V A - E A S . O R G Emergency Alert System - Charlottesville Local Area

The NWS Baltimore-Washington Forecast Office has formed a partnership with the Virginia Department of Emergency Services, Albemarle County, and an Amateur Radio Club to place a new transmitter in Charlottesville, VA area. The site is now operational. Station KZZ28 operates on a frequency of 162.450 with a power of 1000 watts. The Virginia Department of Emergency Services (VDES) worked to obtain funds for several new transmitters in the Commonwealth with help from a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). One problem with placing a NOAA Weather Radio transmitter on the mountains west of Charlottesville is that the VHF frequency is restricted by the NRAO "Quiet Zone" which protects the radio telescopes in Greenbank, WV. NOAA is working on this problem and has located a potential site South of Carter's Mountain on Fan Mountain. The Charlottesville transmitter will fill in much of the coverage gap east of the mountains ridge in central Virginia.

Although the coverage map shows coverage into Augusta County, there is no assurance that this site will provide adequate coverage into the Shenandoah Valley.

STATE PLAN

PN STATIONS MONITOR:
LP-1 WWWV-FM 97.5 mHz
LP-2 WNRN-FM 91.5 mHz

WWWV-FM 97.5 mHz is STATE RELAY
LP-1/LP-2 ALSO MONITOR WFLS-FM 93.3 mHz (SR) and NOAA WX

The Charlottesville Local Area is:

51540 Charlottesville
51079 Green Co.
51003 Albemarle Co.
51125 Nelson Co.
51065 Fluvanna Co.