How to program your NOAA weather radio

First Alert Meteorologist Dan Thomas recommends everyone have at least two ways to get weather alerts: a NOAA weather radio and the First Alert Weather app.

First Alert Meteorologist Dan Thomas has step by step instructions to help program your NOAA Weather Radio. The process takes a few minutes and allows you to receive weather watches and warnings issued for your area.

Make sure to plug it in and insert three AA batteries before beginning. The batteries will serve as a backup, in case your power goes out.

Raise the antenna as well. This step is important to ensure you get a good signal. It’s also critical you look at the side of the radio and ensure it is switched to the on position. If this is off, you will not receive alerts, so always keep it on.

STEP ONE

The first prompt you will see is to ‘set language.’ Press select. If you want any language other than English, arrow up or down through the list to find what you’re looking for. Once you have found it, you’ll press select again.

STEP TWO

Select ‘set location’ and you will be given the options of any, single, or multiple. Use the up-and-down buttons to go through this list. “Any’ means you would get alerts for all counties in middle Tennessee. “Single’ means you’d get alerted for just one, and ‘multiple’ means more than one county. Once you make your selection, press ‘select.’ You will see ‘01 empty.’ Press select again. Press select for USA. Then you arrow up or down for your state and then press ‘select’ for your selection. Next, arrow down to your county and press select again.

STEP THREE

Next, set the time by pressing ‘select,’ and use the four arrow keys to set the current time. Once finished, press ‘select.’

STEP FOUR

The final step is to set the channel. This is the radio channel for the device. If you don’t use the right channel, it will be very staticky, but if you do, the sound should be clear. Find the radio frequency of the transmitter that is nearest you and select ‘set channel.’ You can use the upward and down arrows to cycle through the various frequencies until the one you want is displayed and hit ‘select.’ For Nashville, that is 162.550.

First Alert Meteorologist Dan Thomas recommends everyone have at least two ways to get weather alerts, so now that you have your NOAA weather radio programmed, download the WSMV 4 First Alert Weather app for iPhone or Android.

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