KEC80
 | |
| City | Stone Mountain, Georgia |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Atlanta metro area |
| Branding | NOAA All Hazards Radio |
| Slogan | The voice of the National Weather Service |
| Frequency | 162.550 MHz |
| Format | Weather/Civil Emergency |
| Language(s) | English |
| ERP | 500 watts |
| HAAT | 92 m (302 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 33°48′18.7″N 84°8′39.4″W / 33.805194°N 84.144278°WCoordinates: 33°48′18.7″N 84°8′39.4″W / 33.805194°N 84.144278°W |
| Affiliations | NWSFO Peachtree City |
| Owner | NOAA/National Weather Service |
| Website | www.srh.noaa.gov/ffc |
KEC80 is a NOAA Weather Radio station that serves the Atlanta metro area with 500 watts effective radiated power on 162.550 MHz. Its radio transmitter is located east of the city atop Stone Mountain, with its radio antenna on the short tower owned by Georgia Public Broadcasting for transmitting WGTV TV 8, within state-owned Stone Mountain Park. It is programmed from the National Weather Service forecast office at Falcon Field airport in Peachtree City, which was originally at Hartsfield International Airport (now Hartsfield-Jackson) in Atlanta.
Coverage
It broadcasts weather and hazard information for the following counties: Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry, Newton, and Rockdale. (Most are also covered by another NOAA station.) Barrow and Walton are also completely covered within its broadcast range (a signal strength of at least 18dBu or 8μV/m), however WRSAME codes and warnings for those counties are handled by another station.
Additionally, extreme southwest Fulton, far northwest Douglas and Cobb, far northern Forsyth, and most of the west-northwestern half of Cherokee fall below the threshold for reliable reception, and are covered and alerted by WWH23 in Buchanan to the west (except Forsyth), and WXJ53 in Cleveland to the north (which also alerts for northern Gwinnett, in addition to Cherokee and Forsyth). Cherokee also uses WXK52 Chatsworth, while KXI89 Eatonton alerts Henry, Newton, and Rockdale, and WXJ31 Thomaston alerts Clayton, Fayette, and Henry.
Programming
The automated system uses only the standard male synthesized voice, except for the current time, which continued to use the original robotic-sounding voice instead of the very natural one used by most NOAA/NWS radio stations. The voices were updated in 2016.
Full hourly conditions are normally given for Atlanta only, though occasionally another city's is also read. Partial conditions (sky cover/precipitation, temperature, and wind) are given around metro Atlanta for Chamblee, Marietta, Mableton, Peachtree City, Lawrenceville, Cartersville, and Kennesaw in metro Atlanta; Athens, Gainesville, Macon, Columbus, Rome, Augusta, and St. Simons Island elsewhere in Georgia; and Chattanooga, Asheville, Greenville/Spartanburg, Birmingham, and Montgomery in surrounding states. Although within its listening area, Canton is skipped.
It also gives brief summaries of tropical storms which may eventually impact the Southeast.