HISTORY of Weather Radios
- A NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards broadcasts official Weather Service warnings, watches, forecasts and other hazard information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
- In the 1980s weather radios became popular for those who wanted to get weather information in real-time. Battery allowed operation even when the power went out.
- By the 1990s, there were significant improvements to NOAA Weather Radios with the advent of automatic alert tones. People who weren’t paying attention to the weather could now be alerted to rapidly changing weather.
- By the 2000s, NOAA Weather Radios had made smart features smarter as one could pre-program your specific location using "Specific Area Message Encoding" or "SAME" directing an alarm for a specific area and not for storms from miles away. This allowed the right people to get the right warning at the right time.
Although there are advances in other warning messages, every home should have a battery back-up NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards in the case of long term power outages where other methods may or may not work.
RAPID CITY (WXM-63) on 162.550 MHz serves the central Black Hills and plains around Rapid City:
- SAME code 446103
Western Pennington County WEST of Hisega, Rockerville, and Hayward; including Hill City, Keystone, Mt. Rushmore, Deerfield, Rochford, Johnson Siding, Pactola Reservoir, Sheridan Lake, Deerfield Reservoir, and Highway 385. - SAME code 546103:
Rapid City Area / CENTRAL Pennington County; including Black Hawk, Box Elder, Ellsworth AFB, Rapid Valley, Rapid City Regional Airport, and Highway 79. - SAME code 646103:
Eastern Pennington County EAST of Box Elder and Caputa; including New Underwood, Wasta, Wall, Quinn, Creighton, western Badlands National Park, Farmingdale, Scenic, Interstate 90, and Highway 44.
