Early SAME Weather Radios Vs. Current SAME Weather Radios

[JASII]

I ahve had a few weather alert radios in my life. I had one of the Midlands that just did 1050 hz. Then, when Radio Shack was the first, or among the first, to have SAME format, I had one of those. It may have been the Radio Shack Model 12-249.

Anyway, I am just wondering if any other the newest SAME weather radios ahve added any codes, features, etc. that the earlier SAME radios didn't have?

Also, since I ha ven't really kept up much with th is, have most counties split it smaller portions for alerting? My county was all or nothing for weather alert radio in the past. I seem to recall some discussion of the future being counties broken into smaller segments.

 

[KB7MIB]

Storm based warnings are sent to your cell phone via Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), and are disseminated only to those who are within the polygon.
SAME weather alert radios, in most cases, still do county wide alerts, although in some cases, alerts can be broken down to smaller areas.

National Weather Service - Warning Decision Training Branch

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Click on your state, and look for your county. If the first number in the SAME code is anything other than a 0 (Zero), then you may be able to receive warnings for just your specific area of the county. If the first number is a 0 (Zero), then it is countywide only.

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/coverage/county_coverage.html


John
Peoria, AZ

 

[UPMan]

I believe that a very few event codes have been added, but all of the likeliest codes were included in the very beginning.

 

[ffexpCP]

I used to be involved with EAS systems. There have been updates to the EAS, but in my experience most NOAA stations use a stripped down version.

Beyond the somewhat recent CAP / IPAWS updates, the only other changes I seem to remember was addition of an all/any SAME location and maybe a event code for the nationwide tests.

Bottom line- I don't think you'll miss out on any important alerts.

 

[KD0TAZ]

The county subdivision (the first digit) of the FIPS code was never put into use because when it was first developed the protocal was to activate on a county basis. Any area in a given county uses a code which starts with zero. County subdivisions would definitely be useful now with the polygon system, as it would cut down significantly on extraneous alerts when a polygon only grazes a small portion of the county, and the complacency which goes with it. Unfortunately as it stands, all radios in a county are activated if the polygon touches any part of it. Even if they did start using the subdivision codes, many radios nowadays are "EZ Program" and just give you a list of counties, they dont even let you enter a numeric code so they'll still alert to anywhere in that county.

There havent been any significant additions to the SAME alert list since the initial expansion in the early 2000s which added things like Amber Alerts, 911 outages, earthquake warnings, etc. There was a 2017 expansion that added storm surge watch, storm surge warning, and extreme wind warning, but nothing major.