SDS100E Weather Operation & SAME Alerts

Summary: Using weather scan, weather alert priority and SAME alerts on the SDS100E (North America).

What It’s For

Weather and SAME functions can only be used in North America. The scanner monitors the NOAA weather channels and can alert you to weather alerts. There are 7 weather channels: 162.400, 162.425, 162.450, 162.475, 162.500, 162.525 and 162.550 MHz.

Starting Weather Mode

Hold on a channel, then Func and hold 6 (WX) for 3 seconds, or use Menu, WX Operation, Weather Scan. Func then 6 toggles weather priority from Hold mode.

The WX Operation Menu

• Weather Scan – the scanner goes into weather scan mode.
• Weather Alert – how it responds to alerts:
• Alert Only – responds to any alert on detecting the 1050 Hz alert tone.
• SAME 0-4 – responds only if the alert matches the stored SAME settings.
• All FIPS – responds to any alert and displays the received event code.
• Review WX Alerts – select a past alert to hear its audio.
• Program SAME – choose a SAME slot, then set a name and county. You need the FIPS code for the county (found on NOAA’s website).
• Set Delay Time – how long the scanner stays on a weather channel after the signal is lost.
• Set Attenuator – attenuation on or off for weather channels.
• WX Alt Priority – when on, the scanner checks for a 1050 Hz tone on the current weather channel every 5 seconds while scanning; this interrupts any existing voice traffic.

The WX icon and the display’s Weather mode colours can be customised (see SDS100E Customising the Display).

Event Codes

The manual lists the SAME event codes the scanner recognises (for example TOR Tornado Warning, SVR Severe Thunderstorm Warning, FFW Flash Flood Warning and TSW Tsunami Warning) as Warning, Watch or Statement, plus “unrecognized” codes.