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Residential Grade Radios and Features

Disaster Gear offers a broad variety of radios with features to meet most any need.  They include:

Tone alarm: The National Weather Service will send a 1050 Hz tone alarm before most warning and many watch messages are broadcast. The tone will activate all the receivers which are equipped to receive it, even if the audio is turned off. This is especially useful for warnings which occur during the night when most people are asleep. 

SAME technology: SAME, or Specific Alert Message Encoding allows you to specify the particular area for which you wish to receive alerts. Most warnings and watches broadcast over NOAA Weather Radio are county-based or independent city-based (parish-based in Louisiana), although in a few areas of the country the alerts are issued for portions of counties.

Properly programmed, a SAME receiver will respond only to alerts issued for the area (or areas) you have selected. This minimizes the number of “false alarms” for events which might be a few counties away from where you live. 

Selectable alerting of events: While SAME allows you to specify a particular area of interest, 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". 

Battery backup: Since power outages often occur during storms, having a receiver with battery backup can be crucial. However, unless you have a portable unit which you will use away from other power sources, an AC power connection is recommended to preserve battery life. 

Hand crank: Many of our radios offer the option of hand cranking for power.

External antenna jack: While most receivers come with a whip antenna which can usually be extended out from the unit, depending on your location you may need an external antenna to get good reception. Some receivers come with an external antenna jack which will allow you to connect to a larger antenna (which can be indoors or outdoors).

External device jack (special needs): Some radios have a jack to plug-in external notification devices, such as strobe lights or bed shakers, which can be useful for those with special needs. 

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Programming Your Receiver

To program NWR SAME receivers with the proper county(s) and marine area(s) of choice, you need to know the 6-digit SAME code number(s) for that county(s). Once you have the number, follow the directions supplied the manufacturer of your NWR SAME receiver for programming. The number is available two ways:

Description of Columns in State Tables

From the United States and Territories Table, clicking on a state or territory will bring up a table of eight columns.

  1. State identification Column: Identifies the state for the county listed in column two.
  2. Counties Column: Counties ins a specific state listed alphabetically. If a county is covered by more than one NWR transmitter, the county will be listed on multiple rows. If a county is not covered, it will be listed with a remark of
    "--No NWR Coverage--" in the Transmitter Column (4).
  3. NWR SAME Code Column: This 6-digit sequence uniquely describes each county. For coding of a whole county, the first digit is zero. For coding of a part of a county, the first digit is a non-zero number. The 2nd through 6th digits use the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS). The 2nd and 3rd digits are the 2-digit state/equivalent territory identifier; the last three digits are the county or equivalent area identifier.
  4. Transmitter Location Column: City and state of the NWR transmitter covering the county. Some counties are covered by a transmitter in an adjacent state.
  5. Transmitter Frequency Column: Frequency the transmitter broadcasts on. There are seven frequencies (in MHz) used throughout the NWR network: 162.400, 162.425, 162.450, 162.475, 162.500, 162.525, 162.550.
  6. Transmitter Call Sign Column: Station call sign of the transmitter.
  7. Transmitter Power Column: Peak power of the transmitter in watts.
  8. Remarks Column: Used when a transmitter covers only part of a county.
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NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards (NWR) is a nationwide network of radio stations which broadcasts continuous weather information directly from the nearest National Weather Service office. NWR broadcasts official Weather Service warnings, watches, forecasts and other hazard information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

NWR works with the Federal Communication Commission's (FCC) Emergency Alert System , and is an "All Hazards" radio network.  This makes NWR your single source for comprehensive weather and emergency information. In conjunction with Federal, State, and Local Emergency Managers and other public officials, NWR also works with Federal,State, and Local Emergency Managers to broadcast warning and post-event information for all types of hazards – including natural (such as earthquakes or avalanches), environmental (such as chemical releases or oil spills), and public safety (such as AMBER alerts or 911 Telephone outages).

NWR is provided as a public service by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).  NWR includes 1000 transmitters, covering all 50 states, adjacent coastal waters, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the U.S. Pacific Territories. NWR requires a special radio receiver or scanner capable of picking up the signal. Broadcasts are found in the VHF public service band at these seven frequencies (MHz):

  • 162.400
  • 162.425
  • 162.450
  • 162.475
  • 162.500
  • 162.525
  • 162.550
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Specific Alert Message Encoding (SAME)  technology allows you to hear location specific warnings. After buying an NWR SAME receiver, you must program your county, parish or independent city or marine area into the radio. Your NWR will then alert you only of weather and other emergencies for the county(s)/ area(s) programmed. NWR receivers without the SAME capability alert for emergencies anywhere within the coverage area of the NWR transmitter, even though the emergency could be well away from the listener.

  • When an NWS office broadcasts a warning, watch or non-weather emergency, it also broadcasts a digital SAME code that may be heard as a very brief static burst, depending on the characteristics of the receiver. This SAME code contains the type of message, county(s) affected, and message expiration time.
  • A programmed NWR SAME receiver will turn on for that message, with the listener hearing the 1050 Hz warning alarm tone as an attention signal, followed by the broadcast message.
  • At the end of the broadcast message, listeners will hear a brief digital end-of-message static burst followed by a resumption of the NWR broadcast cycle.