NOAA Weather Radio in Iowa

NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards is the National Weather Service’s own broadcast: more than 1,000 transmitters, each reading the warnings, watches, forecasts and current conditions from the forecast office that programs it, 24 hours a day. It also carries civil emergency messages and AMBER alerts relayed through the Emergency Alert System.

SAME codes. A receiver with Specific Area Message Encoding sounds its alarm only for the counties it is programmed with. Enter the six-digit SAME code of your county, and of the counties upwind of you if you want earlier notice. A code beginning with 0 is the whole county; a code beginning with 1 to 9 is one part of it, used where NWS alerts part of a large county on its own.

Frequencies. Every transmitter uses one of seven frequencies between 162.400 and 162.550 MHz. The channel numbers printed on most receivers (WX1 to WX7) are shown beside each, but makers number them differently, so tune by frequency when in doubt.

Range. NWS gives the range as about 40 miles from the transmitter. Hills, forests, valleys and steel buildings cut it; open water and high ground extend it. Where a county’s note names a part (“W 1/2”, “Except NW”), the transmitter reaches only that part: pick the one that covers yours, or the one that comes in clearest.

Status. NWS marks a transmitter degraded when it is on the air with a fault (low power, a noisy signal, no SAME tones) and off the air when it is silent. Listen to the next nearest transmitter that covers your county until it is back.