NOAA’s Weather Radio All Hazards Logo

Please read all conditions and restrictions before submitting the

Request for Use of NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards Logo form

Conditions For Use Of The NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards Logo

NOAA’s Weather Radio (NWR) program is one of the many NWS operational program offices. NOAA Weather Radio is an integral operational entity of every NWS forecast office.

The name, NOAA Weather Radio, represents radio receivers that are capable of receiving weather and/or warning information from NWS Forecast Offices, approved Department of Homeland Security offices responsible for the dissemination of warning information, and those Emergency Operation Centers that have been specifically authorized to disseminate warnings on the NWR operational frequencies. To be called a NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards receiver, the device must possess specific receiver requirements. (For specific receiver requirements, go to "Conditions For Use Of The NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards Logo" on this web site).

NWR provides 24 hour broadcasts of local weather information and warnings of severe weather specific to each of its broadcast locations. The NWR program also has the distinction of providing warning information for any and all hazards that may affect the communities served by local NWR broadcasts, as well as warnings that are disseminated on a state and/or national level. The scope of the all hazard warnings include both natural and man made situations that would mandate notification and/or advisories to citizens in the broadcast area. State and national warnings also include terrorist activity and/or situations of civil unrest. The warning situations mentioned herein are not all inclusive but go to defining the scope of the warning responsibilities of NWR.

It must be noted that the NWR program office is not a testing facility, nor is it a certification laboratory. Any receiver testing must be accomplished by an independent test or certification facility. Receivers should be submitted to the Disseminations Branch of the NWR program office for operational evaluation by NWR program office staff and/or engineers prior to authorization for use of the NWR All Hazards logo. (Receivers submitted for evaluation may not be returned.)

The NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards logo, pictured above, is a graphic with the words “All Hazards” printed in the color red above the acronym “NOAA”. NOAA is printed in the color blue featuring all capital letters and the front leg on the letter “N” is elongated and shaped in the form of a lightning bolt, and the second letter “A” is elongated with a red dot at the apex of the letter “A” and three concentric circles emanating from the dot (in the color red). Centered below the acronym “NOAA” is the product name, “Weather Radio” printed in blue. Centered below the product name, “Weather Radio”, is the agency name, “NOAA’s National Weather Service” which is over-lined and underlined with a horizontal line, all in the color blue. The Registered Trade Mark symbol, ®, will immediately follow and be on the same plane and color as the bottom horizontal line. The logo is set onto a white background.

The official colors for NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards logo are:

• Pantone 200 CVU (red)
• Pantone Reflex blue.
• The logo is set into a white background.

Procedures for requesting use of the All Hazards NOAA Weather Radio logo

a. Use of the NWR logo must be specifically authorized in writing by the Director of NOAA’s National Weather Service. Requests for authorization to use the NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards logo should be submitted to the Director’s office on the Application for Use of NWR Image (attachment 1), or via letter that addresses all the required fields in the application. The application is also available on the NWR web site at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/.

b. Before an application for use of the NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards logo can be approved for use on weather radio receivers or devices containing weather radio receiver modules, the person or organization requesting use of the logo must perform the following steps:

1) The requestor shall submit an application for NWR logo use to the NWR program office.   Applications can be submitted by e-mail to ron.dewaters@noaa.gov or by regular mail to the following address:

National Weather Service Headquarters

1325 East-West Highway (Room 3398)

Silver Spring, Maryland 20910 
(Attn: Disseminations Branch - Weather Radio Evaluation).

 

2) Once the logo application is submitted, the requestor must submit a production representative version of the receiver being considered for NWR logo usage to the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) in Boulder, CO for CEA-2009-B surveillance testing at the requestor’s expense.  ITS serves as NWS’s independent CEA-2009-B surveillance test lab for NWR receivers.  Raian Kaiser is the point of contact at ITS for information on NWR receiver testing, phone (303) 497-5491 or e-mail rkaiser@its.bldrdoc.gov. A requestor will be required to enter into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with ITS for this testing.

If the requestor desires to use a lab other than ITS for CEA-2009-B surveillance testing,  the requestor should contact Ron DeWaters, ron.dewaters@noaa.gov,  at NWS for details on testing data submission requirements from other test labs for NWR All Hazards logo usage.   

3) When ITS has completed CEA-2009-B surveillance testing on the NWR receiver, it will forward the test results to NWS for review.  If the CEA-2009-B surveillance testing results appear favorable, NWS will contact the requestor and request they submit a minimum of two production representative samples of the receivers, along with users manuals, to NWS for further review to include a basic reliability evaluation, feature and function evaluation, and a determination of user friendliness, all from a consumer’s perspective. 

4) When NWS completes its review of the receivers, the requestor will be contacted and advised if NWR logo usage will be authorized for the receiver.

NWR receivers with either Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) or 1050 Hertz tone alerting capability are eligible to apply for use of the NWR logo.  NWR receivers which do not include either of these alerting capabilities are not eligible for NWR logo use.

 As previously noted, the NWR program office is not a certification laboratory. The NWS evaluation of the submitted receivers will be conducted by engineers who will conduct a basic reliability evaluation, feature and function evaluation, and a determination of suitability, all from a consumer’s perspective. The ITS will conduct a CEA-2009-B performance evaluation of the submitted receivers prior to the NWS evaluation.   Receivers submitted for evaluation to ITS and NWS will not be returned.

Receivers that meet the minimum standards during the ITS and NWS evaluation will be recommended for use of the logo. Camera-ready artwork of the logo will accompany a letter to the requester indicating the conditions for usage of the logo. Receivers that do not meet minimum requirements will cause a letter to be sent to the requester indicating that use of the logo is not authorized and the basis of that decision.

Any claims by consumers against the receiver, to include operational characteristics, quality, standards, and/or features must be addressed by the manufacturer. NWR and the National Weather Service will not hold harmless any receiver manufacturer for the operations or features of their product.

c. Applications for use of the NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards logo is model specific. A separate application must be submitted for each model of receiver being evaluated. If a weather radio receiver is authorized to display the NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards logo and that receiver is subsequently modified, updated, or enhanced, then a new application must be submitted, along with two samples of the modified receiver.

Once a brand and model weather band receiver has been authorized to use the NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards logo, thereby classifying it as a NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards receiver, subsequent distribution by a commercial re-seller does not alter the classification as a NWR All Hazards receiver, provided that the receiver has not been altered.

d. The size and color of the logo may be changed to contrast with equipment or packaging background colors. However, the logo design must not be altered in any way. The NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards logo may not be used with or in conjunction with any phrase, slogan, comment, endorsement, advertisement, or promotion, unless specifically authorized in writing by the Director of NOAA’s National Weather Service.

CEA STANDARDS (CEA-2009-B). To be classified as a NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards receiver, the receiver must meet, at a minimum, stringent requirements as specified in the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) Standard 2009-B (or current revision), Performance Specification for Public Alert Receivers.  SAME capable receivers are required to meet all CEA-2009-B requirements while receivers which alert using the 1050 Hertz tone are required to meet all the CEA-2009-B requirements, with the exception of section 5, which is only pertinent for SAME capable receivers.  Visit CEA on line at www.CE.org. To obtain a copy of the CEA-2009-B Standard, refer to the CEA-2009-B web site information below.

There is a difference in the logos used for weather alert receivers. The three logos depicted at the end of this bulletin represent the current logos approved for NOAA Weather Radio Receivers. Each of the logos are different in their definition and the organization sponsoring them. Each logo depicted may, upon receipt of written authorization from the respective controlling organization, be displayed alone or in combination with any of the other logos.

It is important to know that each of the logos depicted, in addition to being sponsored by different organizations, are referred to by different names. The NOAA logo, represented by the letters "NOAA" above the seagull in the circle is a registered trade mark of the Department of Commerce. The NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards logo, represented by the words "All Hazards" above the letters "NOAA", is a registered trade mark of the National Weather Service. The National Weather Service is an agency of the Department of Commerce. The Public Alert logo,represented by the words "Public Alert", is a registered trade mark of the Consumer Electronics Association. Each organization may only authorize use of it's respective logo.

Each of the logos discussed require adherence to the specifications contained in CEA-2009-B, and written authorization for use after licensing requirements have been satisfied.

Compliance with all sections of CEA-2009-B would classify a weather band receiver as a Public Alert receiver. Public Alert receivers are authorized to display the Public Alert logo, after official certification and adherence to licensing requirements from CEA. A weather band receiver may display both, the NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards and the Public Alert logos, if logo requirements from both NOAA’s National Weather Service and CEA are met.

Only weather band receivers that meet all the requirements of CEA-2009-B, display the CEA Public Alert logo, and have received specific written authorization from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the Department of Commerce, are authorized to display the NOAA logo.

To obtain more information for use of the NOAA logo, contact the Office of NOAA’s General Counsel at (301) 713-1337.

To obtain information for use of the Public Alert logo, contact the Consumer Electronics Association, Technology & Standards Department, 2500 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22201. To purchase a copy of the CEA-2009-B Standard, contact Global Engineering Documents at the web site http://global.ihs.com or email global@his.com