Weather radio

01-05-2021 04:14PM #1

I know that there are weather radio services such as those from NOAA in the US & dedicated receivers for these exist. Radio Shack for example used to sell them under the Realistic brand name.

Are there any similar weather radio services here in Ireland? If so, how would I go about picking them up?

dxhound2005 · 01-05-2021 07:04PM

Nothing like that in Ireland, or anywhere in Europe as far as I know. The closest thing would be the airport weather reports which can be picked up on a shortwave radio. Shannon is very strong most of the day on 5505 kHz and the RAF on 5450.

01-05-2021 07:13PM

Thanks @dxhound2005. What kind of receiver would I need for this? Is it just straight AM? As it happens I do the odd bit of work in & around the industrial estate next to Shannon Airport. I'll be there next week for a couple of days.

dxhound2005 · 01-05-2021 08:43PM

It would not be worthwhile getting a radio just to listen to these broadcasts. But a portable radio like the one in the video will give you LW, MW and the shortwave broadcast and amateur radio bands. The mode used is Single Side Band (SSB), which is a variety of AM. The Volmet stations use Upper Side Band (USB).

Before buying a receiver listen to some of the online receivers like this one in Mayo. Tune to 5505 or 5450 USB and you will hear the broadcasts in real time. If you want to hear some radio amateurs tune between 7100 and 7200 LSB.

http://irelandnorthwest.proxy.kiwisdr.com:8073/

01-05-2021 09:04PM

Thanks for the link. I will check it out. I have a Philips SW receiver but it doesn't do SSB. Just regular AM signals with the carrier & 2 sidebands.

Growler!!! · 02-05-2021 12:11PM

The XHDATA will pick up the airport Automatic Terminal Information Service (Atis) on the vhf airband frequency's if you're within range, they are AM too but that's a different discussion...

A HT like the cheap Baofeng will also pick up Marine VHF weather if you have the correct frequencies tuned in. The coastguard broadcast initially on ch16 then give the working channel for the actual report. the Marine VHF freqs can be found online.

Weather radio

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