16
Weather Alert
The traditional weather feature receives weather broadcast (usually
within a 50-mile radius) then sounds an alarm of any emergency code
which was transmitted along with the broadcast. This means that
people who live outside an affected area are often alerted even when
their area is not affected, causing many of them to ignore potentially real
emergency/weather warnings that can save lives.
In 1994, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
began broadcasting coded signals called FIPS (Federal Information
Processing System) codes along with their standard weather broadcasts
from stations in your area. These codes identify an emergency and the
specific geographic area (such as a county) affected by the emergency.
The
OCEANUS DSC
was developed with the SAME (Specific Area
Message Encoding) technology. This allows your radio to receive,
interpret, and display the information about the codes so you can
determine if the emergency might affect your area.
Each FIPS code identifies a specific geographic area (defined by the
National Weather Service), so your radio sounds an alert only when an
emergency/weather emergency is declared in those locations. This
helps you more efficiently track the emergency/weather conditions in
and around your area.
The Weather Alert mode can be activated to alert you of dangerous
weather. When Weather Alert is turned On, and a warning signal is
received, an emergency siren will sound at full volume, regardless of the
volume setting. When the signal stops, you will hear the active weather
channel broadcast at the normal volume.
Note:
See SETUP mode to program up to 10 FIPS codes.
