Columbia, SC

Weather Forecast Office

NOAA Weather Radio Tone Alert Changes

Overview

NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards (NWR) is a nationwide network of radio stations broadcasting continuous weather information directly from the nearest National Weather Service (NWS) office. NWR broadcasts official NWS warnings, watches, forecasts and other hazard information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Effective on or about Thursday, March 30, 2023, the NWS Weather Forecast Office (WFO) in Columbia, South Carolina (CAE) will make changes to the counties receiving tone alerts on some of our NWR transmitters. The tone sets off an alarm on those weather radio receivers that have a "tone alert" feature. This enables the listener to find out about the impending hazard immediately so they can take the appropriate action to protect life and property. These changes are particularly critical for NWS warnings disseminated via Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) tones or the 1050 Hertz Warning Alarm Tone because they will directly affect NWR listeners using receivers equipped with these tone alerts.

Justification

The change to counties receiving tone alerts for some transmitters is being made due to updated transmitter propagation maps. In addition, we found that the counties receiving alert tones listed on weather.gov/nwr/Maps didn't necessarily match what counties we were actually tone alerting from NWS Columbia. In an effort to refine what counties get tone alerted for each transmitter, and to resolve any discrepancies between the counties listed on the website and what counties are actually receiving tone alerts, we are making the changes listed below. These changes should also better serve our customers.

Table 1: Counties to be Deleted on a Transmitter, and Suggested Transmitters for Receiving NWS County Warnings Effective March 30, 2023

Current Transmitter/Frequency	County Removed	Suggested Transmitter(s)/Frequency
Columbia - WXJ20/162.400	Bamberg, SC	Beaufort - WXJ23/162.450 Orangeburg - KHA35/162.525 Barnwell - KHC29/162.550
Columbia - WXJ20/162.400	Clarendon, SC	Charleston - KHB29/162.550 Orangeburg - KHA35/162.525 Cross - XM93/162.475 Florence - WXJ22/162.550 Sumter - WG77/162.425
Columbia - WXJ20/162.400	Lancaster, SC	Rock Hill - KHC27/162.425
Augusta - WXK54/162.500	Bamberg, SC	Beaufort - WXJ23/162.450 Orangeburg - KHA35/162.525 Barnwell - KHC29/162.550
Orangeburg - KHA35/162.525	Colleton, SC	Beaufort - WXJ23/162.450 Charleston - KHB29/162.550
Barnwell - KHC29/162.500	Jenkens, GA	Augusta - WXK54/162.500 Metter - WWH25/162.425
Cheraw - WXK90/162.450	Lancaster, SC	Rock Hill - KHC27/162.425

Table 2: Counties to be Added to a Transmitter effective March 30, 2023

County Added	Transmitter/Frequency
Aiken, SC	Vogtle/Waynesboro - WXM88/162.425
Allendale, SC	Vogtle/Waynesboro - WXM88/162.425
Richland, SC	Sumter - KHA35/162.525
Barnwell, SC	Aiken - WNG627/162.450
Columbia, GA	Kirksey - KHC28/162.425

Table 3: Complete List of Counties by Transmitter, Effective March 30, 2023

Transmitter/Frequency	Counties
Columbia - WXJ20/162.400	In SC: Calhoun, Fairfield, Kershaw, Lee, Lexington, Newberry, Orangeburg, Richland, Saluda, Sumter.
Augusta - WXK54/162.550	In SC: Aiken, Allendale, Barnwell, Edgefield, McCormick. In Ga: Burke, Columbia, Emanuel, Glascock, Hancock, Jefferson, Jenkins, Johnson, Lincoln, McDuffie, Richmond, Screven, Taliaferro, Warren, Washington, Wilkes.
Vogtle/Waynesboro- WXM88/162.425	In SC: Aiken, Allendale, Barnwell. In GA: Burke.
Sumter - WWG77/162.425	In SC: Clarendon, Lee, Sumter
Orangeburg - KHA35/162.525	In SC: Bamberg, Calhoun, Clarendon, Dorchester, Orangeburg, Richland, Sumter
Barnwell - KHC29/162.500	In SC: Aiken, Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Hampton, Orangeburg. In Ga: Burke, Screven
Cheraw - WXK90/162.450	In SC: Chesterfield, Darlington, Lee, Marlboro In NC: Anson, Richmond, Scotland
Aiken - WNG627/162.450	In SC: Aiken, Barnwell,, Edgefield In GA: Columbia, Richmond
Kirksey - KHC28/162.425	In SC: Abbeville, Edgefield, Greenwood, Laurens, McCormick, Newberry, Saluda In GA: Columbia, Elbert, Lincoln

Table 4: Summary of All WFO Columbia NWR Transmitters

List of Transmitters

Current Counties Tone Alerted by a Specific Transmitter

Changes to Counties Tone Alerted on a Specific Transmitter

Updated Counties Tone Alerted by a Specific Transmitter

Columbia, SC Transmitter

Station ID: WXJ20
Frequency: 162.400

Bamberg, SC
Calhoun, SC
Clarendon, SC
Fairfield, SC
Kershaw, SC
Lancaster, SC
Lee, SC
Lexington, SC
Newberry, SC
Orangeburg, SC
Richland, SC
Saluda, SC
Sumter, SC

Remove:

Bamberg, SC
Clarendon, SC
Lancaster, SC

Calhoun, SC
Fairfield, SC
Kershaw, SC
Lee, SC
Lexington, SC
Newberry, SC
Orangeburg, SC
Richland, SC
Saluda, SC
Sumter, SC

Augusta, GA Transmitter

Station ID: WXK54
Frequency: 162.550

Aiken, SC
Allendale, SC
Bamberg, SC
Barnwell, SC
Burke, GA
Columbia, GA
Edgefield, SC
Emanuel, GA
Glascock, GA
Hancock, GA
Jefferson, GA
Jenkins, GA
Johnson, GA
Lincoln, GA
McCormick, SC
McDuffie, GA
Richmond, GA
Screven, GA
Taliaferro, GA
Warren, GA
Washington, GA
Wilkes, GA

Remove:

Bamberg, SC

Aiken, SC
Allendale, SC
Barnwell, SC
Burke, GA
Columbia, GA
Edgefield, SC
Emanuel, GA
Glascock, GA
Hancock, GA
Jefferson, GA
Jenkins, GA
Johnson, GA
Lincoln, GA
McCormick, SC
McDuffie, GA
Richmond, GA
Screven, GA
Taliaferro, GA
Warren, GA
Washington, GA
Wilkes, GA

Vogtle/Waynesboro, GA Transmitter

Station ID: WXM88
Frequency: 162.425

Barnwell, SC
Burke, GA

Add:

Aiken, SC
Allendale, SC

Aiken, SC
Allendale, SC
Barnwell, SC
Burke, GA

Sumter, SC Transmitter

Station ID: WWG77
Frequency:162.425

Clarendon, SC
Lee, SC
Sumter, SC

No Changes

Clarendon, SC
Lee, SC
Sumter, SC

Orangeburg, SC Transmitter

Station ID: KHA35
Frequency: 162.525

Bamberg, SC
Calhoun, SC
Clarendon, SC
Colleton, SC
Dorchester, SC
Orangeburg, SC
Sumter, SC

Add:

Richland, SC

Remove:

Colleton, SC

Bamberg, SC
Calhoun, SC
Clarendon, SC
Dorchester, SC
Orangeburg, SC
Richland, SC
Sumter, SC

Barnwell, SC Transmitter

Station ID: KHC29
Frequency: 162.500

Aiken, SC
Allendale, SC
Bamberg, SC
Barnwell, SC
Burke, GA
Hampton, SC
Jenkins, GA
Orangeburg, SC
Screven, GA

Remove:

Jenkins, GA

Aiken, SC
Allendale, SC
Bamberg, SC
Barnwell, SC
Burke, GA
Hampton, SC
Orangeburg, SC
Screven, GA

Cheraw, SC Transmitter

Station ID: WXK90
Frequency: 162.450

Anson, NC
Chesterfield, SC
Darlington, SC
Lancaster, SC
Lee, SC
Marlboro, SC
Richmond, NC
Scotland, NC

Remove:

Lancaster, SC

Anson, NC
Chesterfield, SC
Darlington, SC
Lee, SC
Marlboro, SC
Richmond, NC
Scotland, NC

Aiken, SC Transmitter

Station ID: WNG627
Frequency: 162.450

Aiken, SC
Columbia, GA
Edgefield, SC
Richmond, GA

Add:

Barnwell, SC

Aiken, SC
Barnwell, SC
Columbia, GA
Edgefield, SC
Richmond, GA

Kirksey, SC Transmitter

Station ID: KHC28
Frequency: 162.425

Abbeville, SC
Edgefield, SC
Elbert, GA
Greenwood, SC
Laurens, SC
Lincoln, GA
McCormick, SC
Newberry, SC
Saluda, SC

Add:

Columbia, GA

Abbeville, SC
Columbia, GA
Edgefield, SC
Elbert, GA
Greenwood, SC
Laurens, SC
Lincoln, GA
McCormick, SC
Newberry, SC
Saluda, SC

SAME Codes

SAME Location Codes for every county can be found at: weather.gov/nwr/counties. They can also be found by clicking on the Transmitter specific links included in the above Tables.