Motorola APCO25 Using Weather Search and Weather Alert Same, Searching for a Weather Broadcast

Using Weather Search and Weather Alert (SAME)

Your scanner allows you to either search for a local NOAA weather broadcast, or be set to alert when a SAME weather alert is broadcast on a NOAA channel.

Searching for a Weather Broadcast

To search for a weather broadcast in your area:

1:SERVICE OPTION → 1:WEATHER → 1:MONITOR

The scanner begins to search the frequencies used by the National Weather Service for these broadcasts. When it finds a broadcast, it stops on the channel until you select another option or reception of the signal stops.

Note: NOAA broadcasts are continuous broadcasts. You will only lose reception if you move out of a coverage area. If the signal is lost, the scanner resumes searching for a weather transmission.

Using Weather Alert (SAME)

Important: Your scanner has been primarily designed to be a radio scanner. While it incorporates weather alert as one feature, we strongly recommend that you not use the scanner as your sole means for receiving emergency alerts. Your local electronics retailer carries several weather radios specifically designed for this function.

SAME (Specific Area Message Encoding) was adopted late in the last century to replace the wide-area alerts previously used. Weather alerts today are preceded by a digital packet that identifies not only the type of alert, but also the geographic location for the alert. Thus, it is possible for a weather broadcast that can be received across many counties to be targeted to a single county.

To specify a county, SAME uses a standard established by the US Census bureau, called FIPS. The format of a FIPS code is:

DSSCCC

Where

D = area subdivision (0=entire area)

SS = State code (00=all states)

CCC = County code (000=all counties)

For example, the FIPS code for Tarrant County, Texas is:

048439 (48=Texas; 439=Tarrant County).

Some counties are further subdivided, in which cases, the first digit will be 0 for all subdivisions in the county and each subdivision will be labeled 1-9.

To program your scanner to alert you when the weather service issues an alert, you must set the scanner to the alert mode, and then leave the scanner monitoring the weather service. You cannot scan and monitor for weather alerts at the same time.

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