NOAA Broadcasts Mode ?

[BOBRR]

Hello,

Re the NOAA broadcasts on 162.400, etc., I understand that these are FM.

Are they NFM or WFM mode ?

BTW: where is WFM used, and to be found, mainly ?

Thanks,
Bob

 

[nd5y]

The bandwidth setting for or most scanners is:
NFM = 12.5 kHz bandwidth (2.5 kHz deviation)
FM = 25 kHz bandwidth (5 kHz deviation)
WFM = 200 kHz bandwidth (75 kHz deviation)

NOAA weather stations should be FM
Commercial FM broadcast stations (88-108 MHz) are WFM

 

[BOBRR]

From OP: A Bit Of Followup

Hi,

Thanks for help.
It's a bit confusing (at least for me).

The typical Coast Guard vhf channels, such as their CH 16 Emerg., etc:
NFM or FM ?

My local PD is on 853 MHz.
Would this be NFM or FM ?

If I have it programmed wrong, would I still hear "anything" ?
Is it a case of if programmed correctly, would be significantly clearer, but even if wrong, would still, probably, hear to a reasonable extent ?

Thanks again for help,
Bob

 

[nd5y]

Marine VHF is FM.
Most stuff on 800 MHz is FM.

If a particular station's audio level is louder than average on NFM then try FM.
If the audio level is too low on FM then try NFM.
The only scanner I have used that had NFM is a BCD396T and it doesn't make much difference whether you use FM or NFM.

 

[mmckenna]

800MHz was not affected by the FCC mandated narrow banding that went into effect on January 1st, so systems there are still permitted to run 25KHz wide channels (5khz deviation)
There is nothing stopping them from running 12.5KHz wide channels (2.5KHz deviation or Narrow FM), in fact, one of my repeaters on 800MHz is running in Narrow FM mode.
So, 800MHz PD traffic could be FM or NFM, but more than likely FM.

Marine VHF is all FM, although there is stuff on the books for NFM on Marine VHF:
MARITIME VHF NARROWBAND CHANNELS - 12.5 KHZ
Technically someone -could- run narrow FM on marine VHF, but you'd be unlikely to find that. There are not any retail available marine VHF radios that do narrow band FM, at least not that I've seen. There are LMR/Part 90 radios that have part 80 authorizations also (Kenwood has a few) that can be programmed for narrow FM and would be totally legal if meeting all the FCC rules.

 

[BOBRR]

From OP:

Hi,

Just a quick thanks for info.
Appreciate it.

Bob