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20-428 Owner's Manual
The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has allocated channels for use by the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Regulatory agencies in other countries have also
allocated channels for use by their weather reporting authorities.
NOAA and your local weather reporting authority broadcast your local forecast and regional
weather information on one or more of these channels.
listening to a weather channel
To hear your local forecast and regional weather information, press WX. Your scanner scans through
the weather band then stops within a few seconds on the next available weather broadcast.
SAME standby mode
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) area code, and an event code that corresponds with the type of
alert being sent. You can configure your scanner to operate in SAME Standby mode, where it
monitors a selected weather radio station for SAME alerts for areas you specify. You can program
your scanner with up to 10 FIPS codes for the areas you desire. The National Weather Service
maintains a current list of FIPS codes at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/.
To configure your scanner for SAME Standby mode, follow these steps:
1. Press WX until you identify the weather station with the strongest signal for your location.
2. Press FUNC, and then PROG to access the FIPS code entry table.
3. Use the /¥ or ¥/ keys to select the desired FIPS code storage location.
4. Use the numeric keys to enter the desired FIPS code, and then press ENT to store the code. Press
TEXT to label the code entry with an alphanumeric text table if desired. Repeat this process for all
the FIPS codes that you wish to store.
5. Press L/OUT to lock out or enable specific FIPS entries.
6. Press WX to exit the FIPS code entry table.
Notes:
• Press WX then a number key to quickly review stored FIPS codes. Press L/OUT to toggle lockout
status.
• Your scanner can also detect the 1050 Hz weather alert tone when a weather channel is set as the
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