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20000926: DIFAX situation



>From: "Pam Grube" <address@hidden>
>Organization: Lyndon State College
>Keywords: 200009261745.e8QHjqb05381 losing DIFAX

Hi Pam-

>     I presume you have been following the DIFAX debacle, including 
>one that arrived today saying the Unisys is taking advantage of the 
>newly created market to gouge the weather community (apparently 
>going from $300/yr to $3300/yr for a DIFAX like product.  

Only if you sign up with them. ;-)  The reality is that there are
other sources of DIFAX info other than Alden or UniSys.  Unidata
has sent several messages to the community about our position on
DIFAX.  I've appended a note from Dave Fulker about this issue.
Nolan, Mark and Bill are all on the ldm-users list and should
have received this message.

>     Can you shead any light on the situation, or make any 
>recommendations?  Since we have for some time been putting 
>DIFAX products on our Intranet for use in the classroom, in addition 
>to the paper copies, this represents a dire state of affairs for my 
>forecasting classes.

The key thing that sites need to realize is that the NWS has
said that they are going to terminate DIFAX and will give a
6 month notice.  That could happen today, tomorrow, next year, 
or whenever.  If I were a DIFAX user, I'd look at alternatives
specified in the appended note because eventually, you won't be
able to get DIFAX maps.

Many of the maps on DIFAX can be created with McIDAS or GEMPAK
using the raw data in the IDD.  One of the solutions is to get
the scripts that UW is using and generate your own products 
locally.  This may not be a good solution for you because of
your IDD reception problems.

>Any help you or anyone there could provide would be greatly 
>appreciated.

Unfortunately, the best advice I can give is to start perparing
now for the inevitable demise of DIFAX and use one of the
alternatives listed below.  If you need more help implementing
one of the solutions below, please send a message to 
address@hidden and we can help you further.

Don
*************************************************************
Don Murray                               UCAR Unidata Program
address@hidden                        P.O. Box 3000
(303) 497-8628                              Boulder, CO 80307
*************************************************************
Unidata WWW Server               http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/
McIDAS Demonstration Machine  http://mcdemo.unidata.ucar.edu/
*************************************************************
Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2000 17:06:14 -0600
From: Dave Fulker <address@hidden>
To: address@hidden
Subject: Re: 20000826: Comments on Alden solvency  (fwd)

Hi,

This was intended for all LDM users, but my typing...

---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Monday, August 28, 2000 5:01 PM -0600
From: Dave Fulker <address@hidden>
To: Gilbert Sebenste <address@hidden>
Subject: Re: 20000826: Comments on Alden solvency  (fwd)

Dear Gilbert,

I write in response to your recent question:

> So my second purpose in writing is to ask if WSI or another
> vendor would pick up when Alden leaves, by providing DiFAX at a
> reduced rate to the UNIDATA community via the LDM? I know it will
> be tough to do, since DiFAX will be gone in a year or two anyway
> (if not sooner). But it's worth a try.

Perhaps you already were aware of this, but Alden's provision of
DIFAX was not based on any formal relationship with Unidata.  Alden
simply chose to continue utilizing LDM-based delivery of DIFAX after
we concluded our contractual relations, following the deployment of
NOAAport.  As your note suggests, other companies could do the same
thing (if they are motivated to do so), and this could occur without
involvement from our office.  However, I read your note to suggest
that perhaps we _should_ get involved.

As indicated in the appended message from 25 July, we have been
trying to help Unidata users prepare for the inevitable demise of
DIFAX by offering a variety of work-arounds.  This stance was
endorsed by the Unidata Users Committee and the Unidata Policy
Committee, and I believe it remains our wisest course.  More
specifically, trying to strike a DIFAX deal with some vendor would
consume staff resources for short-term gain and necessarily would
detract from other important advances.

To help mitigate the burden that has been so rudely imposed by the
failures of Alden's DIFAX service, our user support staff is willing
and prepared to provide assistance to any department that has
immediate need for one of the work-arounds that have been devised in
consultation with the Users Committee.  I hope this offer is at least
partially satisfactory and will help Unidata participants prepare for
the not-too-distant day when DIFAX is completely unavailable.

Sincerely,
Dave

========================================
Dave Fulker
Unidata Program Director
University Corp for Atmospheric Research
----------------------------------------
Mail:  PO Box 3000
        Boulder, CO 80307-3000  USA
Email: address@hidden
Phone: 303-497-8650    Fax: 303-497-8690
========================================

---------- Forwarded Message ----------

Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2000 14:09:14 -0600 (MDT)
From: Jeff Weber <address@hidden>
To: address@hidden, address@hidden
Subject: DIFAX Alternatives

DIFAX community,

The National Weather Service has informed Unidata that the DIFAX
service will be terminated eventually.  Alden has encountered some
problems with the DIFAX service via the IDD, that they currently are
providing.

Unidata has tracked these issues and coordinated some options that
can be utilized when the DIFAX service ceases to exist or Alden
continues with idd transmission difficulties.

Unidata is generating .gif imagery of these products via Redbook
Graphics and can be viewed or downloaded at:

http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/staff/chiz/redbook/

The University of Wisconsin is also generating DIFAX type products
which are available for viewing and download in postscript format at:

http://mapmaker.meteor.wisc.edu/difaxmaps/

NOAA also offers DIFAX type products for viewing and download in
compressed (G4) .tiff formats at:

http://weather.noaa.gov/fax/graph.shtml

and

http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/wefax/products.htm

DIFAX will cease operations in the near future, we offer these
options as interim solutions.

-Jeff
____________________________                  _____________________
Jeff Weber                                    address@hidden
Unidata Support                               PH:303-497-8676
NWS-COMET Case Study Library                  FX:303-497-8690
University Corp for Atmospheric Research      3300 Mitchell Ln
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/staff/jweber      Boulder,Co 80307-3000
________________________________________      ______________________

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