{"id":1204,"date":"2010-08-10T16:20:37","date_gmt":"2010-08-10T20:20:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/?p=3928"},"modified":"2023-07-09T16:43:15","modified_gmt":"2023-07-09T20:43:15","slug":"upgrading-national-weather-service-radio-transmitter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/2010\/08\/upgrading-national-weather-service-radio-transmitter\/","title":{"rendered":"Upgrading National Weather Service Radio transmitter"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

If you have ever wondered about those ubiquitous NOAA<\/a> all hazards radio<\/a> (formerly National Weather Service<\/a> radio) stations, wonder no more. These stations transmit on one of five frequencies in the 162 MHz band with power ranges between 250 and 1,000 watts. \u00a0There are over 1,000 transmitters scattered throughout the country including outlying territories like American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas, Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original 1958 plan was for these stations to transmit Aviation and Marine weather forecasts. \u00a0The system was expanded for use by the general public in the early sixties. \u00a0Since that time, it has been slowly expanding, with the most recent survey concluding that NOAA weather radio station can be received by 95% of the US population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of those stations in my neck of the woods is due for a transmitter upgrade. WXL-37<\/a> uses two Scientific Radio Systems SR-416P \u00a0transmitters, as a main and a standby. \u00a0The programming audio comes from the NWS office in Albany, New York, via TELCO line. \u00a0The old transmitters are tube type made by in 1976. \u00a0 They are reliable transmitters, however, after 34 years of continuous use, they are getting a little tired. \u00a0They are also big and bulky and since Scientific Radio Systems went out of business, not been supported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year, NOAA is replacing these transmitters with a Nautel <\/a>NG1000. \u00a0I have worked with Nautel’s military-grade transmitters before and found them to be extremely rugged. \u00a0Those transmitters are what the original AMPFET design was based on. \u00a0Nautel is not the only vendor that NOAA is using however, others include Armstrong Transmitters<\/a> and Crown Broadcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Scientific<\/a>
NOAA Scientific Radio Systems SR416P VHF transmitters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Nautel NG1000 is a little thing, taking up about half an equipment rack with an outboard cavity filter and dummy load. \u00a0There are two drawers, a controller an antenna switch, and a remote control. \u00a0Each drawer is its own 1 KW transmitter. \u00a0The GUI is on a laptop, which is what I prefer. \u00a0If there must be some sort of computer-driven GUI, then make it removable, so that when lightning strikes the 1,000-foot steel lightning rod 25 feet away, it doesn’t get blown up. \u00a0Each transmitter is connected to a 30 AMP 240 Volt breaker via a 4-prong twist lock plug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Nautel<\/a>
Nautel NG1000 NOAA transmitter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The antenna for this station is near the middle of this 1,000-foot tower, thus the station gets excellent coverage with a TPO of 1,000 watts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"American<\/a>
American Tower site, Highland, NY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On a related side note, the computer synthesized<\/a> voices<\/a> normally heard on NOAA stations took several years to evolve. \u00a0Remember when this began back in the mid 1990’s with “Paul.” \u00a0Several years later, “Craig” and “Donna” were introduced. \u00a0Finally, “Tom,” is able to change voice inflections for emphasis. \u00a0When I was in the Coast Guard, we did high seas synopsis and forecast on HF without aid of computers. \u00a0At times, especially during typhoon season, it got a little busy in the weather broadcast position. \u00a0There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods. \u00a0Personally, I’d rather hear a human voice, especially in a crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you have ever wondered about those ubiquitous NOAA all hazards radio (formerly National Weather Service radio) stations, wonder no more. These stations transmit on one of five frequencies in the 162 MHz band with power ranges between 250 and 1,000 watts. \u00a0There are over 1,000 transmitters scattered throughout the country including outlying territories like … Continue reading Upgrading National Weather Service Radio transmitter<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[137,56],"class_list":["post-1204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-tech-stuff","tag-noaa","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1204"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12210,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204\/revisions\/12210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}