Ice Storm

We are getting freezing rain tonight and it is not a surprise that my police scanner is picking up plenty of action. It is interesting to listen to and sure makes me glad tha tI did not have to go anywhere tonight. I hope all keep safe tonight.

Band Sweep- Weather Edition

This band sweep is more focused than most because of horrid weather we are getting in the Midwest. I have been listening to my weather radio a lot more this weekend. The Website for NOAA is here. The two weather radio stations I here most are WXJ58 out of Fort Wayne which is channle 7 on a weather radio or a frequency of 162.55 and the other is KXI94 out of Angola which is on weather channel 2 or a frequency of 162.425. I bounce between these two a lot because we are just about in the middle of these two stations and depending on how the weather is tracking, one station may be more accurate for us than the other. This is especially true when storms and bad weather is coming through. Five or ten miles can make a big difference in the weather you get sometimes. It was true this weeekend when you look at how the damage was done from the ice storm. From what little I saw, Fort Wayne and Allen County was hit harder than Garrett and DeKalb County.

Sorry if I have been sounding like a PSA and trying to sell weather radios. Weather Radios are safety equipment that I find is a neccessary thing. The State of Indiana seams to agree with me. Check this link out. I am not one for a lot of regulation but this one makes sense to me and I don't live in a mobile home. That's my soapbox for the day and take it for what it is.

WAWK is back on the air

It was not long after my post yesterday that WAWK came back. they did have a weaker signal and went off and on a few more times. There have been power outages in the area and ice storms are hard on everything. It has been a miserable few days around here and has reminded how glad I am that I run a bunch of my radios off batteries that I can keep listening even if power goes out. Luckily, power outages were not an issue for us this time around but with the weather chill being so dangerous, I am thinking of taking my weather radio with me even on errands.I have been listening to my police scanner more and paying more attention to what is coming on. I have been hearing some scary stuff the last few days. I got a feeling this is going to be a long harsh, soul sucking winter. Try to keep warm everyone and keep those radios playing.

Small Town Radio

If you have not figured it out from this blog so far, WAWK out of Kendallville is one of my favorite stations. I feel sorry for the DJ this morning. There are a ton of school delays and closings and he is alone trying to run the station and take the calls for updates. The challenges of small town radio. I do like how committed they are to storm response or at least severe weather response. I really hope they get approved for 24/7 transmission. They are the best for weather and they are are one of the closest stations to our house. A little west to they can tell us what it coming. A lot handy. So dear Mr FCC reviewer, do the people around here a favor and give us a 24/7 station. They have had a lot of support from alot of areas and weather reports were one of the reasons in favor. Just getting emphasized again today with the school closings.

Winter Weather Alert!

I used to think that scanners were only small town nosy. I was so wrong. At least in small town Indiana, the best source for severe weather especially on the weekend is scanner and NOAA weather radio. It so hard to be up on what's happening on all the county roads. How do you really keep track of snow or flood conditions on the many miles there are around? Police scanner can help fill in a lot of that. In a lot of cases, the media around Fort Wayne isn't set up to break into programming and what if it is only in part of the outlaying area. Weather radios and scanners are a great way to track the very local happenings. It is not uncommon for me to have three radios going at once during bad weather. It's kinda neat to hear the over lapping reports. It is amusing to me to hear the same news (only delayed) on medium wave and wonder if they got the news from the same police frequency as I did.

It's all about getting good info to make good decisions on how to react. I also like being in the know. It's neat getting news and weather reports as they happen. I do not consider myself a survivalist but the boy scout ideal of being prepared always made sense to me. My radios serve that purpose and they are also interesting listening. What more can you ask?