User's Manual

20-405 User’s Guide DRAFT
Weather Alerts
Receiving All Weather Alerts
To program the scanner to search for weather alerts every two seconds, set a weather channel as
the priority channel.
1. Press WX.
2. Select the weather channel you want to set as the priority channel.
3. Press and hold ENT then PRI/ALERT. P ChAnnEL is displayed momentarily. Then PCH flashes
and 000.0000 (or the previously-stored frequency) appears.
4. Press ENT to store the priority channel. The display flashes twice. Press TUNE/CLEAR to cancel.
5. Press PRI/ALERT during scanning or searching to turn on the priority feature. PRI appears.
If the scanner detects a 1050 Hz weather alert tone on the programmed channel, the scanner
sounds the alert tone and ALErt flashes. Press any key to turn off the alarm.
Receiving Alerts for Specific Areas
About SAME Signals
The National Weather Service precedes each weather alert with a digitally encoded SAME (Specific
Area Message Encoding) signal, then a 1050 Hz tone. The SAME signal includes a FIPS (Federal
Information Processing Standard) code and an event code that corresponds with the type of alert
being sent.
The FIPS code format is:
Subdivisions State County
0-9 01-50 XXX
(0=entire area) (00=all states) (000=all counties)
Example: 048439
(0=All; 48=Texas; 439=Tarrant County)
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