KB2GOM
Active Member
Local NWS office has been notified. They say they will "look into it."
NOAA Weather Radio off the air, Albany, NY area
- Thread starter KB2GOM
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PhillyWX
Member
Friend up there has had issues with WXL34 for a solid 2 weeks or so. They gave him the same response, no ETA to return.
KB2GOM
Active Member
Not showing as an outage.
This AM, I was able to pick it up faintly on one of my radios. Perhaps a problem with the transmitter, feedline or antenna?
I can hear a very weak signal, here at my QTH in FN32 (Aug 8, 2026). Now that is with a VHF/UHF colinear vertical up at least 20ft, at my ~730ft elevation, with a good direct line of sight to the Helderbergs. Can't hear it at all with any handhelds anywhere in the Capital District. I think the PA is bad, what we're hearing is the exciter (which is probably mW). KB2GOM is also on a good hill in my area, which is why he hears it too.
PhillyWX
Member
I don't know much about how sites work, but the site was struck by lightning earlier this year. They have not yet implemented a fix. Whatever a lightning strike can do a transmitter, it must've been really damaging.
It's been 2 months (today 8/13/2026) and it's interesting that only us local "radio nerds" are the only ones who noticed the outage. Which tells me that nobody in the Capital District really listens or uses the NOAA weather alert radios anymore. Everyone 100% relies on their smart-phones for weather alerts and every other type of alert. Being a "radio nerd" I always liked it as a solid-signal for a radio test. I do suspect it is a power amplifier problem (PA) because you can still hear the exciter, which is what feeds the power amp. Exciter can be in mW range, which is why it's way down in the noise. We're not really in "tornado alley" here in the Northeast so I doubt the demand for NOAA weather radio alerts is a big thing here.
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