I thought it might be useful to provide some more information about VHF weather broadcasts. I travel often between the USA and New Zealand and use my two MK2a players in both. I would definitely favor the use of the worldwide chip in the tuner since it would allow me to use the tuner module with my empeg in North America, New Zealand and Australia. Yes, the AM capability and weather reception would be very nice additions.

VHF Marine radio frequencies are used for ship to shore and shore to ship communications around the world. They are also used for continuous weather information broadcasts in the USA, Canada and New Zealand. In the USA VHF transmitters have been installed to provide weather information and severe weather alert warnings to much of the country. Marine VHF frequencies are used in many countries for periodic broadcasts of marine weather information and warnings in coastal areas.

Marine VHF frequencies are usually referred to by a channel designation. Unfortunately these channel designations for a particular frequency are not completely consistent between the USA and the rest of the world. This has resulted in most marine radios having a selector switch between US and International (INT) channels. In the chart below I have shown the channel designation (CH), whether a USA or International (INT) designation (USE), country where continuous weather information is available (Location) and the frequency assigned to the particular channel designation (Frequency (MHz)).

CH______USE__ Location________ Frequency (MHz)

Ch 20___ INT__ NZ_________________161.600
Ch 23___ INT__ NZ_________________161.750
WX1____USA_ USA/Canada_________162.550
WX2____USA_USA/Canada__________162.400
WX3____USA_USA/Canada__________162.475
WX4____USA_USA_________________162.425
WX5____USA_USA_________________162.450
WX6____USA_USA_________________162.500
WX7____USA_ USA________________162.525
WX8____USA_Canada/NZ(VHF ch 21)_161.650
WX9____USA_Canada______________161.775
WX0____USA _???________________163.275

Because of overlapping geographic coverage by VHF transmitter sites many channels are required to provide complete coverage without interference. To be completely useful a weather receiver needs to be capable of being manually switched to a particular channel or it can scan the channels stopping on the first one providing an acceptable signal. Some scanners select the strongest signal available but provision must be made for manual selection or step scanning to tune a particular channel in an area with more than one channel available. Sometimes two channels are available in a particular location but they provide different weather information depending on their intended geographic area coverage.

Michael

PS -- I would like two of the tuner kits. Thanks for your extraordinary efforts.

PSS--How do you make a table on the BBS?