milo@ndmath.UUCP (Greg Corson) (10/10/88)
Does anyone happen to know of a service where you can get weather data such as satelite pictures, weather maps...etc over the phone with a standard 300/1200/2400 baud modem? I know some weather radars can be accessed for the price of a long distance phone call but their data format seems to be totally nonstandard and can't be received by a normal computer modem. I don't mind having to call long distance but I can't afford to pay big bucks for a commercial weather service as this is for some personal experimental stuff I'm doing on a $0 budget. So, anyone know of anyplace? I understood that some FAA flight service stations gave this info out but I don't know if it costs $$$ or is free (or for that matter, if you can use a standard modem to receive it). Whatever the source, it needs to be stored and transmitted as computer data. I don't have the money or the time to go out and build a FAX interface. Any ideas??? Thanks in advance! Greg Corson 19141 Summers Drive South Bend, IN 46637 (219) 277-5306 {pur-ee,rutgers,uunet}!iuvax!ndmath!milo
jbrown@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Jordan Brown) (10/11/88)
In article <1227@ndmath.UUCP> milo@ndmath.UUCP (Greg Corson) writes: >Does anyone happen to know of a service where you can get weather data >such as satelite pictures, weather maps...etc over the phone with a >standard 300/1200/2400 baud modem? WeatherBank in Salt Lake City and Minneapolis has some of this. They have ASCII-ized satellite pictures and some form of graphics protocol for weather maps. (I don't know if they can do sat pics using their graphics stuff.) SLC 801-973-3221 300/1200 801-977-9227 300/1200 801-977-9427 2400 Mlps 612-339-1685 300/1200 ... ... .... 2400 by special arrangement You can call and get all their online docs for free; I think you say "help" to get started on them. To actually get data, you have to pay them money, but it isn't much (in my opinion)... $0.15/minute. I've found that most weather requests take me much less than a minute; my usual charge for a half-dozen FTs and SAs is usually $0.07. That's with me manually typing the request, which is where most of the time is spent.
fgz@lakart.UUCP (Fred Genoese-Zerbi) (10/11/88)
From article <1227@ndmath.UUCP>, by milo@ndmath.UUCP (Greg Corson): > Does anyone happen to know of a service where you can get weather data > such as satelite pictures, weather maps...etc over the phone with a > standard 300/1200/2400 baud modem? I know some weather radars can be > accessed for the price of a long distance phone call but their data > format seems to be totally nonstandard and can't be received by a > normal computer modem. > If you join Compuserve, they have a some similar service, although the pictures are not that high resolution. They can be downloaded if you have software that understands their format. I use a Macintosh with Red Ryder. The only problem is that I have not found a way to save the pictures other than taking screen prints (this is not so bad, just a little slow). Good Luck. Federico Genoese-Zerbi {mirror, cfisun, xait}!lakart!fgz