Monday, May 16, 2022

Tri- State area of Pa. OH and WV put in Danger by loss of NWS Emergency Weather Radio Alert signal being shut off. and No answers when it will be turned back on

 There is one very critical service the Federal Government does and does well. Its the National Weather Service known as NWS 

24/7 - 365 They maintain VHF Radio Transmitters  which signal and turn on Emergency Weather Radios 

Across the country. 

These Radios are vital to warn of impending Severe Weather Conditions  such as Tornadoes and Severe Thunder Storms etc.

Unfortunately the Signal on 162.550  put out by the National Weather Service which covers 

The Pittsburgh Pa and surrounding County's and parts of WV and Ohio 

Went out of service on April 12, 2022 due to Verizon discontinuing private in band phone lines service

 

NOAA's National Weather Service
NWSChat
NWSChat
742 
NOUS41 KPBZ 121923
PNSPBZ
OHZ041-PAZ013-014-020>023-029-031-073>076-WVZ001>004-130730-

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PITTSBURGH PA
323 PM EDT TUE APR 12 2022

...PITTSBURGH NWR TRANSMITTER...

AUDIO FROM THE NOAA WEATHER RADIO STATION KIH35 BROADCASTING FROM
PITTSBURGH ON 162.550 MHZ REMAINS IN A DEGRADED STATE UNTIL PHONE
CIRCUITS AND AUDIO EQUIPMENT CAN BE UPGRADED. TEMPORARY FULL OFF 
THE AIR TIME IS EXPECTED IN THE NEAR FUTURE AS THIS EQUIPMENT IS 
UPGRADED. ESTIMATED TIME FOR COMPLETION IS UNKNOWN.

SURROUNDING NOAA WEATHER RADIO SITES THAT COVER THE AFFECTED
REGION INCLUDE:

	BRIDGEPORT, OH     WWF35 - 162.525 MHZ
	MORGANTOWN, OH     KWN35 - 162.475 MHZ
	JOHNSTOWN, PA      WXM33 - 162.400 MHZ
	PARKER, PA         WWG53 - 162.425 MHZ
	REYNOLDSVILLE, PA  KZZ42 - 162.500 MHZ
	YOUNGSTOWN, OH     WWG56 - 162.500 MHZ

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND AT WWW.WEATHER.GOV/PBZ/RADIO.
LISTENERS ARE ALSO ENCOURAGED TO MAKE SURE WIRELESS EMERGENCY 
ALERTS (WEA) ARE ENABLED ON CELLULAR DEVICES.

$$
 


.This is a very bad situation for those who depend on these radios in homes and businesses

Like mine who may not have a TV or Radio on or have poor or no Cellular Service .

All Too often Verizon , AT&T and T Mobile fail to send out the messages . The radio 100% of the time works 

and now that Analog TV 1 and 2  radio bands no longer work on multi band radios  it also cuts out many rural people who need this service.and depend on weather radios.

where they use to at least be able to listen to TV newscasts  when they could not get video.


This is also causing Issues for Radio and TV stations who monitor the Weather Radio Alerts to trip their EAS alert monitors so messages get delivered. 

KDKA 1020 AM which is the main re-transmission point for NWS in Pittsburgh to all other stations never got notified to problem and only after contacting NWS was able to establish a  IP link using the EMnet system Pa set up but not all stations have EMnet due to the expense. 

So they are at mercy of signal not getting to them at all because many rural stations have a hard time getting KDKA s signal.

This also means the Homeland Security  National Emergency Signal will not get out .

The entire emergency alerting chain is down and damaged. 

There will be no national Test this year either . There where so many stations last year who never got the national emergency message across the country it was considered a failure.

Please get hold of your elected  federal officials and congressman and let them know we need funding to 

get and properly maintain these signals . 

As far as when Pittsburgh will have a signal back up is unknown  I have contacted various State County Emergency Management Agency's to try and put pressure on PEMA to put pressure on FEMA to get this 

situation to be remedied ASAP

as we are at the start of Severe thunderstorms and Tornadoes. Season.  


UPDATE

The servive is back online

Thankyou to Pa. State Senator Jay Costa 

PAB

and PEMA

The service was restored June 10th