WeatherFax ...

[sailorF54]

Originally Posted by rgleason

...
Out of curiosity, are you using Windows Defender? It would help to know in case others have a similar problem.
...

In most cases, Windows (10) Defender prevents installing plugins (pic #1) but you can easily overide it by clicking 'supplementary information' (pic #2) and 'install nevertheless' (translations are mine )

[rgleason]

Language update
https://github.com/rgleason/weatherfax_pi/releases

[skipperearly]

Can someone advise if/how to get weatherfaxes
DHMZ
and
Poseidon System
included into the weatherfax - internet download options

Thanks

[rgleason]

Skipperearly,

This reguires modification of the weatherfaxinternetretrieval.xml file and the coordinatesets.xml file
Take a look at those with your notepad++ or text editor.
Learn the format.

Static urls are easy, but if the url changes daily based upon date and time it gets harder. Sean just incorporated strtime and we are still learning how to do this.

Eventually you'll be able to modify and submit PR to github, Uwe is very familiar with the process now. It isn't that difficult.

We need to know the Metro Name, Server URL,
and list of urls / & images needed with their precise name.

Put it in a text file in the best format you can and attach here.
We will first enter the server, the url and each of the image filenames with the corresponding text.

Then we will save the file such that the plugin will work with them, and we will then start entering the coordinates and making the maps overlay properly using the wizard. Once this is done we will go back and edit the coordinatesets.xml file and we may add some coordinates from the usercoordinatesets.xml file.

That is a rough overview of the process.

For an example of strdate see http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post2587335

Notes abot strdate http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post2587879

About calibrating Polar files with Fax Wizard http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post2586308

More Polar calibration http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post2585887

What Uwe sent to augment the xml files http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post2584932

Process and file locations

[rgleason]

Process and file locations : http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post2556688
and read the posts above and below

When do I need to make a new Image Coord?
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post2556674

[rgleason]

If i go to the link you provided DHMZ
and right click and select "Copy Image Location"
and paste it here... http://prognoza.hr/aladinHR/web_uv10_MASL_06_e.png
This is 7/3/2018 at 1800

I looks to me like the numbers may change over time. That is Strdate. I wish met services would NOT do this!

The next one at 2100 is
http://prognoza.hr/aladinHR/web_uv10_MASL_09_e.png

The next day 08 03 2018 at 0000 the image is
http://prognoza.hr/aladinHR/web_uv10_MASL_12_e.png

0300 http://prognoza.hr/aladinHR/web_uv10_MASL_15_e.png

0600 http://prognoza.hr/aladinHR/web_uv10_MASL_18_e.png

2100 http://prognoza.hr/aladinHR/web_uv10_MASL_33_e.png

09 03 2018
0000 http://prognoza.hr/aladinHR/web_uv10_MASL_36_e.png
2100 http://prognoza.hr/aladinHR/web_uv10_MASL_57_e.png

10 03 2018
0000 http://prognoza.hr/aladinHR/web_uv10_MASL_60_e.png
2100 http://prognoza.hr/aladinHR/web_uv10_MASL_72_e.png

Can you tell me what the pattern is? We need that.

[Maelruan]

rgleasn: "Out of curiosity, are you using Windows Defender? It would help to know in case others have a similar problem."

Yes - & when I right click the plugin installer & open Properties an option to unblock is presented. Same for rtlsdr_pi-1.2 2 days ago, which I have yet to test.

[rgleason]

Originally Posted by Maelruan

rgleasn: "Out of curiosity, are you using Windows Defender? It would help to know in case others have a similar problem."

Yes - & when I right click the plugin installer & open Properties an option to unblock is presented. Same for rtlsdr_pi-1.2 2 days ago, which I have yet to test.

Thank, I've noticed recently that Norton will prompt after downloads, and I have to override, then when install, the MS Defender Blue Menu comes up and I have to override that telling it to run the F.... software.

Its a lot of overkill.

[Maelruan]

Originally Posted by rgleason

I guess you've got to have good signals.

My setup is very unsophisticated & yet I get adequate signals from over 1000 miles away. First screenshot attached is wefax being received & decoded from Offenbach on 7880khz. I hope it shows how tuning & configuration can be done. Frequency can be adjusted in SDR# so the tones are moved in the FLdigi waterfall to the decoding lines. The second screenshot is that wefax displayed on OpenCPN using the wefax plugin to convert from polar to mercator.

[rgleason]

I guess I am just going to have to try this again. I spent hours trying to get it to work and concluded that my RTLSDR dongle was not good or the drivers were a problem. But Sean saw them and said they should work, so I gave him one, keeping the other so I could try again.

I was using several programs but SDR# seemed to be one of the best. But this one is new to me "the tones are moved in the FLdigi waterfall to the decoding lines". More later.

Thanks for the screenshots and encouragement.

[Maelruan]

Originally Posted by rgleason

But this one is new to me "the tones are moved in the FLdigi waterfall to the decoding lines".

With both SDR# & Fldigi open together, as you fine tune the frequency in SDR# you will see yellow column (the audio tone from SDR# via VAC) in the Fldigi waterfall moving to the right or left. The vertical red lines in the waterfall are the shift freqs. If you leave these at default in Fldigi for all wefax transmissions you will only have to fine tune the freqs for each wefax station in SDR# to bring them into line, and then save those fine tuned freqs in SDR#, which also has a scheduler which can be set up to use these saved freqs.

I'm on my 3rd dongle. The 1st needed a correction of 50ppm with no HF. The 2nd has a correction of -7ppm & did tune down to HF for a while, but no longer. It's still good for AIS & other VHF. The 3rd, RTL-SDR.com Vers 3, has a correction of only -1ppm which seems very stable across the spectrum.

[seandepagnier]

Originally Posted by Maelruan

My setup is very unsophisticated & yet I get adequate signals from over 1000 miles away. First screenshot attached is wefax being received & decoded from Offenbach on 7880khz. I hope it shows how tuning & configuration can be done. Frequency can be adjusted in SDR# so the tones are moved in the FLdigi waterfall to the decoding lines. The second screenshot is that wefax displayed on OpenCPN using the wefax plugin to convert from polar to mercator.

What sort of upcoverter are you using? Surely this is not bypass mode?

I'm sure you are aware the weatherfax plugin also incorporates a decoder.. did you try this rather than fldigi?

About a year ago I modified the plugin so it could automatically tune the rtlsdr dongle based on the weather fax radio schedules. This made the process automatic to retrieve weather fax, and can even switch stations as needed.

[Maelruan]

Originally Posted by boat_alexandra

What sort of upcoverter are you using? Surely this is not bypass mode?

I'm sure you are aware the weatherfax plugin also incorporates a decoder.. did you try this rather than fldigi?

About a year ago I modified the plugin so it could automatically tune the rtlsdr dongle based on the weather fax radio schedules. This made the process automatic to retrieve weather fax, and can even switch stations as needed.

No seperate upconverter is necessary when SRD# Direct Sampling (Q Branch) is used with the RTL-SDR.com V3 dongle.
It would be great if I could get the weatherfax plugin to control the dongle, but I have been unsuccessful so far. I suspect that some parts are missing from the weatherfax and rtlsdr windows plugin installation files, or may have gone to the wrong folder. I don't have accurate error codes available just now, but the log file indicated missing files with the -h extention when trying to load rtlsdr. Also for weatherfax, when using the HF Schedule/Filter the receiving bar did show an increasing green line as the wefax duration was passing, but nothing was being received, and intermittently another window came up which had a little signal indicator.

[seandepagnier]

Originally Posted by Maelruan

No seperate upconverter is necessary when SRD# Direct Sampling (Q Branch) is used with the RTL-SDR.com V3 dongle.
It would be great if I could get the weatherfax plugin to control the dongle, but I have been unsuccessful so far. I suspect that some parts are missing from the weatherfax and rtlsdr windows plugin installation files, or may have gone to the wrong folder. I don't have accurate error codes available just now, but the log file indicated missing files with the -h extention when trying to load rtlsdr. Also for weatherfax, when using the HF Schedule/Filter the receiving bar did show an increasing green line as the wefax duration was passing, but nothing was being received, and intermittently another window came up which had a little signal indicator.

Wow! Direct sampling is meant to have much worse quality compared to an upconverter, but maybe it's possible? Did you have to solder to the rtlsdr or perform any sort of hardware modifications? What sort of antenna are you using?

I doubt the direct control of rtlsdr is going to work correctly in windows. I did this in linux, and without the rtl_fm binary available in the path, it isn't going to work. The green bar would display, but as you said, nothing received. Further, I used an upconverter, so there needs to be an option for that vs direct sampling.

[stelian]

I also tried receiving wefaxes with my RTLSDR dongle coupled with a HamItUp upconverter, and my results have been pretty bad, despite intensive testing.

The main problem are HF interferences from the electrical devices nearby. And with an upconverter (which needs to have its own power supply), you multiply the chances to have those interferences.

The solution which worked the best for me was to use a separate SSB radio (Tecsun or Sony), connected to the audio input of my laptop. And even in this case, it will work much better when I disconnect the power source of my laptop !

However, all these tests were done home, in a house full of HF interferences. I suppose that at sea, provided you shut down the few possible causes of HF noise (engine, bad LED spots, etc), you will have much better luck...