Weather radio

Weather radio services may also occasionally broadcast non-weather-related emergency information, such as in the event of a natural disaster, a child abduction alert, or a terrorist attack.

Smaller hand-held weather receivers generally do not support the Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) alert type encoding (though there are some that do) but allow hikers and other explorers to listen to weather reports without packing a heavy and bulky base station radio.

"Scanner" radios designed to continuously monitor the VHF-FM public service band are already able to receive weather channels.

NOAA Weather Radio, Weatheradio Canada and SARMEX all refer to the seven stations by their frequencies: 162.400, 162.425, 162.450, 162.475, 162.500, 162.525 and 162.550 MHz.

The SAME code protocol also includes an end-of-message (EOM) tone which is made up of three short data bursts of the binary 10101011 calibration then "NNNN", which some radios will use to mute the speaker after the alert broadcast has been completed.

A complete broadcast cycle is about 3 to 8 minutes long and consists of weather forecasts and local observations.

Normal broadcast cycles are interrupted when severe weather advisories, warnings, or watches are issued.

NOAA Weather Radio occasionally broadcasts other non-weather related events such as national security statements, natural disaster information, environmental and public safety statements (such as an AMBER Alert) sourced from the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Emergency Alert System.

Brookstone licensed Accuweather's data service for their popular 5 Day Wireless Weather Watcher Cast Forecaster.

Microsoft's MSN Direct was a popular data service that included weather forecasting sent over US FM radio signals from 2004 to 2012.