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EmergencyRadio.org

WXK80: NOAA Weather Radio for Lafayette, Louisiana

WXK80 is the NOAA Weather Radio transmitter at Lafayette (transmitter at Youngsville), broadcasting on 162.550 MHz at 1000 watts. It carries the National Weather Service Lake Charles office's broadcast and covers 8 counties, each listed below with the SAME code an alert radio needs to wake for that county and stay quiet for the rest.

CallsignWXK80
Frequency162.550 MHz
TransmitterLafayette (transmitter at Youngsville), Louisiana
Power1000 watts
Forecast officeNWS Lake Charles
StatusNormal (NWS data, July 2026)

Marine radios often label 162.550 MHz as WX1, but WX channel numbers vary by brand - go by the frequency.

Counties WXK80 covers

CountyStateSAME code
AcadiaLouisiana022001
EvangelineLouisiana022039
IberiaLouisiana022045
LafayetteLouisiana022055
St. LandryLouisiana022097
St. MartinLouisiana022099
St. MaryLouisiana022101
VermilionLouisiana022113

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

WXK80 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 WXK80 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 WXK80

Any receiver that tunes 162.550 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 Louisiana transmitter, county and SAME code: NOAA Weather Radio in Louisiana. Or look any county up with the finder.

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