2300h which is otherwise a CP Rail Yard Channel. So I guess it's an image. Also, weirdly my Alinco DR-135 picks up the distorted local NOAA station of 162.550 MHz on 119.150 despite listening on AM mode, which is annoying since 119.15 is the tower for a local reliever airport. No idea why.
While hiking along a ridge on the edge of the Boundary Waters in far NE Minnesota several years ago I did pick up the Rabbit Mountain Canada Marine station (Thunder Bay) on 161.775 using my Icom 2m HT. Pretty scratchy but readable. Roughly 70 miles away.
While hiking along a ridge on the edge of the Boundary Waters in far NE Minnesota several years ago I did pick up the Rabbit Mountain Canada Marine station (Thunder Bay) on 161.775 using my Icom 2m HT. Pretty scratchy but readable. Roughly 70 miles away.
I too get channel overload while traveling along interstate 44 in Crawford Co., MO as I drive past the Crawford County Electric Co-op building. The NOAA WX transmitter is located on their radio tower for their daily operations and overloads any scanner I may have on in the car. After about 1/3 of a mile, all goes back to normal.
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