Submit a Stream

Why Submit?

Are you looking to help increase public safety and situational awareness during severe weather events? Are you interested in making local weather information easier for the public to access by streaming your local NOAA Weather Radio station?

You are invited to submit a stream and help Minnesota Weather Radio expand coverage across Minnesota. Our goal is to have a stream for every single NOAA Weather Radio Station in Minnesota (there are 39). Be sure to read the streamer rules below and submit your application.

Don't know much about computers or streaming? No worries! We can help you get the equipment and software set up and get your stream online.

Before You Submit

In order to maintain high-quality, reliable streams, Minnesota Weather Radio requires streamers to abide by a set of rules. Depending on the severity and nature of a violation, Minnesota Weather Radio may issue a warning, temporarily suspend a stream, permanently remove a stream, or ban a streamer from Minnesota Weather Radio services.

1. Streamers must NOT manipulate or abuse their stream(s) in any manner. Streams MUST contain the same program content as the original over-the-air NOAA Weather Radio broadcast. Streamers must NOT inject, generate, modify, replay, suppress, or intentionally delay SAME headers, alert tones, End-of-Message data, voice messages, or other broadcast content.
   1. Normal receiver and audio characteristics, including static, fading, receiver filtering, volume adjustment, and audio encoding, are not considered manipulation.
   2. Streamers must NOT insert advertisements, music, announcements, sound effects, simulated alerts, or any other non-NOAA Weather Radio content into their stream.
   3. Generating or transmitting unauthorized SAME headers or other false or simulated emergency alert content through a public Minnesota Weather Radio stream will result in immediate termination of the stream and may result in a permanent ban from Minnesota Weather Radio services.
2. Streamers must NOT engage in any activity that may harm, confuse, or mislead the general public. These streams may be listened to by members of the public during severe weather and other emergencies. Streams are piped into Emergency Alert System equipment, and alerts are fed into the Global Weather and EAS Society’s Emergency Relay Network.
   1. Streamers must NOT knowingly transmit false, fabricated, misleading, or unauthorized emergency information or intentionally interfere with the accurate delivery of NOAA Weather Radio programming.
3. Streamers must NOT use this service to stream content that is unlawful under Minnesota State Statutes or United States Federal Law. Streams must contain only authorized NOAA Weather Radio programming received from the assigned transmitter. Streamers may not intentionally transmit defamatory, harassing, abusive, fraudulent, obscene, malicious, or otherwise unlawful content through Minnesota Weather Radio services.
4. Streamers MUST broadcast unique streams. Streams must originate from a receiver under the streamer's control that is receiving the NOAA Weather Radio transmitter assigned to the stream.
   1. Streamers are NOT allowed to rebroadcast or restream existing streams from other platforms, websites, services, or other Minnesota Weather Radio streams unless specifically authorized by Minnesota Weather Radio. If it is discovered that a streamer is rebroadcasting an unauthorized stream from another source, the stream may be removed.
5. Streamers MUST keep their receiver tuned to the NOAA Weather Radio transmitter assigned to their stream. Streamers must NOT permanently substitute another transmitter without notifying and getting approval from Minnesota Weather Radio.
   1. If a receiver needs to be temporarily retuned for testing, troubleshooting, or maintenance, the public stream should be disconnected or otherwise prevented from being incorrectly identified as the assigned transmitter.
6. Streamers MUST maintain high-quality streams. In order to achieve this, streams MUST be transmitted using the MPEG-1 Audio Layer III (MP3) codec with a minimum bitrate of 32 kb/s and a sample rate of 22,050 Hz. Audio must be mono. The recommended bitrate is 48 kb/s.
   1. Audio should be clear and understandable and should not contain excessive static, clipping, distortion, interference, hum, or other audio problems that significantly affect the usability of the stream.
   2. If streamers opt to use the Minnesota Weather Radio streaming software, these settings will be pre-programmed for them.
7. Streamers MUST maintain high-availability streams. In order to stream, streamers must have streaming equipment capable of operating 24/7/365. This may include a computer, Raspberry Pi, dedicated streaming device, or other approved equipment.
   1. Sleep and/or hibernation mode MUST be disabled on equipment responsible for maintaining the stream.
   2. While not required, it is highly encouraged that streamers place their streaming equipment, NOAA Weather Radio receiver, networking equipment, and other necessary hardware on an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). A UPS can help maintain stream availability during brief power interruptions and may prevent equipment from unexpectedly shutting down or requiring manual resets after a power interruption.
8. Streamers who are struggling to maintain high-quality or high-availability streams will normally be notified about the issues. Minnesota Weather Radio will make reasonable efforts to help streamers identify and correct problems affecting stream quality or availability.
   1. If a stream continues to experience significant quality or availability issues, the stream may be temporarily suspended or removed.
   2. In order to ensure that high-quality, high-availability streams are being provided to Minnesota Weather Radio, streamers are encouraged to regularly monitor their streams and make necessary changes as needed.
9. Streamers should notify Minnesota Weather Radio of planned maintenance or extended outages whenever reasonably possible. Streamers are not expected to maintain perfect uptime, and occasional outages caused by Internet failures, equipment failures, power outages, maintenance, or other circumstances may occur and are expected.
   1. Repeated or extended outages may result in Minnesota Weather Radio contacting the streamer to determine whether the stream can continue to be maintained.
10. Streamers will be provided with a username and password to stream to the Service. It is the streamer's responsibility to keep this information secure.
    1. If a security breach involving the streamer's credentials is known or suspected, the streamer MUST immediately contact Minnesota Weather Radio and request that the affected credentials be changed.
    2. Streamers must NOT share their streaming credentials under any circumstances. Credentials are issued for use with the stream and equipment approved by Minnesota Weather Radio.
    3. Discovery of shared, publicly exposed, stolen, or otherwise misused credentials may result in the credentials being immediately disabled and the affected stream being temporarily suspended or removed.
11. Minnesota Weather Radio reserves the right to temporarily suspend or permanently remove any stream when necessary to protect the reliability, security, integrity, or public-safety purpose of Minnesota Weather Radio services.
    1. Intentional manipulation of emergency alert content, deliberate transmission of false emergency information, credential abuse, malicious activity, or other serious violations may result in immediate termination without prior warning.
    2. Technical problems such as poor reception, audio quality issues, incorrect encoder settings, or ordinary Internet outages will normally be handled by contacting the streamer and providing an opportunity to correct the issue.

Please see the Disclaimer page for the public Minnesota Weather Radio site disclaimer.