Weather Alerts outside of NWR Range?

[olg]

Is there any good way to receive weather alerts and weather information in the outdoors where no NWR reception exists, such as in large areas of the Southwest?
Options I have looked at:

- Red Cross or FEMA app for warnings and windy or meteoblue for weather forecasts

- Preferred way, but needs cell reception​

- Satellite messenger, such as Garmin Inreach, Zoleo, Bivystick

- No alerts​

- All of these services use DarkSky as weather provider. Darksky is geared more towards local city weather and is of dubious repute in the outdoors​

- Expensive​

- AM radio

- Hard to find broadcast stations that have useful weather reports​

- Amateur radio

- No good repeater coverage​

- Could setup script to pull weather report from NWS and send over winlink, but winlink receiver not portable​

- Better NWR receiver/antenna

- Doesn't work, reception typically not possible due to lack of LOS. Yagi too large to carry around anyway​

- Weather Satellite

- Only raw data.​

 

[ScannerSK]

Do you have cellphone reception? The weather service offers RSS severe weather feeds and there are many apps that can be installed on a cellphone to receive RSS feeds.

NWS Public Alerts in XML/CAP v1.1 and ATOM Formats - NOAA's National Weather Service

alerts.weather.gov

 

[jaspence]

I get reports through a service by the local sheriff through my cell phone.

 

[olg]

In most areas there is zero cell phone reception. When hiking in a National Park, sometimes I tune into their repeater, often they report the weather for their rangers. But this is only once a day and not reliable.

 

[ScannerSK]

Well, maybe you need some type of satellite based phone or satellite based internet where you can manually check on the weather as required? It sounds like you have exhausted all the inexpensive options.

 

[Firebuff880]

Maybe something like Spot Messenger--

SPOT Satellite Communication Devices | Saved by SPOT | US

www.findmespot.com

 

[olg]

Well, maybe you need some type of satellite based phone or satellite based internet where you can manually check on the weather as required? It sounds like you have exhausted all the inexpensive options.

I think you are right, satellite is probably best. Starlink said they don't have any plans for mobile access, but that might change very quickly. Last year a bunch of new satellite messengers have appeared (Zoleo, Bivystick, Somewear, SatPaq), so hopefully the market will become more competitive.

Reason I am asking here is that there might be some unofficial and less-known ways. For example, Death Valley National Park has an extensive morning report on 170.100 every day at 9am. I wouldn't be surprised if other organizations passed on NWR warnings on their frequencies as well.

 

[krokus]

What about monitoring the local FD dispatch, since most of them send alerts for severe weather. (Some county EOCs do, too.)

 

[olg]

It seems, the NWR warnings are also broadcast in text format using a system called EDIS. (The EAS in CA is only used for the severe alerts, but EDIS is supposed to carry all) There is another thread here: Emergency Digital Information Service (EDIS)
EDIS supposedly uses two low VHF teletype channels( 37.020 MHz and 37.3800 MHz) , the licenses are active, but it is not clear if these frequencies are still in use for this purpose. Some emergency plans require radio stations to receive the EDIS messages via the Operational Area Satellite Information System (OASIS) (https://www.caloes.ca.gov/WarningCenterSite/Documents/04-Siskiyou Monitor Plan.pdf).

I haven't found any information on this satellite system, it might also be encrypted, but this could be a way to get weather warnings anywhere in CA.

Also, some ham radio groups seem to have automatic repeaters that recognize the EAS headers and rebroadcast them unofficially, but repeater coverage is not great either. Haven't found anything on HF.

 

[olg]

NOAA weather alerts are transmitted through these satellite channels:

1. The National Weather Wire Service distributes warnings (and many other products over satellite) NOAA Weather Wire Service
2. NOAAPORT noaaport
3. Emergency Managers Weather Information Network Emergency Managers Weather Information Network


At least the first two can be received with a DVB-S2 receiver, but require a substantial dish.



Configuration

USER	REQUIREMENTS
NWWS SATELLITE RECEPTION HARDWARE	Satellite Dish 1.8m or larger Low Noise Band (LNB) down converter DVB-S2 compatible satellite receiver (NOVRA S300 or similar) Ethernet, RF coaxial and CAT5 network cables as necessary Windows - based PC Minimum - 20GB storage and 3GB RAM SBN/NOAAPORT Channel 201
NWWS SATELLITE SOFTWARE	Satellite receiver ingest SBN/NOAAPORT Channel 201 Product filter (WMO formatted messages) Commercial software, or user developed. User_ID and password are not required.
NWWS OPEN-INTERFACE INTERNET ACCESS (or with Satellite*) * recommended configuration​	User-ID and Password from www.weather.gov/nwws/news Commercial software, or User developed XMPP reader (Java, Pidgin, etc..) Internet connection (see NWWS Issues if there are NWWS-OI connection problems) User_ID and password are mandatory for NWWS-OI access.

DISSEMINATION

NWS DISSEMINATION PLATFORMS	INTERNET	SATELLITE	RADIO BROADCAST	E-MAIL	TELEPHONE	TELEVISION	ACTIVATES the local EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM (EAS)
NOAA Weather Wire Service (NWWS) NOAA Weather Wire Service	Open Interface (OI); XMPP format only; sign-up required	PID201; WMO format only		NWWS.Help@noaa.gov			Yes; WMO or XMPP formats available
NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards (NWR) NOAA Weather Radio			162.400 MHz -162.550 MHz; within 40 miles of NWR tower.			RCA AlertGuard TV sets	Yes; WMO format only; off-air capture possible; uses SAME code to alert at-risk area receivers.
NWS FTP Anonymous FTP/HTTP Services for obtaining Weather Data and Products (Users cannot maintain 24-hour connectivity)	All NWS products in WMO format only. See Product Dissemination (https://www. weather.gov/ NWWS/)						NO
Interactive NWS (iNWS) InteractiveNWS				Restricted Access; see iNWS website for details.	E-mail notifications can be received on some phones.		NO
SBN/NOAAPORT PID101-108 noaaport		All NWS products; text products in WMO format; alerts and warnings in CAP v1.2 format.					Yes; WMO format and CAPv1.2 available
NWS Chat NWSChat - NOAA's National Weather Service	Restricted Access; see NWSchat website for details						NO
Emergency Manager’s Weather Information Network (EMWIN) Emergency Managers Weather Information Network User Systems: HRIT/EMWIN Overview │ GOES-R Series		GOES – East and GOES West; products in WMO format via High Rate Information Transmission					NO
Marine Weather Contacts Marine, Tropical and Tsunami Services Branch	Ocean Prediction Center https://ocean. weather.gov/ marine_areas.php				(828) 271-4800		NO
Local Weather Contacts https://www. weather.gov/stormready/contact	Weather National Weather Service						NO

OTHER AGENCIES & ORGANIZATIONS	INTERNET	SATELLITE	RADIO BROADCAST	E-MAIL	TELEPHONE	TELEVISION	ACTIVATES the local EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM (EAS)
The International Justice and Public Safety Network(Nlets) Nlets - The International Justice And Public Safety Network	Restricted Access; see Nlets website for details						NO
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Integrated Public Alert & Warning System	Restricted access; see FEMA IPAWS website for details.				Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA)		Yes; CAP v1.2 format only.
United States Coast Guard (USCG) U.S. VHF Channel Information			VHF voice and marine radio fax for coastal marine ones https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ radiofax.shtml	https://www.dcms.uscg.mil/Our-Organization/Assistant-Commandant-for-Human-Resources-CG-1/Strategy-and-HR-Capability-CG-1B/AWS-E			NO

COMMERCIAL DISSEMINATION PLATFORMS	INTERNET	SATELLITE	RADIO	E-MAIL	TELEPHONE	TELEVISION	EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM (EAS)
Local Television Stations	Some Television-Weather Applications		RCA AlertGuard TV sets		Some Television-Weather Applications	Television sets; local stations for weather and EAS.	Check with local Channel/ station
FM Radio Broadcasts			88 MHz – 108 MHz				Check with station
AM Radio Broadcasts			535 kHz – 1605 kHz				Check with station

NON-COMMERCIAL DISSEMINATION PLATFORMS	INTERNET	SATELLITE	RADIO	E-MAIL	TELEPHONE	TELEVISION	EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM (EAS)
Local Emergency Agency				Sign-up required	Sign-up required		E-mail, text, and telephone notifications possible. Check with local Emergency Management Agency.
Ham Radio Operators			Depends on individual Operator