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KHB49: NOAA Weather Radio for San Francisco, California

KHB49 is the NOAA Weather Radio transmitter at San Francisco (transmitter at Mount Pise), broadcasting on 162.400 MHz at 300 watts. It carries the National Weather Service San Francisco office's broadcast and covers 16 counties, each listed below with the SAME code an alert radio needs to wake for that county and stay quiet for the rest.

CallsignKHB49
Frequency162.400 MHz
TransmitterSan Francisco (transmitter at Mount Pise), California
Power300 watts
Forecast officeNWS San Francisco
StatusNormal (NWS data, July 2026)

Marine radios often label 162.400 MHz as WX2, but WX channel numbers vary by brand - go by the frequency.

Counties KHB49 covers

CountyStateSAME codeNote
AlamedaCalifornia006001
Contra CostaCalifornia006013
MarinCalifornia006041
NapaCalifornia006055SOUTH
San FranciscoCalifornia006075
San MateoCalifornia006081
Santa ClaraCalifornia006085NORTH
Santa CruzCalifornia006087NORTH
SonomaCalifornia006097ALL
SonomaCalifornia106097SCATTERED
SonomaCalifornia206097SCATTERED
SonomaCalifornia306097SCATTERED
SonomaCalifornia406097SCATTERED
SonomaCalifornia606097SCATTERED
SonomaCalifornia706097SOUTH
SonomaCalifornia906097ALL

A county marked with a note (for example partial coverage) is served for that portion only. Program the six-digit code into your radio's SAME location list - the SAME code guide walks through it, and how alert radios work explains what the radio does with it.

A radio that will use this code

KHB49 alerts are only useful inside a radio you can program the s codes above into. Two that do it, for two different jobs.

At home, always on

Midland WR120B. Mains desk radio with battery backup. Program the SAME code from the table and it stays silent until your county specifically is warned, then wakes you.

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In the bag or the car

Midland ER310. Crank, solar and USB, with a flashlight. Receives KHB49 the same as anything else; it does not do SAME alerting. The one still working on day three of an outage.

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Hearing KHB49

Any receiver that tunes 162.400 MHz FM can listen: scanners, VHF ham radios, marine sets, or a software-defined receiver. What those do not do is wake you at 3 a.m. - for that you want a dedicated radio with SAME alerting, covered in the buyer's guide.

Every California transmitter, county and SAME code: NOAA Weather Radio in California. Or look any county up with the finder.

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