St. Louis County R.A.C.E.S. and SKYWARN

"Taking the County by storm."

Early Weather Radio

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A short history of local weather radio

by Michael G. Redman

 

Most of us take for granted pushing the "WX" button on our scanners and being instantly connected to the local weather radio station, or the reliance on a tone-alert weather radio for warnings and watches.  However these conveniences are relatively recent in nature. 

 

The first weather frequency allocated nationwide was 162.550 in the 1960s.  Apparently this was to be employed in major cities only.  Locally, the weather service was still in the old terminal building near Lindbergh/Banshee Rd. on the west side of the airport and George Brancato was the Chief Meteorologist.  The first weather radio transmitter was relatively low in power and was located on the roof of the Chase Park-Plaza Hotel, remoted to the weather office by telephone landline.  It was donated by the Egyptian Radio Club in Madison County, Illinois.  Initially the radio was only activated for watches and warnings, without continuous broadcast.  One could leave a monitor set to it without hearing anything until needed.  In the early days of weather radio there were 5 or 6 different sets of tones besides 1050 Hz., designed for different warning points (schools, public safety, airports, etc.).  Tests were made every weekday at 10:15AM, not just on Wednesdays.  Eventually the transmitter was upgraded in power, covering the St. Louis metropolitan area and surrounding counties. 

 

Some agencies had the NAtional WArning System (NAWAS) phones for direct contact with the Weather Service and some did not.  The St. Clair County Illinois Emergency Services and Disaster Agency did not, and desired a direct link to the weather service.  They and the weather service were able to obtain equipment on 162.150 Mhz. (KBQ618) with one radio at the ESDA office and one at the weather service.  This equipment moved with the Weather Service to St. Peters as well in the early 1970s.  By listening to 162.150 one could gain insights on pending severe weather.  As NAWAS phones were later installed at St. Clair County, the Motorola Motrac consolette station at the Weather Service was removed.  During the 1980s, the Illinois State ESDA folks moved a late 1950s vintage 300 watt station into the St. Peters Weather Service office on 45.44 Mhz., for connection into the Illinois ESDA network.  Some Weather Services offices that serve Illinois have this radio link for use by local ESDA offices, but the radio here was never installed and later removed. 

 

By the mid-1970s the 1050 Hz. activation tone was the only tone used and the others vanished.  The transmitter was moved to Shrewsbury and power raised to 1000 watts, but still with telephone landline control.  By 1980 the tests were reduced to once a week on Wednesdays at 11:00AM.  Also the weather radio frequencies were increased to three, and then seven, as weather radio transmitters increased with overlapping coverage areas.  Continuous taped broadcasts provided routine forecasts and hourly conditions.  Today weather-alert radios are equipped with all seven channels and the 1050 Hz. tone.  Newer models have the Specific Area Message Encoder (SAME) enabling warnings by county.  All are able to function anywhere in the country by selecting the proper channel and if necessary the proper SAME code.  Weather radio "talent", often staffed by weather service interns, has been replaced by computerized voices that will (they say) speed up warning time. 

 

Tone-alert weather radios may be purchased through consumer electronic outlets, etc. for very reasonable prices.  My first one was a Regency TMR1W, purchased at Olson Electronics in Florissant, in 1973, for $150.00.  My primary radio today is a commercial grade Motorola Alert Monitor, activating on 1050 Hz., providing audio to speakers around the house. Outside of the outstanding services provided by the St. Louis County RACES/SKYWARN Program, tone-alerted weather radio on 162.550 remains the most efficient way to receive urgent weather information.

 

Prior to the beginnings of “weather radio”, weather information was gleaned from monitoring 338 Khz. and what was called "St. Louis Radio, transcribed broadcasts, aviation weather forecasts....." broadcast with a constant Morse Code tone of "LM" in the background.  These taped coded broadcasts of current conditions, conditions in cities within 200 miles, radar updates, etc. in an aviation-oriented format are no longer provided in this manner.

 

Dave (Spotter 167) added this information on the broadcasts on 338 khz.:

The identifier LM is the first 2 letters of the morse code identifier for the ILS approach to runway 12R at Lambert. The full identifier on the localizer is "LMR".  The transmitter is co-located with the outer marker facility, a 75Mhz transmitter, and both can be used by a pilot to identify the site which is the final approach fix for planes on an instrument approach to 12R. there is  also  a compass locator on 404khz "ST", the final approach fix for the runway 24 (STL) ILS at Lambert, but it never had voice.  If the NDB is located at an outer marker, as this one is, it is called a compass locater, and used to assist the pilot in lining up on the localizer centerline, although with radar and GPS, they are being slowly decommissioned.  At a lot of smaller airports the NDB is “stand-alone” and is used to provide a non-precision approach to the vicinity of the airport..

 

The TWEB (Transcribed Weather Broadcasts)  which used to modulate  the transmitter came via phone line from the Flight Service Station in Chesterfield at Spirit airport.  At the time the TWEB was on it, the transmitter was an old tube type, very ornate assembly, and was a remnant from the old low frequency radio range , and fed a 100 foot vertical tower also from the old radio range (before my time). As I recall it was capable of running several hundred watts, but we ran it at 50 watts to limit coverage to about 50 miles.

 

Around the mid 1980s, the voice was discontinued, and the transmitter, by then about 40 years old, was replaced by a solid state 25 watt unit, but still fed the original antenna tuning unit and 100 foot vertical antenna.  This remained until 1995, when the vertical was replaced by the present 35 foot vertical wire with 80foot flat top T which is one of the more common NDB antennas.  Several airports still have the NDB, and at some location with AWOS, they will send it on the NDB, but again with GPS they are beginning to go away.

 

Aviation weather can still be found on the VHF air-comm frequencies, and several VOR facilities also have HIWAS (hazardous in- flight weather recordings), but ground coverage is limited to several miles due to the low antenna heights.

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