Canadian Weather Community Forums

Hello Weather Guru's, I'm looking at buying a weather radio, what sort of features do you look for when you buy one? Thanks

I don't know enough to recommend a good weather radio, but I was just on eBay and they had a lot of weather radios for sale. Thats a good place to see whats out there anyways, happy shopping! Let us know what you decide to get, thanks!

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edit:
try this site
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and this site
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I don't think there are too many features to look for.
Weather radio operates in the 162.00 mhz frequency area. They broadcast local weather information 24/7. If you have a radio capable of receiving theses frequencies you can tune in anytime. Something like a marine radio or one of these police scanners.

Most weather warning radios can be set to stand-by alert. Basically they are turned on but have to be activacated by a tone sent from the station.
Any volunteer firefighter knows what I mean. You have a radio that is silent unless something happens.

There is a push now going on in Canada to have a National emergency broadcast system similar to the US one.
Emergencies, National or Local will be broadcast on your TV (this includes weather alerts).
However, if you want to look at weather radios;

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I have one made by Midland I got at Radio Shack, now Circuit City. Must be discontinued as they are now on for 60% off. Runs by battery or electricity. I keep it in the vehicle and there is not too many places in the province that I don't get reception.

Not sure if this bit of info fits here but here goes, it's a link to a website called Disaster News Network Radio, or DNN Radio for short, here's a brief cut and paste from thier website describing who and what they are:
[!--quoteo--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]DNN Radio is a new audio content Web site featuring Podcasts produced by disaster response and relief organizations. It is hosted by Village Life Company, the producer of the Disaster News Network, a leading resource of U.S.-based disaster response information.

The Mennonite Central Committee and Disaster News Network are the first organizations featured on the site. Other nonprofits are expected to be added in coming weeks.

Podcasts are a new Internet-delivered radio-like service that holds the promise of revolutionizing how the disaster response community communicates with its members and the secular press about disaster response and social justice issues.

DNN Radio seamlessly delivers pre-recorded MP3 audio files, commonly called Podcasts, to Internet users who subscribe through an aggregator like iTunes and then listen to when it is convenient on their computers or audio players like Apple Computer's iPod.[/quote]

and the link to thier site is: [url=][/url]

Do all Weather Radios work for Canada? Is a weather radio universal? I am not familiar with them but too would like to purchase one. Would you just tune in to the frequencies in your area and these radios work or is there a curtain one that only works in Canada?

Thanks for your help..

Basically all weather radios will work in Canada and the US.
They are operated here by Environment Canada and in the US by NOAA.
The operational frequencies range between 162.400 mhz to 162.550 mhz and if I am not mistaking, the alert trip tone is 1050 hz.
This is the tone that will be sent to activate the radio in the event of an emergency.

As far as I know you can get advanced weather radios receivers with S.A.M.E. (Specific Area Message Encoding)
This can carry encryption for a variety of emergencies.

Most police type radio scanners also cover the weather radio frequencies. But most of these will require the frequencies to be programed in
and do not have the alert toner feature.
The scanner would also 'lock' on to the active channel and would stay there. So, to have weather frequencies in a scanner would only be of much use if you were storm chasing. In which case you could also have local police and fire frequencies and just activate the weather frequencies when wanted.

As far as I know weather radios are not universal.
There had been some talk of using satellite channels. However, the cost would be quite high and weather is regional and local. So, the idea was not pursued.

Weatheradio is used across most of Canada. Some (mostly northern) locations broadcast the same information on regular-radio AM and FM frequencies.
One caveat: the coverage of weatheradio is by no means complete. There are big holes in the network; however, the closer you are to a major population centre or major highway, the higher the likelihood that weatheradio transmissions can be received where you are.

A quick question Dave.
I believe it was last year EC was contemplating the idea of having weather announcements via the telephone.
Sort of weather radio on the phone.
I think they were looking at a 1-800 number or something like that.
I have heard very little on it lately
Are they still considering that idea?


Thanks Ron

Thanks guys. I would like to have a weather radio for both home and chasing use and will likely pick one up later this summer.

I know here in Alberta there is a number that you can phone and EC will give you a forecast for your county for the week and also will give warnings for Central Alberta and Southern Alberta. The only thing is that you have to wait and go through all the Central warnings first and then the Southern to get to the warnings. If there are alot of warnings for Alberta it can be time consuming when time is an issue for severe weather. This may have changed as I haven't used it since October 2007.