Hi folks. While I haven’t published a new newsletter post for November 2020 or February 2021, I have decided to do one on how to report a problem with either Weatheradio Canada or NOAA Weather Radio. This is only my own way of doing it and you may find your own style so, there is no real definitive dues and don’ts, as to what to report and how to report. However, there are some basic things you should know before reporting.

If you are reporting about a problem with Weatheradio Canada, the broadcast plays in a configuration consisting of: public forecasts, inland weather roundup, marine forecasts and marine weather roundup, along with the station ID. All of the information is separated into bins, which include prompts such as for current marine reports in both English and French. There are additional bins left blank, for watches and warnings which may be issued, along with an extra one for the RMT (Required Monthly Tests) with the 1050 Hz tone.

If data isn’t updated after 3 hours, then the affected WXR’s go into watchdog mode, which I’ve covered here before but, I will review it for The benefit of those who are new. Watch dog is when no new data has come in after three hours and after that time, an alert goes out to all alert radios with a technical difficulties message and after the alert ends, a looping message plays until the problem is rectified. With NOAA Weather Radio, there is no watchdog and with both networks, the message which repeats is a “Stay alive message” which keeps The affected transmitter or transmitters active, while the problem is apparent.

Other problems can arise such as: missing bins, corrupted data, or suddenly, bins dropping off with silence on the network. Sometimes the WXR goes off the air (without warning) and that needs to be reported too.

So, here are some basic rules of thumb, when reporting a problem to either Weatheradio Canada or NWR. You can email or call, with the following information: your name and where you live, the problem and which transmitter it is affecting. Sometimes, if you just say the city it is located in, that works too, but it is best for you to let them know where you live, before explaining what is going on, as best you can.

I haven’t had to be as clear, as I have reported multiple times and so, I am known. However, not everyone is. By the way, it is not necessarily imperative to indicate that you are either CANWARN, or SKYWARN trained when reporting a problem. This has more to do with the workings of the network, than whether a storm is being spotted on the ground.

Hopefully, this helps those who haven’t reported a problem with the local WXR as yet and had wanted to, but don’t know what exactly to say.