NOAA Weatheradio Changes Its Name

NOAA Weatheradio is now NOAA All-Hazards radio (AHR.) As of June 17, 2004, the switch was officially made. The programming didn’t change, and isn’t going to. You will still be able to receive forecasts, warnings and current conditions, but now the Department of Homeland Security will be able to access the system directly to provide terrorism alerts and important information about other man-made disasters.

Over 98 percent of the population of the United States now is able to receive the broadcasts, from over 900 stations. The goal is to extend the coverage area to include 99 percent of the population. If you own an existing Weatheradio receiver, you are already ready to receive the new messages.

The system is designed for Specific Area Messaging Encoding (SAME) technology that allows specially designed receivers to select the categories and locations of alerts that they receive.

This is all good news. But the bad news is that only 10% of the households and businesses in the country have the receivers. There are plans to institute programs to stimulate interest in the radios.

RCA is manufacturing televisions sets that have the AHR receivers built in. When alerts are issued, your broadcast will be interrupted and you will hear the alert. DirecTV has also announced plans to include AHR programming in its signal feeds.

AHR is a great and worthwhile thing. But it is missing one thing...J.B. Elliott excellent content. Guess we will all just have to enjoy it here.
Posted by   www
on January 14, 2005, 11:11 pm
Bill wrote: ”But the bad news is that only 10% of the households and businesses in the country have the receivers. There are plans to institute programs to stimulate interest in the radios.”


Bill…. I stopped using my weather radio about 2 years ago when I was woke up at 3 AM for a watch issued for the late afternoon. Maybe…just maybe other people feel as I do.

Stimulate interest???? Don’t issue an “alert tone” for watches and go back to the “live” voice instead of the computer voice, but we know that will not happen.


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Posted by  
on January 15, 2005, 8:18 am
I spent a few bucks and got the SAME radio. I have it set only for 2 counties so I dont get awaken by alearts for counties that dont affect me. My biggest gripe is that computer voice, its gotten better over the years. I miss hearing JB "live" durring storms.

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Posted by Clay  
on January 15, 2005, 4:11 pm
I also have one of the S.A.M.E. radios, though difficult to use, it is beneficial to me, because with my old one, i learned not to turn it on during a severe weather threat, because heaven forbid a flash flood watch be issued at 3:00 A.M. Then I was up the rest of the night. The computer voice is annoying, oh well. We can't have it all.

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Posted by Josh  
on January 17, 2005, 12:33 am
Having them in TV's is a really good idea!!

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