Being in Nebraska - near, if not in, tornado alley - weather events have had a high priority on our repeater.
When our machine first went on the air 30 years ago it was a primary means to relay real-time spotter information from the field to our local National Weather Service (NWS). It was not uncommon for a spotter observation to be passed to NWS only then to hear a Tornado Warning broadcast on NOAA weather radio a few seconds later. In those days, it was crucial to pass the weather net traffic because that is what often times generated the NWS warnings. On the hardware side, when we rebuilt our repeater system a few years ago we added the WX-200 along with a LinkCom RLC Club Deluxe II and we've been extremely happy with the combo. The WX-200 is, of course, the full radio receiver and SAME decoder in a single rack-mount package priced at $399. CAT does offer the WD-100 SAME decoder (you supply the radio) at $159; a very reasonable way to get the features on a budget.
