Because we live in an area prone to dangerous weather, as well as being 4.5 miles from Harris nuclear plant, I have recently integrated Weather, County, and FEMA alerts into the BBCW system. To take advantage of this important safety benefit of our community watch system, you can leave your BBCW radio in the charger in a central place in your home (like the kitchen) and left turned on and set to CH16. When emergency messages are transmitted by NOAA, FEMA, or nuclear warnings, they will simultaneously and immediately be broadcast over the system on CH16. Since we are on the southern edge of Wake county, we also include the alerts for the neighboring counties (purple). This is done to give enough advanced warning of rapidly approaching storms. Below are a list of enabled standardized S.A.M.E. alerts that you will hear for the following counties (Wake, Chatham, Lee, & Harnett):
You will also hear emergency alerts broadcast and intended for state wide. These alerts, are generally carried over the EAS system. The following list is what is setup for immediate simulcast over BBCW:
EVT DESCRIPTION
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TOR TORNADO WARNING
EVI EVACUATION IMMEDIATE
BLU BLUE ALERT
FFW FLASH FLOOD WARNING
FLW FLOOD WARNING
SVR SEVERE THUNDER STORM WARNING
FRW FIRE WARNING
DSW DUST STORM WARNING
EQW EARTHQUAKE WARNING
TOE 911 TELEPHONE OUTAGE EMERGENCY
NUW NUCLEAR POWER PLANT WARNING
SPW SHELTER IN PLACE WARNING
RHW RADIOLOGICAL HAZARD WARNING
CDW CIVIL DANGER WARNING
HMW HAZARDOUS MATERIALS WARNING
AVW AVALANCHE WARNING
LEW LAW ENFORCEMENT WARNING
LAE LOCAL AREA EMERGENCY
VOW VOLCANO WARNING
CFW COASTAL FLOOD WARNING
SMW SPECIAL MARINE WARNING
TRW TROPICAL STORM WARNING
WSW WINTER STORM WARNING
BZW BLIZZARD WARNING
HWW HIGH WIND WARNING
TSW TSUNAMI WARNING
HUW HURRICANE WARNING
EWW EXTREME WIND WARNING
SSW STORM SURGE WARNING
EAN EMERGENCY ACTION NOTIFICATIONIf you would like more information, please feel free to email john at wizworks dot net. Note that you do NOT need a GMRS license if you only intend to use your BBCW radio for monitoring. You only need the GMRS license if you want to be able to legally transmit on the BBCW channel (CH16).
