Amateur Radio at NWS St. Louis

Amateur Radio SKYWARN Operations
Supporting the National Weather Service, St. Louis, MO

The National Weather Service relies heavily on amateur radio volunteers for reports. Even though NWS St. Louis no longer has active amateur radio operators in the office during severe weather, we have volunteers across the community who monitor the following repeaters and filter the reports to us in times of hazardous weather.

The 145.330 repeater is used by St. Charles County as a
St. Louis Metropolitan Area-Wide collector. Net control operators and individuals are free to have direct contact with St. Charles County during times of hazardous weather. That information will immediately be passed to the NWS via an internal chat system.

Also, NWS St. Louis heavily relies on the St. Louis Metro ARES group for information for St. Louis County and city. They use the 146.910 repeater, utilizing a 141.3 tone to access it.

Amateur radio is a vital part of the National Weather Service (NWS) SKYWARN system. The quick communication of severe weather reports and other weather information during severe weather outbreaks are an important part of the NWS warning process. Timely and accurate severe weather reports enable NWS meteorologists to issue better warnings. The NWS greatly appreciates the support we have received from the amateur radio community over the years and hope to continue the excellent relationship into the future.

The NWS St. Louis covers 46 counties in Missouri and Illinois. This is known as our County Warning and
Forecast Area (CWA). With a CWA that stretches from Columbia, MO east to Salem, IL, and from Quincy, IL south to Fredericktown, MO, real-time communication across this area can be quite a challenge.

Amateur Radio Operators Supporting the NWS

St. Louis Metropolitan Area : 145.330

Areas north of I-70: 145.190

In Central Missouri, the Missouri Highway Patrol Amateur Radio Club operates a repeater in Linn, MO, Osage County. This repeater has good coverage from Boone, Cole, Callaway, Osage to Gasconade County.
145.390, pl 127.3

Missouri Show-Me Intertie: East Central MO into Illinois.

Below is a map of the area we can cover and the frequencies used in each county. Click on the following link for an Excel spreadsheet that gives the repeater frequencies that correspond to the numbers in each County.

Frequency spreadsheet.

Show-Me Intertie

The Show-Me Intertie is a system of UHF repeaters that link the Jefferson City/Columbia, MO area to St. Louis. In early 2008, the Intertie was extended into Illinois. Below is a map of the MO Intertie system. As of September 2011, the Intertie was not working from High Hill, MO to the Colunbia/Jefferson City area.

Intertie Sites:

Jefferson City: 443.175 (pl=77.0)
Columbia: 444.425 (pl=77.0)
Centralia: 443.025 (pl=77.0)
High Hill: 444.025 (pl=77.0)
Foristell:444.475 (pl=77.0)
St. Louis: 443.475 (pl=77.0)

Net control operators or individual spotters who can reach any of the Intertie repeaters should do so to relay your reports to the NWS.

Illinois Sites:

Gillespie: 444.250 (pl103.5)
Gillespie: 145.290 (pl123.0)
Greenville: 147.165 (pl 103.5)

Net control opeators or individual spotters who can reach either of these repeaters should do so to relay your reports
to the NWS.

145.190

Whenever there is severe weather north of I-70 in MO, we will monitor this repeater. It has good coverage across Northeast Missouri. Net control operators or indivudual spotters in this area should try to reach the NWS through this repeater.

145.33 and 146.910

The 145.330 repeater, operated by St. Charles County, and the 146.910 repeater (using a 141.3 tone) operated by the St. Louis County ARES group are the main repeaters where volunteers will be monitoring and passing the information on to NWS St. Louis.

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