The owner of a NWR SAME receiver can program his/her radio so that it will alert him/her only of weather and other emergencies for the county(s) they desire. Older (non-SAME) NWR receivers without the SAME capability would alert for emergencies anywhere within the coverage area of the NWR transmitter, typically several counties, even though the emergency could be well away from the listener. The SAME technology can eliminate this appearance of overwarning.

Here's how NWR SAME works

• When an NWS office broadcasts an urgent audio message (warning, watch, or non-weather emergency) it also creates and broadcasts a digital SAME code (that may be heard as a very brief static burst, depending on the characteristics of the receiver). This SAME code contains the type of message and the county(s) affected.
• An appropriately programmed NWR SAME receiver will then turn on for that message, with the listener hearing the 1050 Hz warning alarm tone as an attention signal, followed by the broadcast message.
• At the end of the broadcast message, listeners will hear a brief digital end-of-message static burst followed by a resumption of the NWR broadcast cycle.

To program currently available NWR SAME receivers with the Georgia county(s) of choice you will need to know the 6-digit SAME code number(s) for that county(s). :