WeatherFax ...

[Franziska]

Thanks. That's exactly the plan.

[Franziska]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Regular wire example - "soldered a 3.5mm male mono plug to 100' of 22 gauge stranded wire."
https://www.reddit.com/r/shortwave/c...enna_goodness/


Tecsun PL660 "Solder wire to the tip of the jack plug" link for youtube.com watch?v=eWjCDv9nfXg

Thanks Rick.

[CarCode]

Originally Posted by Franziska

Sorry but I disagree.

If you don't have a satphone or satinternet or a HF transceiver, a Tecsun might still be your best budget option to receive weather data (as in synoptic charts and similar) when you are offshore.

Could it be that your Tecsun does receive poor due no external antenna and missing ground?

Go sailing and you will see. The capabilities of the Tecsun are far below the old devices from Sony or Grundig as many people confirm. But anybody should make its own experience. A radio needs also other things and not only an antenna and ground.

[Franziska]

Originally Posted by CarCode

Go sailing and you will see. The capabilities of the Tecsun are far below the old devices from Sony or Grundig as many people confirm. But anybody should make its own experience. A radio needs also other things and not only an antenna and ground.

I think we might be in a misunderstanding this time.

Even though I wrote Tecsun I meant all those HF receivers when I argued that I do not agree that this techno is obsolete for everyone.

Proper installation helps nevertheless on all of these units I'm pretty sure.

Surely there may be better units than the Tecsun around...

[rgleason]

Dear Franziska, Can you make a thread about "Weatherfax Receivers and SSB Radios" and link it to this thread? I think it would be a very worthwhile discussion and may give others some ideas for how to receive good weatherfaxes very cheaply. I too would like to implement such a system, because Navfax is too expensive and does not result in as good information.

[Maelruan]

The RTLSDR.com V3 dongle is far superior to the SW radio's, and far less costly. Attached photo shows the arrangement I use, with the OpenCPN plugin receiving a weather fax from over 1,000 klms away within the past hour.

In the last century I had found the Degen DE1103 an improvement on the Sony 7600 due to it's far more refined BFO tuning dial.

[rgleason]

Note: I have started a new thread
Weatherfax_pi Recievers: RtlSDR + SSB radios
to move this discussion to that thread, so that Weatherfax_pi can be used solely for the plugin itself. Thanks very much for posting your relevant comments there and in the right thread.

[Franziska]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Note: I have started a new thread
Weatherfax_pi Recievers: RtlSDR + SSB radios
to move this discussion to that thread, so that Weatherfax_pi can be used solely for the plugin itself. Thanks very much for posting your relevant comments there and in the right thread.

Thank you Rick. Have a happy Easter!

[GordotheGrey]

Originally Posted by rgleason

@Gordothegrey

I would dearly like to have all the BOM links working and updated, and if you can provide the data files for this, I will include them in the next release of weatherfax!

The data files are:
WeatherfaxInternetRetrieval_<location>.xml
There are multiple files based on world location. These are found here.
C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Local\opencpn\plugins\weat herfax_pi\data or %localappdata%\Local\opencpn\plugins\weatherfax_pi \data
where the plugin was installed. For other OS locations, take a look at the Dev Manual page here Terminology and Installation Paths The file for BOM is most likely WeatherfaxInternetRetrieval_australia.xml

CoordinateSets.xml <-- Your personnal copy contains the coordinate changes you have made with the weatherfax wizard. For windows users this file is located C:\ProgramData\opencpn\plugins\weatherfax

If you can learn how these work together and manage to update the files so that they work well, I will incorporate them.
Also an improved description of exactly how this can be done easily would be nice to add to the documentation, which is here
https://opencpn-manuals.github.io/ma...fax/index.html

All Plugin Manuals you should probably bookmark this!!

Also read about Weatherfax Image Wizard
https://opencpn-manuals.github.io/ma...x_image_wizard


We need to have Users updating these files regularly with all the local changes needed to display weatherfax easily.
Also we need updates to the weatherfax schedules around the world. Those have not been updated in a very long time.

Hi Rick,

I found the config files and updated a sample URL but it still won't load.

I cut the config file down to a single entry and it still wont work. The error message correctly displays the URL that points to the .png ... I'm stuck.

a sample URL that should work is
http://www.bom.gov.au/fwo/IDYOC300.NSW.SSTCur.24.png

What is the best way forward?

[rgleason]

@Gordothegrey

I totally agree about saving kaps with georef, this has been a Feature Request for awhile, but we need a programmer to add it.
https://github.com/rgleason/weatherfax_pi/issues/73
https://github.com/seandepagnier/wea...x_pi/issues/13


I will look at the BOM Url you provide, when I get a chance perhaps it is just a change in the url which is an easy change.

[rgleason]

@Gordonthegrey

Please note that weatherfax_pi does export KAP files with georeferencing included What we need is for weatherfax to read KAP files and to use them in normal operations (with an option).

I have modified the Issue to be RFE: Automating Save/View images with coordinates as Kap files

We are currently looking for a programmer to volunteer to make these improvements.

Originally Posted by rgleason

@Gordothegrey

I totally agree about saving kaps with georef, this has been a Feature Request for awhile, but we need a programmer to add it.
https://github.com/rgleason/weatherfax_pi/issues/73
https://github.com/seandepagnier/wea...x_pi/issues/13


I will look at the BOM Url you provide, when I get a chance perhaps it is just a change in the url which is an easy change.

[rgleason]

@GordontheGrey

Can you describe how you found these png files? That might help us decipher the system (which has changed apparently).

I tried changing the Australian URL to

<Server Name="Australia bom" Url="http://www.bom.gov.au/fwo/">
and added a first line to complete the URL:

<Server Name="Australia bom" Url="http://www.bom.gov.au/fwo/">
<Region Name="Australia">
<Iterator From="3" To="72" By="3">
<Map Url="IDYOC300.NSW.SSTCur.24.png"
Contents="Surface Pressure &amp; Rainfall 24" Area="Australia" />

but this does not work. See attached. And because of the iterator which multiplies things based on time step between files, we get multiple instances.

Attached is the file. If you want to play with it more, take the extension off and copy it over (for Windows Users)

C:\Users\<user local>\AppData\Local\opencpn\plugins\weatherfax_pi \data\WeatherFaxInternetRetrieval_Australia.xml

[rgleason]

AUS Marine and Ocean Marine & Ocean
Regions NSW QLD WA SA TAS NT

AUS bom Marine Wind Forecast
Marine Wind Forecast

Area S.Aus Timezone: UTC
Marine Wind Forecast

Interactive Weather and Wave Forecast Maps
Interactive Weather and Wave Forecast Maps


Types of Maps
Surf Press & Rainfall
Surf Winds
MLSP 500
Wind Speed and Dir
Temperature
Total Wave Height
Interactive Weather and Wave Forecast Maps
etc

In addition it has Timezone, Area, Period

Latest Sea Level Pressure Maps
Latest Colour Mean Sea-Level Pressure Analysis

Image links
http://www.bom.gov.au/fwo/IDY00030.202205021800.png
http://www.bom.gov.au/fwo/IDY00030.202204270000.png
http://www.bom.gov.au/fwo/IDY00030.202205020600.png
http://www.bom.gov.au/fwo/IDY00030.202204280000.png

3 examples for surface analysis

http://www.bom.gov.au/fwo/IDY00030.202204260000.png
Analysis for 00:00 UTC on Tuesday 26 April 2022

http://www.bom.gov.au/fwo/IDY00030.202204260600.png
Analysis for 06:00 UTC on Tuesday 26 April 2022

http://www.bom.gov.au/fwo/IDY00030.202204261200.png
Analysis for 12:00 UTC on Tuesday 26 April 2022

Let's try to get these working first. The server does not appear to be using a secure website https:// but perhaps the http://www.bom.gov.au/australia/char...ptic_col.shtml
shtml is getting in the way somehow.

The images all seem to be there, but in a different format.
We need to get this all working again, by figuring out what the filenames are and then get the servers to work with the right urls.

[rgleason]

I also notice that some of the European URLs are not working, one of them is wetterzcentrale.de The english link is now, with some of the maps.

https://www.wetterzentrale.de/en/top...&h=0&tr=6&mv=0


There is a lot of work to do on the URL links for weatherfax to update the entire world!


We also seem to be having a problem being rejected as "unauthorized" from accessing some of these images. NOAA seems to be working well however.

[rgleason]

For Australia BOM Bureau of Meterology we need to figure out why this does not work:

Modified File WeatherfaxInternetRetrieval_Australia.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<OCPNWeatherFaxInternetRetrieval>
<Server Name="Australia bom" Url="http://www.bom.gov.au/fwo/">
<Region Name="Australia">
<Map Url="IDY00030.202204261200.png"
Contents="Surface Pressure 1" Area="Australia" />
<Map Url="IDY00030.202204260600.png"
Contents="Surface Pressure 2" Area="Australia" />
<Map Url="IDY00030.202204261200.png"
Contents="Surface Pressure 3" Area="Australia" />

When using the browser, these images are quite easily downloaded.
http://www.bom.gov.au/fwo/IDY00030.202204261200.png
http://www.bom.gov.au/fwo/IDY00030.202204260600.png
http://www.bom.gov.au/fwo/IDY00030.202204260000.png
http://www.bom.gov.au/fwo/IDY00030.202204261200.png


I think that, for some reason, the methods used to download are being blocked as "unauthorized" by the servers, even though the message says there is not a working internet connection. - Is there a way to fix this problem?