34
West Marine VHF150 Radio Owner’s Manual
Note: if the event code is longer than 16 characters, the dis-
play label scrolls across the display bottom then changes to
the abbreviated format. Thus,
HURRICANE WARNING
(17
spaces) becomes
HURRICANE WARN...
and remains.
To verify if the radio is in the ALERT mode, press and
hold
WX/ALERT
for about 2 seconds. If ALERT is ac-
tive,
WEATHER ALERT MODE ENABLE
scrolls along
the screen bottom. This message appears for about 3
seconds then returns to the marine standard screen.
If the radio is set to alert mode and you press and hold
WX/
ALERT
for about 2 seconds, the radio exits alert mode, and
the screen scrolls
WEATHER ALERT MODE DISABLED
.
For a listing of the full and abbreviated S.A.M.E. codes, see
the chart following the NOAA Channel Chart in the reference
section of this manual.
Adding FIPS Codes
To effectively use the Speci
fi
c Area mes-
sage Encoding feature (S.A.M.E.) enter-
ing the code speci
fi
c to your geographic
location is required. This system is known
as FIPS or Federal Information Processing
Standards codes (FIPS codes). They are a standardized set
of numeric codes issued by the National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST) to ensure uniform identi
fi
cation of geo-
graphic entities through all federal government agencies. The
entities covered include: states and statistically equivalent
entities, counties and statistically equivalent entities, named
populated and related location entities (such as, places and
county subdivisions), and American Indian and Alaska Native
areas.
Press
MENU
. From the
RADIO
MENU screen
, use
▲
or
▼
to select the
FIPS
option. The screen displays
FIPS Codes
and lets you select
Add or Exit
.
Note: You can
fi
nd your area FIPS codes
from http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/indexnw.htm.
3.
1.
#FF
(+25%1&'5
'ZKV
#FF
(+25%1&'5
'ZKV
