BCT15X Weather Mode & SAME Alerts

Summary: How to monitor the ten NOAA Weather Radio channels, respond to alert tones, and filter hazard alerts to your own counties using SAME.

Weather Modes

The BCT15X checks the ten National Weather Radio channels. These channels now also carry alerts about other hazards for the FCC and Department of Homeland Security, so it’s worth understanding how each mode behaves:

• Weather channels can’t be locked out, and the scanner doesn’t run Close Call checks while monitoring them.
• Weather Scan – treats the channels like any other: cycles through and stops when it detects a signal. It doesn’t react to alert tones.
• Weather Alert scan – checks the channels for the alert tone and only opens squelch when it finds one. You filter alerts by region.
• Weather Alert Priority – checks the weather channels every 5 seconds while you’re in Scan, Search or Close Call mode. It doesn’t work in Search and Store, Close Call Auto Store, Tone-Out or Band Scope.

Keys: FUNCTION + press and hold GPS/WX starts Weather Scan; FUNCTION + tap GPS/WX toggles Weather Priority; and, once in Weather mode, FUNCTION + tap GPS/WX switches to Weather Alert mode.

The WX Operation Menu

• Weather Scan – start a normal weather scan.
• Weather Alert: Alert Only responds to every alert tone, regardless of region or hazard level, sounding a siren and opening squelch.
• Weather Alert: SAME 1 to SAME 5 responds only to alerts affecting the region you’ve programmed, and only for Advisory, Watch or Warning hazard levels. The scanner sounds a siren, displays details such as hazard level and type, and opens squelch.
• Weather Alert: All FIPS responds to alerts for any region, but only at Advisory, Watch or Warning level.
• Program SAME – set up the five regions. Edit Name renames them (defaults SAME 1 to SAME 5) and Edit County enters up to 8 FIPS codes per region.
• Set Delay Time – 0, 1, 2 (default), 5, 10 or 30 seconds, or negative values to leave after a fixed time.
• Set Attenuator – 20 dB reduction.
• Set Record – include weather audio on the RECORD OUT jack.
• WX Alt Priority – On to check the weather channels in the background during Scan, Search or Close Call.

Understanding SAME

Hazard alerts are sent with Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) data, which says what kind of alert it is, its hazard level, the counties affected, and when it expires. A receiver that decodes SAME can filter alerts by area and level.

The US National Weather Service uses FIPS codes to identify areas. Program the codes for the counties you care about and the scanner only sounds an alarm for matching alerts. When entering a code with Edit County, use the keypad to enter all 6 digits and press YES – if you don’t enter all six, the code can’t be stored and shows as “—–“.

A six-digit code has a section digit in front of the five-digit county code:

• 0 – entire county (default)
• 1 Northwest, 2 North Central, 3 Northeast, 4 West Central, 5 Central, 6 East Central, 7 Southwest, 8 South Central, 9 Southeast

Very few counties are big enough to need sections; most use 0. With 0, you receive all alerts for the county whatever section is transmitted. With any other digit you only receive alerts for that section plus whole-county alerts (for example, code 5 gets sections 0 and 5, but not 1-4 or 6-9).

Find the code for your area in the National Weather Radio SAME table for the United States and territories, or call 1-888-NWR-SAME (1-888-697-7263) for a voice menu.

Related Alert Notes

The scanner’s weather alert tone can’t be customised, but you can mute it with SQUELCH like other alerts. NOAA weather frequencies can also be screened out of searches with the Broadcast Screen in Srch/CloCall Opt.