Fm, Nfm, Wfm

[Alpha432]

I have some Fire Departments programmed into myscanner with the NFM setting and hear them just fine despite Radio Reference saying they are just FM. Can anyone tell me the differences in general or the difference in reception between them? I know what they stand for, but don't know if setting a frequency for one or the other will make it better or worse to hear. Let me know, thanks!

 

[wbruff]

I have some Fire Departments programmed into myscanner with the NFM setting and hear them just fine despite Radio Reference saying they are just FM. Can anyone tell me the differences in general or the difference in reception between them? I know what they stand for, but don't know if setting a frequency for one or the other will make it better or worse to hear. Let me know, thanks!

If the station you want to hear is NFM and you tuned to WFM the volume will be way to low to hear. Also conversely if it were the opposite then the station would be garbled. It all points to how much deviation is being used. Commercial FM stations use WFm and can pack more "Fidelity" into their signal, where as 2 way radio does not require the high fidelity and can get away with narrow Fm since it is primarily voice communications.
Hope that helps a little.