Hi folks. It’s September 6th and the kids are all back at school. I was one of those who hated school, only because I went to a boarding school out of town and so, I and many others like me, didn’t have a normal education. Also, the weather was beginning to turn and I am not looking forward to the start of the big cool off. It seems that it may start in Southern Ontario as soon as Monday and as I said, I am not looking forward to it.

At some point this month, Weatheradio Canada is about to get an upgrade to the software. I had mentioned it before, but I wonder what will change. I certainly hope that the short term forecasts return to the broadcast and maybe, the normal temperatures for the period. I actually heard that for the first time, a couple of months before discovering Weatheradio Canada, when calling an IVR line called Tellemagic. It was a kinda one stop shop for news, weather, sports and almost anything else you need to know on your phone, provided you had a touch tone phone. Those numbers were provided by newspapers and other publications, for kinda obvious reasons and I had a lot of fun with them, as well as getting the latest top 10 albums and singles for the week. Sadly, I have no way of getting the latest albums and singles charts and only find out if a band had debuted at the top, by looking at their Wikipedia page. Those numbers and lines are gone and so, everything is now online.

Speaking of software, I am also looking forward to iOS 17 and what it will bring. I basically know from podcasts and Youtube channels I subscribe to, but I am looking forward to experiencing it on my phone, through my hands and my ears. For example: I am interested in how the voices for VoiceOver will change in how settings for each voice will work. Again, I have heard a lot and it doesn’t sound promising. However, that was back in June and hopefully, things have changed since then for all voices and not just the metallic computerized voices . I will probably do something on the voices in a future post, either this month or in the next Newsletter post. This also got me to wondering whether the voices may change on the broadcast, as there are newer versions of Tom, Ava, Chantal and Nicolas available and they are currently on most (if not all) Apple devices along with newer versions of voices which had been around for years. I hope the new voices will replace the older versions of the four voices we hear, as I want to compare what I hear on Weatheradio Canada, to what I hear on my iPhone and I can not do that, because the versions on the broadcast of Tom, Nicolas, Chantal and Ava are the ones which had been around since 2013 and had last appeared, in iOS 15. With iOS 16 and later, it’s the newer versions and I hope that the voice versions will change, partly for me, but also there is some sort of peppiness to each of the voices, I especially noticed it with Tom and to some extent, Ava. The French voices don’t seem to have much of a change from the older versions, but I believe that there may be some difference to each of the voices and how they sound now, VS. before iOS 16.

Anyway, here comes the RWT and RMT reports for this week. Oh yeah, no music as I only have that for when school is out.

XLF339 Calgary, AB – RMT @ 12:01 PM RWT @ 12:02 PM

Buffalo KEB98 (162.550 MHz) (RWT) 11:05 AM EDT.

Required Weekly SAME test received
Required Monthly SAME test received
XLW573 Yarmouth, Nova Scotia 162.475
12:05 PM – 6 September 2023

Rwt 9 6 23 1113am manchester nh wxj40 162.400 wng5750 162.5250

Toronto (XMJ225 162.400 MHz.) (RWT) 12:02 PM, (RMT) 12:01 PM EDT, St Catharines VAD 320 (162.475 MHz) (RWT) 12:01 PM, (RMT) 12:03 PM EDT.

Monthly and Weekly Tests Report!
KIG60 162.400MHz Mt. Mansfield, VT: RWT at 11:19AM
XLR412 162.475MHz Sherbrooke, QC*: RMT at 12:02PM, RWT at 12:04PM
XLM300 162.550MHz Montréal, QC: RMT at 12:03PM, RWT at 12:04PM
(Eastern time)

Notes:
-1050Hz test: KIG60 OK at 11:19AM , XLM300 OK at 12:04PM

*: Save Environment Canada’s weather radio transmitters! XLR412 Sherbrooke QC is among the original 48 transmitters all across Canada that are considered for decommission.
Show your support for your weather radio (and alert!) service! Call or send an e-mail to:
Environment Canada Weatheradio: radio@ec.gc.ca
Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault: Phone: 613-992-6779 E-Mail: ministre-minister@ec.gc.ca