WeatherText: Technology for Full Access to Weather and All Hazard Alerts

By Cheryl Heppner

June 2010

Editor: There's wonderful new technology that can greatly increase the availability of weather and hazard alert information to people with hearing loss. Unfortunately, it's not currently available, and may not become available for some time. Here's Cheryl's report.

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Last week I learned about an exciting new technology called WeatherText at the monthly meeting of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Consumer Advocacy Network (DHHCAN). I represent the Association of Late-Deafened Adults in this national coalition of organizations of, by, and for deaf, hard of hearing, late-deafened and deaf-blind individuals.

At various locations across the U.S. there are approximately 1,000 transmitters that send reports throughout the day to warn us of bad weather. Those transmitters can reach about 98% of the country. Unfortunately while there are "accessible" weather radios on the market, they don't provide the same critical details in text that other people are receiving from the radio by voice.

A presentation on WeatherText by Bob Mroz of HY-TEK and Bill Werner of Werner Labs showed that this does not have to continue. Through new technology, there is now a way to transmit both text and voice on the same channel at the same time without one interfering with the other. The system has been tested extensively with the NOAA test transmitter located at the NOAA headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland and in the company's office over the past several years with no faults or failures.

Mroz spent 30 years working at the Federal Communications Commission and was their director for advanced technology at the end of his career there. He and Werner brought two prototypes of a WeatherText receiver to the meeting that looked like a larger version of a remote control. There was a small screen for viewing text. Clicking one button on the device allowed me to scroll forward or back through the text.

Additional Advantages of WeatherText

- Clicking one button on the protoype device allowed me to scroll forward or back through the text. This is a great step forward. Current weather radios broadcast the same message over and over. If you are busy with something else or interrupted, you can't stop the text, or make it go backward or forward. If you miss critical information, you have to wait for it to be rebroadcast.

- In a noisy environment it would also be easier to read text than strain to understand the radio voice. Mroz and Werner believe WeatherText is not just for people who are deaf or hard of hearing but that it may actually become "the mode of choice" for people who use currently listen to the voice broadcasts on NOAA Weather Radio. - Weather radios are inexpensive to make. Mroz and Werner used radios from Radio Shack to build their device at a cost of about $12 each. There is much that manufacturers could do. Font size could be made adjustable and text could be received in multiple languages.

What's Holding Us Back? All this sounds good. The catch?

You can't get this service as an add-on to the existing weather radio. Approximately $10 million is needed to install an encoder at those 1,000 national weather radio sites. DHHCAN coalition representatives at the meeting were also very concerned to learn that the Weather Radio Improvement Plan (WRIP) to improve NOAA weather radio, started in 2008 by the National Weather Service, is already behind schedule. WRIP called for the addition of text capability to weather radio, but it has not been given a priority. There is a danger that adding text messaging could be dropped or continue to be delayed.

Questions and Answers

Q: What's the difference between what you get on weather radio and what you get in the text alerts about weather from CNN or other sources?
A: Weather radio is designed to be available during bad weather, and information from national weather radio is most likely to be available during bad weather. National weather radio will also get its alerts out before CNN because many sources get their information from national weather radio.

Q: Can you use weather radio for whatever location you are in, or does it only work for a place you select?
A: It will work in the location you take it to; that is automatic.

Q: Can this service be converted into everyday equipment so we don't need a second device to get weather radio alerts?
A: Yes, Subaru is already including national weather radio in their car radios.

Q: Can it be added to smart phone apps?
A: Smart phones rely on cell towers, and that makes them vulnerable for receiving information in bad weather conditions. The display is the largest part of the equipment so it could be added to anything.

Q: How does this compare with the Commercial Mobile Alerting System (CMAS) which is limited to messages of 90 characters?
A: There is storage for 4,000 characters in the current WeatherText device.