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20000905: Unidata's NOAAPort system



>From: address@hidden (Rodger R. Getz)
>Organization: AWIS Weather Services, Inc.
>Keywords: 200009051839.e85IdPN25713 NOAAport reception systems

Rodger,

>(Please forward to the appropriate person)

You got him; this is Tom Yoksas.

>We were once a Unidata site (Auburn University) and were an active IDD site.

A valued site I might add.

>We still use the LDM and licensed WXP before it went Unisys. For the four
>years that we have been in business we have been using Alden's satellite and
>IDD feeds. With Alden's recent problems, it is clear that we must look
>elsewhere for our datafeeds.

The apparent problems at Alden have made a number of folks start reassessing
their data access methods.

>About the only solution out there is obviously NOAAPort. There are only a
>few commercial vendors and most do not support an output suitable for
>feeding to the LDM. I have a few questions:
>
>1. It appears that you have purchased the required hardware components
>rather than go with a commercial system. Was this done for economic reasons?
>If not, why?

The reason that we embarked on this investigation was to see if there
could be an inexpensive alternative for univerity access to the
NOAAPORT datastreams.

>2. Is the software required to take the raw feeds and output something that
>can be read by the LDM part of the LDM software or is it special software
>that you wrote?

I believe that there was a bit of new code developed to allow access to
the four port card that we have been experimenting with.  The development
effort was not great, however.

>Will this software be publicly available?

Yes, of course.  You know that everything that we do (licensed packages
excluded) is freely available.

>3. What hardware is the ingest running on?

If you are asking about the computer itself, we are using a dual
processor (dual 550 Mhz Pentium IIIs) commodity PC with substantial RAM
(we are using 1 GB of RAM, but one can use less).  The total cost of
the PC was approx.  $5000 at the time of purchase, but the price of an
equivelent box has dropped considerably.

>4. Where did you purchase the receiver/demodulator?

For the installation here at UCAR, we were luck to have an installation
with a 4-channel antenna already available.  We did not have to go out
and find a vendor of the demodulators, but we have done some of the leg
work on this.

>Thanks for your time.

We will be putting together a web page that outlines the various
components of our NOAAPORT reception system and provides information on
the things that you have inquired about (demod vendors, etc.).  This
page will, like everything else we do, be accessible to any/all who are
interested.  I want to point out that we are not looking to get into
the NOAAPORT reception business.  We just feel that it is our charge to
share what we learn with our community.

Hopefully, we can get this web page put together quickly.  I will let
you know when it is accessible.

>Rodger R. Getz, President and CEO
>AWIS Weather Services, Inc.
>1735 East University Drive, Suite 101
>P.O. Box 3267
>Auburn, AL        http://www.awis.com
>ph: (334) 826-2149 ext 104 (voice) (334) 826-2152 (FAX)

Tom Yoksas

>From address@hidden Mon Sep 18 13:51:07 2000
>To: address@hidden, address@hidden (Rodger R. Getz)
>Subject: Re: 20000905: Unidata's NOAAPort system

Rodger,

We put together an experimental configuration over a year ago to see
how inexpensively we could receive NOAAport data.  Fortunately, COMET
already had a four channel system installed for their training center,
and we had a good PC on-hand, so all we really needed was the ingest
card and software (~$1200) and a bit more memory for the PC (~$500).
As Tom already mentioned, the PC was worth about ~$4000 and we tapped
the feed from four existing EFData SDR-54a receivers (~$2500 each).

We did a bit of code development to read the card and get the data into
an LDM queue and anybody who wants it can have it.  Also, we are in the
process of creating a web page detailing all these things, but I
recently noticed that Performance Technologies (creator of the 4 port
card -- see www.pt.com) recently released a new card that addressed
some of our complaints with the original card.  We've ordered the new
card and will test it to see if it makes more sense to use it (probably
does), but the lead time on delivery is still over six weeks out!

Specifications include;

 - PC must support PCI 2.1 bus mastering slots (most all do now)
 - used PCI334 card from http://www.pt.com/products/index.asp
 - running Solaris x86 version 7 (Linux was not supported at the time)
 - receivers from http://www.efdata.com

Wow, looks like the SDR-54a is discontinued too (as of 4/1/00) and the
SDM-155 is a replacement.  If you need more information, let us know.

mike

>From: address@hidden (Rodger R. Getz)
>To: "Mike Schmidt" <address@hidden>
>Subject: RE: 20000905: Unidata's NOAAPort system
>Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 15:01:14 -0500

Mike-

Thanks for the information. we decided that since our business depends on a
reliable datafeed, we would rather pay for a commercial system with a proven
track record than to save a few bucks and risk problems. We will be
installing a system from Planetary Data. They have been packaging an
excellent system that has very low frame losses. They are located nearby
here and can provide us with the best support possible. The Weather Channel
has two of their systems. Since Alden's FOS satellite feeds have been down
AGAIN since last Friday afternoon, we can't wait for our NOAAPort system to
be installed!

Rodger R. Getz, President and CEO
AWIS Weather Services, Inc.
1735 East University Drive, Suite 101
P.O. Box 3267
Auburn, AL 36831-3267 http://www.awis.com
ph: (334) 826-2149 ext 104 (voice) (334) 826-2152 (FAX)