Uniden APCO 25 Owner's Manual

Contents

Uniden APCO 25 Owner's Manual Manual pdf 38 page image

Using Weather Search and Weather Alert (SAME)Your scanner allows you to either search for a local NOAA weather broadcast, or be set toalert when a SAME weather alert is broadcast on a NOAA channel.Searching for a Weather BroadcastTo search for a weather broadcast in your area:1:SERVICE OPTION → 1:WEATHER → 1:MONITORThe scanner begins to search the frequencies used by the National Weather Service forthese broadcasts. When it finds a broadcast, it stops on the channel until you select anotheroption or reception of the signal stops.Note: NOAA broadcasts are continuous broadcasts. You will only lose reception if youmove out of a coverage area. If the signal is lost, the scanner resumes searching fora weather transmission.Using Weather Alert (SAME)Important: Your scanner has been primarily designed to be a radio scanner. While itincorporates weather alert as one feature, we strongly recommend that you not use thescanner as your sole means for receiving emergency alerts. Your local electronics retailercarries several weather radios specifically designed for this function.SAME (Specific Area Message Encoding) was adopted late in the last century to replace thewide-area alerts previously used. Weather alerts today are preceded by a digital packet thatidentifies not only the type of alert, but also the geographic location for the alert. Thus, it ispossible for a weather broadcast that can be received across many counties to be targetedto a single county.To specify a county, SAME uses a standard established by the US Census bureau, calledFIPS. The format of a FIPS code is:DSSCCCWhereD = area subdivision (0=entire area)SS = State code (00=all states)CCC = County code (000=all counties)For example, the FIPS code for Tarrant County, Texas is:048439 (48=Texas; 439=Tarrant County).Some counties are further subdivided, in which cases, the first digit will be 0 for allsubdivisions in the county and each subdivision will be labeled 1-9.To program your scanner to alert you when the weather service issues an alert, you mustset the scanner to the alert mode, and then leave the scanner monitoring the weatherservice. You cannot scan and monitor for weather alerts at the same time.32