NOAA weather and emergency alerts question.

[WRQM273]

I found the frequency for the NOAA radio in my area 162.400, which is great but all it does is repeats on a loop the current weather stuff. Is there a frequency that only transmits emergency weather alerts? I saw weather alerts in my radios settings but the info in the manual did not say much on its operation or what it did.

[SteveC7010]

20 minutes ago, WRQM273 said:

I found the frequency for the NOAA radio in my area 162.400, which is great but all it does is repeats on a loop the current weather stuff. Is there a frequency that only transmits emergency weather alerts? I saw weather alerts in my radios settings but the info in the manual did not say much on its operation or what it did.

If there's an alert in your area, that NOAA station will broadcast it. But normal day-to-day operation is just your local weather forecast which you are already hearing.

Weather alerts are preceded by SAME codes which, if you have a SAME code enabled receiver, will function much the same as a fire toneout radio remaining quiet until there's an alert. There's all kinds of info about the NOAA radio network on the NOAA website.

[WRQU329]

On 5/20/2022 at 12:27 PM, WRQM273 said:

I found the frequency for the NOAA radio in my area 162.400, which is great but all it does is repeats on a loop the current weather stuff. Is there a frequency that only transmits emergency weather alerts? I saw weather alerts in my radios settings but the info in the manual did not say much on its operation or what it did.

NOAA Weather Radio broadcasts on the following frequencies across the country.  These are the ONLY frequencies specifically designated for this purpose and are re-used in areas that aren't close enough to interfere with each other (example - 2 stations using 162.400 are far enough apart that they can't both typically be heard at the same time):

162.400 MHz     
162.425 MHz     
162.450 MHz     
162.475 MHz
162.500 MHz     
162.525 MHz     
162.550 MHz

Each location is designated to cover a specific area (even though the signal may be easily heard in other "regions" as they are also set up to overlap somewhat) and all alerts for that area will be sent out on that frequency.  The ongoing loop it broadcasts is general weather information and repeated alerts/warnings that may be active.  There is no frequency ONLY for alerts.  All S.A.M.E. weather alert radios monitor these frequencies... you pick the one that covers your specific area... but can be set to only turn on or "activate" when an alert that affects that area is sent out.  Two-Way radios (ham, GMRS, MURS, etc) that are capable of receiving these frequencies may or may not also have an "alert" feature where you would only hear the audio if an alert was issued but again... that would be the only way to not hear the "looped" or repeated information.