Yellowknife (Feb 04/04) - Environment Canada is changing its Weatheradio network to include a suite of non-weather related public emergency warning messages.

Tony Chir, manager of dissemination networks for the Meteorological Service of Canada, said the hazard warning system will include such things as child abduction emergencies, boil water alerts and civil emergency messages.

The signal can only be picked up through the use of either a marine radio or a VHF-FM band radio receiver.

Chir said part of the reason for the expanded service is that the new weather radios have an LED window. With the new service, one can view the text messaging as well as hear the report.

With a signal site in Yellowknife, Chir said it is possible to pick up the station -- located at 162.400 MHz -- up to about 80 km outside the city, depending upon conditions.

Gutti Gudmundsson of Northern Communication and Navigation Systems Ltd., said the Weatheradio network has several signal locations around the North.

"And the frequency is already programmed into all marine radios," Gudmundsson said.

The radio system conversion will begin this spring and is expected to be completed by the end of the year.