Weatheradio Canada

Weatheradio Canada

Canada
Frequency	162.4–162.55 MHz
Programming
Format	Weather radio
Affiliations	NOAA, National Weather Service
Ownership
Owner	Government of Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada
Operator	Meteorological Service of Canada
History
Founded	1976
Links
Website	Weatheradio Canada

Weatheradio Canada (French: Radiométéo Canada) is a Canadian weather radio network owned and operated by Environment and Climate Change Canada's Meteorological Service of Canada division. It is one of the two weather radio systems across North America along with the NOAA Weather Radio, and is an official partner of the National Weather Service. Weatheradio Canada is headquartered in Montreal, Quebec and transmits in both official languages (English and French) from 230 sites across Canada. Weatheradio Canada, as well as Environment Canada's weather telephone service Hello Weather, utilizes Nuance Communications text to speech voices. Starcaster Text-To-Speech, owned by STR-SpeechTech Ltd, was used from 1994 to 2021.

History

Example of two weather radio receivers

In 1976, Environment Canada's Weatheradio service was launched and expanded to 30 locations in roughly 10 years. In the early-1990s, increased government investment permitted major expansion of the network to the present size of 230 sites.

In most locations, the service broadcasts on one of seven specially-allocated VHF radio frequencies, audible only on dedicated "weather band" receivers or any VHF radio capable of receiving 10 kHz bandwidth FM signals centred on these assigned channels, which are located within the larger "public service band". The radio frequencies used by Weatheradio Canada are the same as those used by its American counterpart, NOAA Weather Radio (whose parent agency, the U.S. National Weather Service, is also a partner with the Meteorological Service of Canada) and receivers designed for use in one country are compatible for use in the other. Since 2004, the service has used Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) alerting technology to disseminate severe weather bulletins. Weatheradio has indicated that, in 2021, it also plans to add other hazard and civil emergency information (such as natural disasters, technological accidents, AMBER alerts and terrorist attacks) to its broadcasts.

In some locations, primarily national parks, provincial parks and remote communities with little or no local media service, a transmitter operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation carries the service on a standard AM or FM broadcast frequency. As of August 2007, most of these AM and FM transmitters were unlicensed by the CRTC under a special license exemption granted to low-power non-commercial broadcasters.

In September 2020, Environment and Climate Change Canada began soliciting feedback on possible decommissioning of 48 of its 230 transmitters. ECCC stated that the transmitters were predominantly located in areas of overlapping coverage and where alternate methods of access (such as cell phones and the Internet) were available.

On May 26, 2021, ECCC announced that during their Required Weekly Test, they would announce Weatheradio's transition into its new voice technology system. The previous Starcaster voices had been in use for over 27 years. Among the new voices for the service includes Nuance Tom, a newer version of the old NOAA Weather Radio voice, that was used until 2016. This transition began on June 1st of that year, and while supposed to end on New Year's Eve of 2021. Some stations held out into summer 2022 before making the switch.

On August 19, 2022, an announcement was sent on 8 transmitters in the network regarding the impending decommission of said transmitters within the next 6 months. The 8 transmitters announced for decommissioning were: Cooking Lake, AB; Saskatoon, SK; Orillia, ON; Brockville, ON; Fredericton, NB; Perth-Andover, NB; Aspen-Melrose, NS and Grand Falls, NL.

Frequencies

An AM Weatheradio Canada station antenna

Weatheradio Canada signals are transmitted using FM (10 kHz bandwidth), with band spacing of 25 kHz. Over 90 per cent of Canadians live within range of a Weatheradio transmitter. Broadcast range for a Weatheradio transmitter is approximately 60 kilometres, but this depends on things like terrain, the quality of the receiver, and the antenna height above ground. The service uses multiple frequencies:

• 162.400 MHz
• 162.425 MHz
• 162.450 MHz
• 162.475 MHz
• 162.500 MHz
• 162.525 MHz
• 162.550 MHz

At selected locations, low power broadcasts without the alert tone are transmitted on the regular FM or AM band. A Weatheradio receiver is not required to hear these broadcasts.

Programming

Weather information is broadcast in both official languages which is English first then French. Prior to June 2021, broadcasts in Quebec were in the opposite order. The language order became uniform after new systems were installed. Weather alert broadcasts are inserted within the normal playlist, and are available in both official languages. Wind and wave marine forecasts are broadcast on a regular basis on transmitters located near marine zones. However, these and other forms of marine forecasts are more conveniently broadcast on the marine frequency, which is not available on most weather radios. One requires a special receiver capable of receiving the marine frequency, which varies by province. Weather broadcasts also include the UV index for the forecast day, and for the following day during the UV index season. The index runs from 1 (low) to 11+ (extreme). The air quality health index forecast is broadcast at the end of the broadcast cycle for cities in the station's service area.

Alerting

Whenever a weather or civil emergency alert is issued for any part of a Weatheradio Canada station's coverage area, many radios with an alert feature will sound an alarm or turn on upon detection of a 1,050 Hz attention tone that sounds just before the voice portion of an alert message. The specification calls for the Weatheradio Canada transmitter to sound the alert tone for ten seconds and for the receiver to react to it within five seconds. This system simply triggers the alarm or turns on the radio of every muted receiver within reception range of that station (in other words, any receiver located anywhere within the transmitter's broadcast area). Generally, receivers with this functionality are either older or basic models.

Many newer or more sophisticated alerting receivers can detect, decode and react to a digital signal called Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME), which allows users to program their radios to receive alerts only for specific geographical areas of interest and concern, rather than for an entire broadcast area. These advanced models may also have colored LED status lights which indicate the level of the alert as an "advisory"/"statement", "watch" or "warning" (either amber or green for advisories and statements, orange or yellow for watches, red for warnings).

When an alert is transmitted, the SAME header/data signal is broadcast first (heard as three repeated audio "bursts"), followed by the 1,050 Hz attention tone, then the voice message, then the end-of-message (EOM) data signal (repeated quickly three times). This encoding/decoding technology has the advantage of avoiding "false alarms" triggered by the 1,050 Hz tone itself in locations outside the intended warning area.

Test procedure

Every local Weatheradio Canada stations is required to conduct a scheduled Required Weekly/Montly Test of the Weatheradio Canada public alert system, generally occurring every Wednesday at noon (first Wednesday of the month during a montly test). If there is a threat of severe weather that day in a WRC station's listening area, the weekly test is postponed until the next available fair-weather day (sometimes, a short message stating the reason for the test's cancellation is broadcast). The required weekly test (SAME event code "RWT") interrupts regular WRC programming — during the test, a SAME data header is sent, followed by a 1,050 Hz attention tone, the voice test message, then a SAME end-of-message (EOM) signal. The text of the test message used by most Weatheradio Canada offices, with variations depending on the office, is typically as follows:

"This is Weatheradio Canada station in [city]. The preceding signal was a test of the Weatheradio Canada warning alarm system on station [call sign of radio station] in [location]. During potential or actual dangerous weather situations, specially built receivers are automatically activated by this signal to warn of the impending hazard. Tests of this signal and receivers' performance are usually conducted by this Weatheradio Canada office on Wednesdays at noon. When there is a threat of severe weather, or existing severe weather is in the area on Wednesday, the test will be postponed until the next available good-weather day. Reception of this broadcast, and especially the warning alarm signal, will vary at any given location. The variability, normally more noticeable at greater distances from the transmitter, will occur even though you are using a good quality receiver in perfect working order. To provide the most consistent warning service possible, the warning alarm will be activated only for selected watches and warnings affecting the following cities: [list of cities]. This concludes the test of the warning alarm system on Weatheradio station [call sign]. We now return to normal programming."

See also

• Alert Ready
• Alberta Emergency Alert
• Interagency Volcanic Event Notification Plan
• Forecast region
• Canadian Location Code
• NOAA Weather Radio
• Specific Area Message Encoding (S.A.M.E.)

External links

• Weatheradio Canada
• Weatheradio transmitter directory - Weatheradio Canada
• Weatheradio - Transmitter lists (including AM and FM transmitters) - Weatheradio Canada
• Weatheradio - Transmitter Lists By Province (streema.com)
• DXinfocentre.com's list of Weatheradio transmitters