Weather Radio SAME alerts?

[poltergeisty]

Does the location of the radio tower and its coverage area supersede the FIPS code for a particular county? I wouldn't think so but in my case I have Mead/Longmont programed because I can't pick up the Fort Collins/Ault transmitter which would seem to be closer. Yet it says 300 watts! and Longmont is south at only 100 watts. MY location is Larimer and I'm using 162.475. NWR Colorado County Coverage

I had an oddity just awhile ago where the radio alerted for a storm alert in Douglas County! That's south of here! and isn't covered by this transmitter.

Is that a system glitch or perhaps a human error thing?


I'm also wondering if there is the potential of not having the alert go off if for some reason the digital code isn't received properly by the wx radio?
Would it be safer, and if not smarter to just not program a SAME code and allow all alerts for all areas? By virtue of two points;

1) The code might not break the radio's squelch for some reason.

2) Best to know what's going on all around you and not just your vicinity.




So either there may be potential of digital inconsistencies, or the NWS system is screwy. Seems like they have had problems in the past here in Fort Collins. Especially noted that when the wx radio didn't go off, but the TV had gone to the NWS alert screen for this county and sometimes I get the alert and nothing is heard on TV or radio. Signal strength is at full bars btw.


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[AK9R]

According to the link you posted to NWR coverage in Colorado, Douglas County is covered by two transmitters using the same SAME code:

Douglas	008035	Denver			162.550	KEC76	330	
Douglas	008035	Franktown		162.450	WNG550	300

And Wells County is covered by four transmitters:

Weld	008123	Fort Collins/Ault	162.450	WXM92	300	
Weld	008123	Greeley			162.400	WXM50	300	
Weld	008123	Mead/Longmont		162.475	WXM51	100	Southwest 1/4
Weld	008123	Sterling		162.400	WXM53	300	Northeast 1/4

To get the alerts for those counties, program the transmitter you can hear best. If you can't hear a transmitter that is programmed to broadcast the SAME alerts for the county in question, you won't get the alerts. Also, note that while 162.450 covers both counties, they are not the same transmitter.

By the way, I'm not aware of a weather radio that will scan multiple transmit channels while also listening for SAME codes to decode. If you need to monitor multiple transmitters to get the SAME alerts of interest, I believe you'll need mulitple weather radios.

As for the specific phenomena you experienced, you may want to call the nearest NWS office and ask to talk to the Warning Coordination Meteorologist. He can probably answer your question as to how the transmitters are programmed.

 

[DaveNF2G]

You should also listen to the announcement following the required weekly alert test on Wednesday mornings at around 11 AM local time. They should list the counties for which the transmitter you are monitoring initiates alerts.

 

[SCPD]

NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has all you need know