Is noaa weather wide or narrowband?

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radioguy32

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Hi,

I am programming some radios and noticed that the weather channel was really staticy. I noticed that the personality was wideband. Since I am converting the radios to narrowband I changed the noaa channel to narrowband and it got a little louder, but still hard to hear. I found a different frequency 162.450 and that is coming in pretty good, but I don't know if I should use narrow band or wide band. So which should I use? Is the squelch type CSQ? I have the weather personality setup to receive only.

Thanks,
 

n5ims

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The NOAA Weather Radio Broadcasts are all wide-band. They are not affected by the FCC narrow-band change for Part-90 frequencies since they are a different service. I do not expect that they will change from how they currently operate except to possibly define additional SAME codes if situations call for it.
 

pickles37

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I always wondered about this -- they are not subject to Part 90, but should have been subject to the 2005 federal narrowbanding effort. I assume they got a waiver due to the fact that all the weather radios out there are wideband, and that there are no plans to narrowband.
 

TrenchFeeder

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Hi,

I am programming some radios and noticed that the weather channel was really staticy. I noticed that the personality was wideband. Since I am converting the radios to narrowband I changed the noaa channel to narrowband and it got a little louder, but still hard to hear. I found a different frequency 162.450 and that is coming in pretty good, but I don't know if I should use narrow band or wide band. So which should I use? Is the squelch type CSQ? I have the weather personality setup to receive only.

Thanks,

You sure its the right broadcast for your area? I pick up NOAA from out of state on my pro 164
 

Robinsmark

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Hi,

I am programming some radios and noticed that the weather channel was really staticy. I noticed that the personality was wideband. Since I am converting the radios to narrow band

I changed the noaa channel to narrowband and it got a little louder, but still hard to hear. I found a different frequency 162.450 and that is coming in pretty good, but I don't know if I should use narrow band or wide band. So which should I use? Is the squelch type CSQ? I have the weather personality setup to receive only.

Thanks,

NOAA does not transmit a pl so you would set up for CSQ. They transmit (voice) with a 5 kHz deviation.
 

gewecke

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Mine isn't.


Now I really wonder,because I have vhf commercial radios that do not have WFM mode and they will receive NOAA. The same is true for several of my ham rigs.

Hmmmm. :roll:


n9zas
 

jim202

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Now I really wonder,because I have vhf commercial radios that do not have WFM mode and they will receive NOAA. The same is true for several of my ham rigs.

Hmmmm. :roll:


n9zas


And you wonder why there is so much confusion listening to a bunch of geeks on the scanner site.
 

jackj

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Today's WFM is yesterday's NFM. Used to be that WFM was +- 15 Khz and NFM was +-5 Khz. Now 5 Khz is considered WFM.

Your radio will pick up NFM even if it is programed for WFM and vice-versa. About the only difference is the amount of audio gain programed in to keep the audio level about the same. They don't change the IF bandwidth unless your radio has about 4 different IF filters (10 Khz - NFM; 15 KHz - WFM; 100 Khz - Commerical FM, 12 Khz - AM).
 

radioguy32

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Thank you all for the information. I am programming CP200, HT1250, cm300, and M1225 radios. I haven't seen any place for a same code in the Motorola programming software. I will leave the setting as wideband.

Thanks,
 

kb8lkh

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Why you can hear noaa on nfm

Yes,

It is possible to listen to wide band signals on a narrow band radio. The thing is it may sound over modulated, and or you may have to turn your volume down.

You can also listen to narrowband signals on a wideband radio. Here, because the deviation is low, all you need to do is turn your volume up.

Now, this is JUST FOR RECEIVE. this has NO affect on transmit. So if it is narrow band, transmit is narrowband. If it is wide band then transmit is wideband.

Some commercial radios will allow you to switch either or for transmit AND receive.

Additionally commercial radios DO NOT offer the capability of adding S.A.M.E. codes.

Hopefully this explains it better in layman's terms, for those who are not very "techy".


DAN
KB8LKH
 
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ecps92

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You understand you are posting to a thread that has been dormant for 4+ yrs, don't you :roll:

Yes,

It is possible to listen to wide band signals on a narrow band radio. The thing is it may sound over modulated, and or you may have to turn your volume down.

You can also listen to narrowband signals on a wideband radio. Here, because the deviation is low, all you need to do is turn your volume up.

Now, this is JUST FOR RECEIVE. this has NO affect on transmit. So if it is narrow band, transmit is narrowband. If it is wide band then transmit is wideband.

Some commercial radios will allow you to switch either or for transmit AND receive.

Additionally commercial radios DO NOT offer the capability of adding S.A.M.E. codes.

Hopefully this explains it better in layman's terms, for those who are not very "techy".


DAN
KB8LKH
 

majoco

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Narrowband and wideband have nothing to do with FM deviation. Narrowband and wideband has to do with channel spacing. Before the need for all those extra channels, the frequencies were in multiples of 25kHz and the FM deviation could be up to 10kHz. Then with better oscillators and crystal filters the channel spacing was brought down to 12.5kHz and a maximum of 5kHz deviation, now it's down to 6.25kHz channels and 2.5kHz max deviation. Because of the lower deviation, the demodulated audio is less which is compensated by increased audio gain in the receiver. You can receive NFM on a wideband receiver but the audio will be down, receiving WFM on a narrowband receiver probably will be distorted by over-deviation. Your transmitter will probably not allow you to transmit WFM on a narrowband frequency.
 
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