Collier County NOAA Weather Radio Pictures

NOAA Weather Radio in Collier County
Site Pictures
The transmitting equipment pictured here was manufactured by Crown Broadcast International.

	NOAA Weather radio in Collier County is the result of a partnership between Collier County, the National Weather Service, the State of Florida Division of Emergency Management and WAVV radio. The transmitting equipment is housed in an equipment shelter which also houses part of the county's trunked communications system. This shelter is air conditioned, and includes both an uninterruptable power supply and a propane power generator.
	The WAVV tower is just over 1,000 feet tall, and is home to several services. The broadcast antenna is seen at the top, while other services are placed at varying heights and azimuths to achieve the coverage needed by each service. NWR's antenna is at the 400 foot level, extending southward from the tower leg.
	Inside the shelter several racks of equipment are provided for the county communications system and back up power. The NWR transmitter is in the background on the left, just below the NOAA Weather Radio alert receiver used to monitor the system during testing, and to alert technicians who may be working at the site if severe weather threatens.
	The transmitter itself. The first stage of the system, or exciter, is mounted in the top of the rack. The red display showing the number '46' is displaying the exciter output power. Other light displays show the amount of audio modulation of the transmitter, as well as the amount of expansion or compression of the audio. This keeps the audio at the same level in home receivers, even if there are fluctuations at the source. Below the exciter is the final power amplifier, which increases the power produced by the exciter to around a full kilowatt. Here the '0.91' indicates the amplifier is producing .91 kw, or 910 watts. The entire transmitter is solid state: no tubes.
	Inside the power amplifier are 4 amplifier/combiner modules, mounted on heavy aluminum to disperse the heat generate here. As part of the redundancy and reliability designed into the system the transmitter is able to develop full output power even if a problem develops on one of the modules. The goal is to provide full service at full power 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This transmitter is a single unit, provided by the manufacturer (Crown Broadcast International) while the final production model completes design and testing. Upon completion, a dual transmitter will be installed providing additional reliability.
	About 100 miles from the transmitter site at the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Miami, forecasters prepare and record the programming you hear over NOAA Weather Radio in Collier County. At this console, transmitters in Naples, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and the Keys can be programmed with area specific information and warnings. Programming is sent to the transmitter sites over special telephone lines, and sometimes over radio links, for broadcast to home receivers. Collier County's transmitter blankets the county including Naples, Marco Island, Immokalee, Everglades City, and the coastal waters, as well as southern Lee and Hendry counties and mainland Monroe.

For more information, contact:

COLLIER COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
3301 East Tamiami Trail
Naples, Florida 34112
(239) 774-8444

Board of County Commissioners
Emergency Services Division
Collier County, Florida