Uniden BCD996T manual Turning Weather Alert On/Off, Programming a Same Group

Turning Weather Alert On/Off

In weather alert mode, your scanner functions as a severe weather warning radio. This is especially useful when your area is expecting severe weather conditions late at night. When you set the scanner to weather alert mode, it holds on the weather channel, but does not play the channel’s audio. If it detects a weather alert, it sounds a tone, displays information about the weather alert, and turns on the audio so you can hear the weather broadcast.

[MENU] WX Operation F

Weather Alert F

F + [WX]

This setting determines which types of signals will trigger an alert. Choose your setting, then press F.

Alert Only — the scanner alerts when it detects the 1050 Hz tone that accompanies all weather alerts.

SAME 1-5— the scanner alerts and displays information about the weather alert when it receives a weather alert signal that includes any FIPS code you have programmed into the specified SAME group.

All FIPS — the scanner alerts and displays information about the weather alert when it receives any FIPS code.

Programming a SAME Group

You can edit any of the 5 SAME groups in your scanner. Each group can have up to 8 FIPS codes.

SAME (Specific Area Messaging System) is a system developed by the National Weather Service to reduce the number of alerts received by consumers by allowing them to hear alerts only for the counties in which they have interest such as where they live or work. Each alert contains information about the type and severity of the alert, as well as the specific geographic locations affected by the alert.

The geographic locations are designated using FIPS codes. Each county or parish in the US and its territories are assigned a FIPS code. In addition, certain special regions and wildcard settings can be assigned.

FIPS codes are in the format nSSCCC:

n: A special sub-county designator. For an entire county, use 0.

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