Mead/Longmont weather radio

[BinaryMode]

Anyone else hearing degraded performance on the Mead/Longmont weather broadcast on 162.475? It's been sounding like it's off frequency now for over a week. I confirmed this with my weather radio and two scanners all of which have their own antennas.

 

[Spirit]

BinaryMode, I haven't listened to 162.475 for a couple of weeks, but the last time I did it was coming in good up North from Mead/Longmont tower. I had to put 3 or 4 inches of tin foil on my antenna to try and they both worked pretty good but now static on both. I have moved them all over and never came in very good anywhere I put them.

I like to know why I can't hit Ft Collins/Ault Tower 162.450 it comes in with a lot of static. I'm not that far from the tower the way the crow flies. Has Larimer County/Weld County on it and it supposed to be putting out 300 watts. anyone have any clues? I have to Midlands 1 with 5 pull up section telescoping antenna and the other 1 with 7 pullup section.

 

[BinaryMode]

Yeah, I would like to RX Larimer county but I don't hear it very well at all either. And I'm in Loveland! - With two outside antennas! I hear Mead way better with a full 5 bars.

I don't know. It seems like this Mead transmitter has had nothing but issues. In the past I have reported twice now to the NWS that the transmission was dead. Their e-mail response was that the telephone like was out. This was apparently the cause for both incidents. Now the transmission sounds off frequency. See attached audio sample. Sounds exactly like this on both scanners and the weather radio. All have their own independent antennas.

 

[BinaryMode]

Another question: Why is the FIPS code for this county the same for Denver? I of course filter via the FIPS code and I'll hear on occasion an emergency broadcast that relates to the Denver or the Boulder area, etc. Kinda stupid in my opinion. I don't want to be bothered with that traffic out of my area is the thing.

50,000+ IRS employees can do better than this... LOL!

 

[Spitfire8520]

Another question: Why is the FIPS code for this county the same for Denver? I of course filter via the FIPS code and I'll hear on occasion an emergency broadcast that relates to the Denver or the Boulder area, etc. Kinda stupid in my opinion. I don't want to be bothered with that traffic out of my area is the thing.

SAME/FIPS codes are unique for each county. Denver is 008031, Boulder is 008013, and Larimer is 008069.

The reason you would hear an alert for Denver or Boulder if you have a SAME location code programmed is if the alert being sent out covers multiple counties that include Denver or Boulder. A lot of alerts are drawn as polygons on a map these days instead of by individual counties, so it is possible for warnings areas to cross county lines that will then alert multiple counties at once.

It does not help that the system lacks granularity beyond counties, so it will alert countywide even if it the alert area skims a small portion of the county. There are some improvements being made starting this year to add Partial County Alerting to the system, but Colorado has not seen any changes yet.

 

[ScannerSK]

I filed an online report about a week ago for the degraded sound of the Mead tower. I also sent an e-mail yesterday regarding this issue to the system analysts out of state that handle these requests. So, I'm sure they are aware of it.

It sounds like a bad capacitor in the audio section.

 

[KE0HIN]

its been like that for a while and they are aware

 

[tvengr]

It definitely sounds off frequency. Make sure modulation is set to FM. On your scanner try receiving 162.47 and 162.48 to see if audio improves.

 

[BinaryMode]

Seems now audio has intermediate intelligibility.

Now who do I get a hold of to let them know us color blind people need high contrasting colors? LOL NWR Transmitter Propagation

Seriously, I can't tell the difference between those two green colors. I don't know the name of my particular color blindness, but high contrasting colors makes things much easier to see. They could separate the three with dark blue, cyan and red and I'd see it more defined.

Who thought red and green would be super-duper?

Types of Color Blindness - All About Vision

What causes the seven types of color blindness and what can be done to help individuals see colors more effectively?

www.allaboutvision.com

 

[Spirit]

Has anybody written into them about Ft Collins/Ault Tower162.450? Not being able to get Larimer County on that one? I live in Loveland and I can't hit anything on it. If you haven't what is their e-mail so I can write to them?

 

[ScannerSK]

Has anybody written into them about Ft Collins/Ault Tower162.450? Not being able to get Larimer County on that one? I live in Loveland and I can't hit anything on it. If you haven't what is their e-mail so I can write to them?

They are mostly concerned with outages. It appears from the coverage map there are areas in Larimer county that may not be capable of receiving 162.450 MHz.

 

[Spirit]

ScannerSK, are they going to be working on that or not? I have Midlands WR-100 & WR-120 and I just get static on both no matter where I put it in the house or for weekley test. I have tin foil on the antenna about 3 or 4 inches it helped a few times but then quit again. So I'm at loss what to do. Any ideas besides an outdoor antenna that I don't want to put up and run cable in house?

 

[ScannerSK]

ScannerSK, are they going to be working on that or not?

I don't know what to advise. You can download the FEMA app for your phone and receive alerts that way instead.

FEMA Mobile Products

The FEMA App allows you to receive real-time weather alerts, send notifications to loved ones, locate emergency shelters in your area, and more.

www.fema.gov

 

[Spirit]

Ok Thank you

 

[KE0HIN]

program all of them in an old scanner but for what ever reason they all sound like crap its been this way for some time now

 

[BinaryMode]

Yes, I was going to come back here and state the same thing, in fact the same word: "crap." It seems hit and miss right now. Sometimes it sounds normal and then not.

 

[Spirit]

You can write She and tell her what's going on with all the weather channels in Larimer County & Mead/Longmont. She will have it investigated. Make sure you give her the Freq.s, same code and the the ID for each one.

All SAME lOCATION CODE 008069

WXM92 FORT COLLINS/AULT 162.450
WXM50 GREELEY 162.400
WXM51 MEAD/LONGMONT 162.475

Sherri R. Glover ● System Analyst

Inalab Consulting, Inc.

NOAA/ NWS/ DISS/ DST

1325 East West Highway ● Silver Spring, MD 20910

301-427-9753

sherri.glover@noaa.gov

 

[IrvingtonVFD43]

Years ago....well a long time ago, it seems getting any type of weather broadcasts over Denver KEC 76/162.550 and Mead/Longmont 162.4750 in Brighton was rough. Even with the famous RadioShack Sputnik antenna. It was almost unusable on my portable unless of course you go south of Brighton for 162.550 and North for 162.475. Or head east and west for both of them.

Why not just put the NWS transmitters on top of a mountain for better coverage?

 

[BinaryMode]

I already contacted Sherri...

 

[Spirit]

Don,

Thank you for the report on the radio performance.

The Longmont/Mead transmitter WXM51 is an intermittent issue. The tech that responded to the problem noted that it was operational again when he made it to the site to work on it. We will continue to troubleshoot and monitor this transmitter. It may take a bit of time to track it down with the intermittent problem.

There is a technician going out to check the Greeley and Fort Collins sites today.

Is it possible to contact you once we have the issues resolved to verify your signal reception?

Thank you again. David