Learn How To Program a Weather Radio

A weather radio is a valuable tool that can warn you when severe weather is in your area.

You can program the radio to receive weather alerts for your area and multiple surrounding areas.

You can also program the radio to receive only the alerts you want. An example would be a lake wind advisory. This would be valuable information for someone who lives near the lake, but it may not be valuable for someone who does not.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH INTRUCTIONAL VIDEO ON HOW TO PROGRAM A WEATHER RADIO

NWR Transmitter Problems?

Please call the following number to report NWR Transmitter Problems: 1-888-886-1227 or fill in the form below to send an email to nwroutage@noaa.gov

Storm Team 7 meteorologist Dan Bickford shows you how to program a weather radio.

S.A.M.E. County Codes

S.A.M.E. stands for Specific Alert Message Encoding. You can use it to specify areas in which you would like to recieve alerts.

Make sure you select the S.A.M.E. code for your area and NOT the code with the clearest signal or you will get alerts for areas you may not want! Learn more about S.A.M.E.

S.A.M.E. allows you to specify a particular area of interest, but some receivers allow you to turn off alarms for certain events which might not be important to you.

For example, if you live in a coastal county, but not right at the beach, you might not care about Coastal Flood Warnings. This feature may also be called "Event Blocking" or "Defeat Siren".

Click on your state below to find the S.A.M.E. code for your area.

South Carolina

North Carolina

Georgia

Tips for Buying a Weather Radio

Depending on the information you want to access, and how and where you plan to access our broadcasts, you have many options. There are standalone Weather Radio receivers as well as multi-band/function receivers with the weather band included.

If you are want to be alerted to Warnings and Watches day or night, a standalone receiver might work best for you. If you just want to be able to tune to in the weather broadcast and do not care about receiving alerts, a general multi-band/function receiver could be better.

Standalone Receivers: Standalone receivers might also come with AM/FM bands, but their primary use will be to receive Weather Radio broadcasts. You can choose between handheld and desktop models, depending on whether you plan to take your radio with you when you go out.

There are many choices from a number of manufacturers with prices ranging from around $20 to over $100, depending on the number of features included.

Multi-Band/Function Receivers: These receivers bundle a number of features. Weather Radio is just one of many frequency bands included. You can find the Weather Radio band included in:

AM/FM radios
Shortwave receivers
CB radios
VHF Marine radios

Scanners
GMRS/FRS 2-way radios
Car radios

Where to Buy

You can buy receivers at many retail outlets, including electronics, department, sporting goods, and boat and marine accessory stores and their catalogs.

They can also be purchased via the Internet from online retailers or directly from manufacturers.

- Source: National Weather Service