KIH20

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KIH20 (162.400 MHz, sometimes referred to as Huntsville All Hazards) is a NOAA Weather Radio station that serves the greater Huntsville, Alabama, area. It broadcasts weather forecasts and hazard information for Jackson, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison, Marshall, and Morgan Counties in Alabama plus Giles and Lincoln Counties in Tennessee.

Video KIH20

History

KIH20 was first aired on January 12th, 1976, making it the 2nd NOAA Weather Radio station in the State of Alabama. It was also one of the first Weather Radio stations in the country that were away from the coastal areas of the U.S. The antenna was originally on the WYUR-TV48 (now WAFF) tower on the south side of Monte Sano Mountain. Around 1980 it was moved to the APT/WHIQ-TV25 tower as APT began to cooperate with the National Weather Service on locating transmitters statewide. When Birmingham took over forecasting duties in 1997 the voice on this transmitter was changed to a computer-generated voice, in part to speed up the warning transmission process. This older transmitter began to malfunction and not activate alarms consistently around 1998 and was finally replaced with a new transmitter in 2003 when WHIQ's transmitter building on Read Drive was gutted by a fire.

Maps KIH20

Controversy

As a cost-cutting measure, the National Weather Service attempted to close the Huntsville weather office and transfer broadcasting, forecasting, and warning duties to the Birmingham, Alabama office in the mid-1990s. Forecasting was shifted to Birmingham in 1997 but efforts by Congressman Bud Cramer kept the NWS from completely dismantling the Huntsville office and eventually resulted in the office being once again full-staffed and equipped with modern Doppler weather radar gear. In November 2002, the National Weather Service announced that weather broadcast, warning, and forecast responsibilities for North Alabama as well as river forecast and flood warning duties would be returned to the re-opened Huntsville office on January 14, 2003.

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Awards

In July 2007, the National Weather Service presented Lary Burgett, observation program leader for the Weather Forecast Office in Huntsville, with the Isaac M. Cline Award. The Cline Award "honors individual and team employees for operational excellence in the delivery of products and services in support of the National Weather Service mission". Burgett was recognized for "providing the office with critical administrative and management support while maintaining an extraordinary level of work in his other responsibilities."

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Coverage map

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Station identification

A recording of the KIH-20 station identification:

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References

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External links

• About NWS Huntsville
• KIH-20 Maps & Details
• Huntsville's NOAA Weather Radio Coverage

Source of article : Wikipedia