Weather Radio (WX)

“One, two, three, four, is it snowing where you are Mr. Thiessen? If it is, would you telegraph back to me?”

Weather reports have been an important part of radio usage since Day 1. They now play a hand in guiding travel patterns, agriculture and commerce. Nowadays there are all sorts of ways to get weather updates and alerts off of radio waves, including with a television and your cell phone. Even much of the weather data you read on the internet, only reaches it after first traversing through radio waves. Big Weather doesn't want you to know this, but with simple VHF technology, you can get this lucrative data anonymously & for free!

Since weather radio is a very broad category of radio, where on the spectrum to find the weather varies from region-to-region. In most places, you can find it on the popular AM/FM and TV stations. However, more raw forms of the data can be found in other places.

In this part of the world, you have access to NOAA Weather Radio, which is a pool of seven VHF frequencies, where the United States, Mexico and Canada, have all agreed to centralize a bunch of their weather alerts. If you see a walkie-talkie, AM/FM radio or emergency radio anywhere in this part of the globe, and it says it has weather radio on it, that means it can receive those seven frequencies. Many programmable radios can be made to listen to these stations as well. Since so many types of radios can pick up these frequencies, we do not recommend buying a dedicated weather radio, and putting your money towards a more versatile radio.

The seven frequencies, commonly referred to as WX1-WX7, do not actually go by those names. They are just labels that manufacturers use, and the frequencies they are assigned to vary between units. The frequencies are as follows:

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