WXL56: NOAA Weather Radio for Asheville, North Carolina
WXL56 is the NOAA Weather Radio transmitter at Asheville, broadcasting on 162.400 MHz at 300 watts. It carries the National Weather Service Greenville-Spartanburg office's broadcast and covers 13 counties, each listed below with the SAME code an alert radio needs to wake for that county and stay quiet for the rest.
| Callsign | WXL56 |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 162.400 MHz |
| Transmitter | Asheville, North Carolina |
| Power | 300 watts |
| Forecast office | NWS Greenville-Spartanburg |
| Status | Normal (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 WXL56 covers
| County | State | SAME code | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avery | North Carolina | 037011 | |
| Buncombe | North Carolina | 037021 | |
| Burke | North Carolina | 037023 | |
| Haywood | North Carolina | 037087 | E 1/2 |
| Henderson | North Carolina | 037089 | |
| Jackson | North Carolina | 037099 | |
| Madison | North Carolina | 037115 | SW 1/2 |
| McDowell | North Carolina | 037111 | CENTRAL/S |
| Mitchell | North Carolina | 037121 | |
| Polk | North Carolina | 037149 | |
| Rutherford | North Carolina | 037161 | CENTRAL/W |
| Transylvania | North Carolina | 037175 | |
| Yancey | North Carolina | 037199 | S |
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.
Hearing WXL56
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 North Carolina transmitter, county and SAME code: NOAA Weather Radio in North Carolina. 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.