Need help with weather radios

[Pappy]

Hope I have this in the right place!
Anyway, I decided to pick up a couple of weather radios last week. One for each end of the house. After a lot of researching, the Midland WR120B is what I went with .
Now I used one YEARS ago, and these things have changed quite a bit. For the most part I like the changes.
I got introduced to S.A.M.E. technology which you set to get weather, amber and govt alerts in your county only. These are actually simpler to program, as instead of hunting down the SAME code they set up using country, sate and county. BTW I am in Gilmer county. I got both radios set up and programmed. I can push the button and hear a repetitive news report for our coverage area, however Im not getting the weather alerts for Gilmer county. We had several BAD thunderstorms, mostly this morning, and they didnt go off the first time. I checked on the NWS website under Gilmer, Georgia and a couple of alerts were listed but I didnt get either, on either radio. The SAME (County) is correct. The radio frequency is correct 162.400 coming out of Chatsworth. The transmitter is OK as I get all the chatter reporting if I want to listen to it, but am getting NO alerts. I called Midland today. They were very nice and helpful, but I still have the same problem.
They had me set them to 'Any area" and also ALL alerts (warning/watch/notification) just to make sue I was receiving anthing at all. Well sure enough, I got blasted with a severe thunderstorm alert coming from Catersville, Rome and those aeas, wich are in my broadcast area. I checked online and verified that Gilmer county wasnt in those. Anway, Im pretty sure theyre working. So I set one back up SAME Gilmer county and even set it on ALL alerts instead of custom or the default alerts. (BTW Had tried the defaults earlier. Well, I started getting NOAA weather reports on my iphone weather apps (again) but nothing on the radio. Now these were watches, not warnings.
Im wondering if they only send out the audible alerts on WARNINGS and maybe not watches or notifications? OR I have something not quite right in my settings.
We were nearly blown away with winds and thunder/lighning and heavy rain this morning and again a lttle while tonight and nothing came over the Midland.
I'll call their tech support again tomorrow, but figured there would be some weather gurus in here that could help me. I do not for a second believe I bought two bad radios.
I read an article on either the NWS or NOAA websites and somewhere in there it said that maybe they didn send an alert out. But when I checked Gilmer county there were a couple more WATCHES listed.
The Midland site says they wouldnt send out an alert signal all the time, but it showed on Gilmer couny there were a couple of WATCHES. If anybody could shed some light on these tings I wold appreciate it.
The one radio the tech lady had me set to all events and any location did prove that theyre picking up as I got that bad storm in Cartesville, Rome and that area tonight.
Im wondering if when I set it by county/state/county if its REALLY using the correct SAME code for Gilmer county.
Somebody is familiar with these things. Any help would be appeciated.
And Im curious if they send audible alarms for watches and notifications or only warnings.
Im going nuts over this lol Thanks in advance.
Pappy

 

[Cook&Bro]

Can't sort out what might be wrong, unless there is a software bug that displays the correct SAME code but runs a different one internally.

We have an older REECOM weather radio, manually input SAME codes (as I recall).

NWS tones out both watches and warnings. I turned off severe thunderstorm warnings because the NWS tends to alert regionally and often.

Since you mentioned iphone, there is a free app called MyRadar which alerts about a minute before weather radio, so that is an option until you can sort the radio issue out. And MyRadar alerts follow you if you have location services toggled on.

If MyRadar alerts and your radio doesn't, you can advise Midland accordingly.

Good Luck.

 

[Pappy]

Thanks for the input neighbor. I actually have MyRadar on my phone along with a ton of others I juggle.
I’m going to monitor it awhile longer as the lady suggested. The crazy thing is, I found online where you can find all the active alerts. Watches and warnings. Gilmer has watches right there on NOAA but they never came through.

So o am correct in my thinking that warnings AND watches should sound the alarm?
Right now I have one unit set to Single, Gilmer with ALL events active. The other is set to ANY with ALL events active.
Last nite the ANY location unit blew me out of my chair. But it was a thunderstorm WARNING.
I’ve done factory resets to both units a couple days ago. Per the midland tech. And started over. That chatsworth tower seems to be broadcasting fine as I get super clear and loud weather info when I press the button for it.
Oh yea I need to mention the thunderstorm warning was for every county around us except gilmer. Explaining maybe why the gilmer unit didn’t sound off.
I was curious if watches sound off just like warnings? I know the lights are different.

 

[Cook&Bro]

Yes, the watches tone out just like warnings on our weather radio.

The unit set to any with all events active should have kept you up most of the night - with watches in particular.

It almost sounds as if there may be a disconnect between SAME designation and transmitter frequencies for Gilmer ?? But you checked that per your initial post. Unless they are crossed up at NOAA.

Otherwise it is the radio(s) ??

(I also have a scanner - hobby before agencies went digital encrypted. Depending on where I am I monitor NOAA with it. Not with the weather button but with a bank programmed with only a couple frequencies - when NOAA breaks squelch the channel locks for the watch or warning. Same time that weather radio breaks squelch.)

Be interested in what you find out. Kind of important, especially this time of year.

 

[Pappy]

Yes it’s very important this time of year. Also if I understand correctly with this virus thing as it is they might make public announcements regarding that.
I’m kinda with you. I’m wondering since this unit programs country state and county and not simply the SAMEcode if Gilmer May actually have the wrong SAME code in it. ?? Make sense??
I had a couple more cellphone alerts go off last night and nothing on the radio. Neither. I checked the NOAA website for gilmer and they were there alright. But the radio didn’t alarm.
To repeat myself. The ONLY alarm I got was when the one unit was set to ALL events and ANY in the location. It picked up the thunderstorm warning for the active counties. I checked and Gilmer wasn’t listed in the alert at NOAA. So I guess it shouldn’t have went off. ?? (The unit still set to Gilmer).
The weather has settled down up here. Nothing on the NOAA website except a few watches at around nine this morning. And the Gilmer unit didn’t pick em up. Guess it’s time to contact Midland again and if they can’t figure it out take em back and replace them with other units. I’m getting frustrated to say the least.
Thanks for the help. I really appreciate it. I’ll post what I find out.

 

[Cook&Bro]

NOAA conducts a weekly test each Wednesday between 10 am and noon.

Our radio just alerted - to the weekly test.

Dang, wish I mentioned this earlier - perfect check for your units.

 

[Pappy]

Hey brother ! I had just got off phone with Midland and confirmed the correct SAME code is entered via county. AND a few moments after that to my surprise I got the weekly test as well!!!
We had also reprogrammed these things. She had me do it a little different than the book shows BUT I got the weekly test!! So maybe there was a glitch in the programming on top of everything else. At least I know they’re sounding!!
Listen I appreciate your advice and guidance. I think they’re ok now. As with many things these days the manuals aren’t always correct or hard to follow. But reprogrammed their way. Verifying the SAME code to Gilmer county and then recd the weekly test alarm. I’m happy now. lol.
Thanks for your time my friend.

 

[Cook&Bro]

Excellent !!