KJY63: NOAA Weather Radio for Forest City, Iowa
KJY63 is the NOAA Weather Radio transmitter at Forest City (transmitter at Hancock), broadcasting on 162.500 MHz at 302 watts. It carries the National Weather Service Des Moines office's broadcast and covers 9 counties, each listed below with the SAME code an alert radio needs to wake for that county and stay quiet for the rest.
| Callsign | KJY63 |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 162.500 MHz |
| Transmitter | Forest City (transmitter at Hancock), Iowa |
| Power | 302 watts |
| Forecast office | NWS Des Moines |
| Status | Normal (NWS data, July 2026) |
Marine radios often label 162.500 MHz as WX6, but WX channel numbers vary by brand - go by the frequency.
Counties KJY63 covers
| County | State | SAME code |
|---|---|---|
| Cerro Gordo | Iowa | 019033 |
| Franklin | Iowa | 019069 |
| Hancock | Iowa | 019081 |
| Kossuth | Iowa | 019109 |
| Winnebago | Iowa | 019189 |
| Worth | Iowa | 019195 |
| Wright | Iowa | 019197 |
| Faribault | Minnesota | 027043 |
| Freeborn | Minnesota | 027047 |
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.
Hearing KJY63
Any receiver that tunes 162.500 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 Iowa transmitter, county and SAME code: NOAA Weather Radio in Iowa. Or look any county up with the finder.
Sources:
- “NWR County Coverage Listings”. weather.gov. Archived from the original on 2026-07-19. Retrieved 2026-07-16. Every figure on this page - frequency, transmitter site, power, operational status, and county SAME codes - is from this dataset. Transmitters move, change power, and go down for maintenance; verify locally before you rely on it.