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NOAA National Weather Service Radio

A

alg2468

Leading Participant
Hello everyone:

This question about radio may be a rare one, but here it is:

NOAA has radio stations broadcasting on stations KHB-35 Boston (162.475 Mhz), WXL-93 Worcester (162.550 Mkz), and WXJ-39 (162.400 Mhz). These stations are available on any radio with the Weather Band or Weather Radio. However, since Tuesday, March 20th, I have not received any of these stations on any of my weather radios (and ironically, it was the day before the latest snowstorm). Anyone know what happened? Thanks.
 
According to a statement by the National Weather Service in Taunton, the only Weather Radio transmitter in their forecast area currently operating is in Somers, CT.

The Weather Service relocated offices this week. https://www.weather.gov/box/moveday
 
If you have an aviation band scanner, the AWOS frequencies for most major airports are on the sectional chart, or from someplace like SkyVector (https://skyvector.com/airport/BOS/General-Edward-Lawrence-Logan-International-Airport) or you can dial into AWOS or ASOS , Boston is 617 567-5762, Beverly is 978-921-5042 , Lawrence is 978-687-8017. Those are going to give you super accurate current conditions, albeit in pilot speak but you can figure it out.

In addition online you can get current weather for most every airport online, as I type this here is the current weather at Logan Airport

KBOS 251654Z 04020KT 10SM FEW035 SCT045 OVC055 02/M04 A3048 RMK AO2 PK WND 01026/1616 CIG 036 E SLP319 T00221044 $

There is an english translation here (lol) https://aviationweather.gov/adds/me...n&chk_tafs=on&hoursStr=1&std_trans=translated

and they give pretty accurate forecasts broken down into small blocks of time
Forecast for: KBOS (BOSTON , MA, US)
Text: KBOS 251444Z 2515/2618 03014G21KT P6SM SCT028 OVC035
Forecast period: 1500 to 1700 UTC 25 March 2018
Forecast type: FROM: standard forecast or significant change
Winds: from the NNE (30 degrees) at 16 MPH (14 knots; 7.3 m/s)
gusting to 24 MPH (21 knots; 10.9 m/s)
Visibility: 6 or more miles (10+ km)
Ceiling: 3500 feet AGL
Clouds: scattered clouds at 2800 feet AGL
overcast cloud deck at 3500 feet AGL
Weather: no significant weather forecast for this period

So absent of NOAA, aviation weather is just as if not more accurate.
 
MRBIboredop said:
If you have an aviation band scanner, the AWOS frequencies for most major airports are on the sectional chart, or from someplace like SkyVector (https://skyvector.com/airport/BOS/General-Edward-Lawrence-Logan-International-Airport) or you can dial into AWOS or ASOS , Boston is 617 567-5762, Beverly is 978-921-5042 , Lawrence is 978-687-8017. Those are going to give you super accurate current conditions, albeit in pilot speak but you can figure it out.

In addition online you can get current weather for most every airport online, as I type this here is the current weather at Logan Airport

KBOS 251654Z 04020KT 10SM FEW035 SCT045 OVC055 02/M04 A3048 RMK AO2 PK WND 01026/1616 CIG 036 E SLP319 T00221044 $

There is an english translation here (lol) https://aviationweather.gov/adds/me...n&chk_tafs=on&hoursStr=1&std_trans=translated

and they give pretty accurate forecasts broken down into small blocks of time
Forecast for: KBOS (BOSTON , MA, US)
Text: KBOS 251444Z 2515/2618 03014G21KT P6SM SCT028 OVC035
Forecast period: 1500 to 1700 UTC 25 March 2018
Forecast type: FROM: standard forecast or significant change
Winds: from the NNE (30 degrees) at 16 MPH (14 knots; 7.3 m/s)
gusting to 24 MPH (21 knots; 10.9 m/s)
Visibility: 6 or more miles (10+ km)
Ceiling: 3500 feet AGL
Clouds: scattered clouds at 2800 feet AGL
overcast cloud deck at 3500 feet AGL
Weather: no significant weather forecast for this period

So absent of NOAA, aviation weather is just as if not more accurate.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the information; according to the NOAA Boston facebook page, the Weather stations phone line connection was down and should be repaired this week.
 
alg2468 said:
Thank you for the information; according to the NOAA Boston facebook page, the Weather stations phone line connection was down and should be repaired this week.
Click to expand...

Remarkably unreliable system, which so many people depend upon. It would be bad to have this many sites down if a hurricane was approaching. Right now I can pick up the Mt Monadnock signal on 162.525 very weakly, but no others, at my location (a bit east of the Needham tower area). No sign of the Boston station (on Great Blue Hill), Providence, Hyannis, or Worcester which can usually be received here.

They should, at minimum, have a failover system at some transmitters that can pick up the signals from other distant sites (with different program sources) and feed it to the transmitter.
 
The budget is low. Many of the older stations operate with transmitters dating back to the 70s. Newer ones rely on phone lines. In most cities, there is usually one heritage NWR station and a few newer ones to fill nulls and super serve surrounding areas. The newer ones go out more often, usually for tech work on the phone line.

Where I am located, the NWS office programs more than 5 stations. On my local one you can actually hear another station’s audio leaking over the phone line. All except for the heritage one leave the air at the same time when they do line work.
 
channel99 said:
Remarkably unreliable system, which so many people depend upon.
Click to expand...
Sure seems that way.

They should, at minimum, have a failover system at some transmitters that can pick up the signals from other distant sites (with different program sources) and feed it to the transmitter.
Click to expand...

Or move the text-to-speech processing to the transmitter sites - should allow for better quality audio and theoretically better reliability. In normal daily operations, the current conditions are updated hourly and the forecast products about 4 times a day - super low bandwidth would be required to keep these things updated. Maybe 50MB a month.
 
The Blue Hills 162.475 transmitter has had a nasty phone line hum on it for as long as I can remember. It could be as long as 25 years or more that it’s been there! Would be nice if they could come up with a new way to distribute the audio, as I’m sure Verizon would love to stop supporting that analog line service.
 
jlehmann said:
The Blue Hills 162.475 transmitter has had a nasty phone line hum on it for as long as I can remember. It could be as long as 25 years or more that it’s been there! Would be nice if they could come up with a new way to distribute the audio, as I’m sure Verizon would love to stop supporting that analog line service.
Click to expand...

The could perhaps designate a few of the stations as priority - maybe Boston and Hyannis - and feed them with a reliable link. Losing the whole area is the worst part.

Given the time this has been down, someone could have brought a VHF receiver / scanner of any type to the Blue Hill site, tuned it to the Mt Monadnock signal which should be strong enough at that height, and improvised a connection to feed the transmitter.

Setting up something like that to fail over automatically at a few sites would not be overly expensive.
 
Some of those stations have awful reception for whatever reason. I noticed the loud phone line hum on KHB35 and to a lesser extent WXJ39. I've also noticed that KEC73 and WXL93 voices sound a little different and lighter than the others from Taunton. I have to rely sometimes on Taunton despite being in Connecticut because KHB47 is extremely unreliable and the reception is awful
 
Carltheradioguy said:
Some of those stations have awful reception for whatever reason. I noticed the loud phone line hum on KHB35 and to a lesser extent WXJ39. I've also noticed that KEC73 and WXL93 voices sound a little different and lighter than the others from Taunton. I have to rely sometimes on Taunton despite being in Connecticut because KHB47 is extremely unreliable and the reception is awful
Click to expand...

They finally got Hyannis back on within the last week when the phone line was repaired. Feeding the approximately 1000 stations, many in hard-to-reach locations, via phone lines can't be the cheapest way. Possibly using satellite or point-to-point microwave links, similar to TV/radio STL, between sites would work.
 
Great! I used to stay in Welfleet in the Summer and KEC73's signal wasn't the greatest up there. I kept having to move the antenna around and when in the car it suffered a lot of "Picket fencing" or whatever it's called. I remember quickly stopping in P Town and KEC73 changed over to KDO95 in Falmouth ME. Sadly, it seems that KEC73 is more geared for New Bedford to Hyannis because it comes in Crystal Clear there.
 
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