View Single Post
Old 28-Nov-2010, 7:40 PM   #1
tripelo
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Dallas, TX
Posts: 173
NOAA Weather Radio VHF Transmitters

Wondering about the feasibility of including the coverage/data of NOAA weather radio transmitters at this website.

NOAA Weather Radio currently broadcasts from over 800 FM transmitters acrosss the United States.

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/car/nwr.php

NOAA Weather radio transmitters broadcast on seven VHF frequencies from 162.400 MHz to 162.550 MHz.

Maximum transmitter power is listed as 1,000 Watts. The NOAA site indicates that the intended coverage area is 40 miles radius.

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/cae/reception.htm

In general, there may be interest in reception of weather radio broadcasts.

Another issue: conceivably some difficulties with TV reception could be related to nearness to NOAA transmitters.

Since the transmitters are in the 162 MHz range, this is near in frequency to VHF Channel 7 (174-180 MHz). VHF antenna preamps ( or the wideband preamps that are often used for UHF) can amplify a NOAA signal which, if near a NOAA transmitter could overload the receiver front-end. Although, the NOAA broadcasts are vertically polarized, this probably helps some with interference issues, but many antenna systems may not have significant cross-pol rejection.

Last edited by tripelo; 28-Nov-2010 at 7:45 PM. Reason: clarification
tripelo is offline   Reply With Quote