15 Nov 2001

New NOAA weather radio transmitter to be dedicated nrxt week in White County

      On Wednesday, November 21, a ceremony will dedicate a new NOAA Weather Radio transmitter, located in northeast White County. The ceremony will be held at 1:30 p.m. in the courtroom of the White County Courthouse. The new NOAA Weather Radio transmitter is located atop Russell Mountain, which is northwest of the town of Russell. The transmitter, operating on a frequency of 162.400 megahertz, has been on the air in a test mode for just over a month.
   In addition to serving White County, the new transmitter also broadcasts to large parts of Cleburne, Independence,  Jackson, and Woodruff counties.  Also served are northern parts of  Monroe, Prairie, and Lonoke counties.
    Tower facilities are provided by K97 .7, which is owned by Searcy Broadcasting Inc.
    Funding for the new transmitter was provided by White County and the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management. The National Weather Service office in North Little Rock provides programming and maintenance responsibilities.
         NOAA Weather Radio is "The Voice of the National Weather Service" and provides emergency
and routine weather information 24 hours a day. The new transmitter is one of about 600 such facilities nationwide. Special NOAA Weather Radio, receivers use a. tone-alert feature which allows the radios to sound a loud tone to  alert users when severe weather watches or warnings are broadcast.
     This is the fourth new NOAA Weather Radio transmitter to go on the air in Arkansas this year. Other transmitters dedicated earlier in the year are Mt. Ida/Hot Springs, Morrilton, and Mena.

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