KXI73: NOAA Weather Radio for Backbone Mountain, West Virginia
KXI73 is the NOAA Weather Radio transmitter at Backbone Mountain (transmitter at Thomas), broadcasting on 162.450 MHz at 145 watts. It carries the National Weather Service Pittsburgh office's broadcast and covers 6 counties, each listed below with the SAME code an alert radio needs to wake for that county and stay quiet for the rest.
| Callsign | KXI73 |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 162.450 MHz |
| Transmitter | Backbone Mountain (transmitter at Thomas), West Virginia |
| Power | 145 watts |
| Forecast office | NWS Pittsburgh |
| Status | Normal (NWS data, July 2026) |
Marine radios often label 162.450 MHz as WX5, but WX channel numbers vary by brand - go by the frequency.
Counties KXI73 covers
| County | State | SAME code |
|---|---|---|
| Garrett | Maryland | 024023 |
| Barbour | West Virginia | 054001 |
| Grant | West Virginia | 054023 |
| Preston | West Virginia | 054077 |
| Randolph | West Virginia | 054083 |
| Tucker | West Virginia | 054093 |
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 KXI73
Any receiver that tunes 162.450 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 West Virginia transmitter, county and SAME code: NOAA Weather Radio in West Virginia. 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.