NOAA Weather Radio frequencies: all seven, and which one is yours

Every NOAA Weather Radio station in the United States transmits on one of seven VHF frequencies: 162.400, 162.425, 162.450, 162.475, 162.500, 162.525, or 162.550 MHz. Which of the seven you need depends on the transmitter that covers your county - the finder looks it up in one step - and everything else about the system fits on this page.

The seven frequencies

The National Weather Service operates just over a thousand transmitters. In the NWS coverage data this site's finder is built from (1,035 stations, retrieved July 2026), they divide up this way:

Each frequency links to a page listing every transmitter that uses it.

All seven carry the same kind of broadcast; the frequency a station uses says nothing about its content. The assignments exist so that neighboring transmitters can overlap without interfering with each other, which is why "the NOAA frequency" in one town is 162.550 and one county over it's 162.475. Any weather radio sold in the US scans all seven.

Which one is yours

There is no regional pattern or map trick; you look your county up:

• The NOAA Weather Radio Finder takes your location and returns the transmitters that cover you, with frequency and SAME code, from NWS data.
• Prefer a list? Every county is set out state by state.

Most counties are covered by more than one transmitter. Start with the closest; if reception is poor, try the others on your county's list before blaming the radio - terrain decides more than distance does.

Hearing them on radios you already own

Any receiver that tunes 162.400 to 162.550 MHz FM can listen. In practice that includes most of the radio gear people already have:

• Scanners. Every modern scanner covers the weather band, and most have a dedicated weather key or pre-programmed weather bank.
• Ham radios. The weather band sits just above the 2-meter amateur band, and essentially every VHF ham handheld and mobile receives it; many add a weather-alert watch mode. Receive only: an amateur license does not authorize transmitting on these frequencies, and there is nothing to say there anyway - the channel is the government talking to you.
• Marine radios. US marine VHF sets ship with the weather channels built in, usually labeled WX1 through WX7. Those labels are a receiver convention rather than part of the NWS system, and the numbering varies between brands; WX1 is most often 162.550.
• An SDR dongle. The $40 receive-everything route tunes them like anything else.

The one thing none of those do reliably is wake you up. A dedicated weather radio with SAME alerting sits silent on your transmitter's frequency until a warning names your county, then alarms - which is the actual point of the system. The buyer's guide covers the three features that matter; the Midland WR120B (Amazon) remains the plain desk unit we name there.

What you'll hear

A continuous loop, typically a few minutes long: local forecast, current conditions, and any active hazards, assembled by your regional NWS forecast office and updated around the clock. When a warning is issued the cycle interrupts: first the digital SAME header (a short burst of harsh data noise), then a 1050 Hz alert tone, then the voice message. The data burst is what triggers alerting radios; the tone is what wakes older ones.

Reception typically reaches around 40 miles from a transmitter, terrain permitting. Transmitters run a required weekly test, most often Wednesday in the late morning, which is the easiest way to confirm a new radio's alarm actually fires.

Find the frequency for your county

The seven frequencies are national; which one you use is local. The NOAA Weather Radio Finder looks up any county instantly, or browse NOAA Weather Radio by state for a county-by-county table of frequencies, SAME codes, and the station covering each one.