Meteo info/warnings not broadcasted to 4WDer in North QLD +NT?

John
I'll give you 10 /10 for that post, well done old mate

Of course, the other huge benefit of VKS 737 and other similar outfits is that the comms are two ways. That means that although the BOM may not have announced a particular area of chitty weather, there is nothing stopping a VKS member from calling in with a warning that there has been 500mm of the wet stuff over the past 5 days and that certain rivers are known to be running a banker.

I was involved in a situation a few years ago (very minor by comparison to cyclones etc). We had been holed-up at Birdsville for a few days, awaiting the "Track" to be re-opened southwards.....it had been closed for about 4 days due to rain. One morning the track was re-opened and we headed off southwards, me listening to the skeds from Alice. A group of blokes were around Longreach and had radio'd in to Alice asking whether the "track" had been re-opened yet as the answer would be the determining factor as to whether they continued towards Birdsville or headed west along the black-top. The operator at Alice advised that his info was that the track was still closed, but I was able to call in straight away and advise them all that the track had been opened up about 30 minutes earlier. IMHO this is what being a member of VKS is all about.

Cheers

Roachie

Whats the issue?, The cyclone has hit the coast and if you are in the area you would know about it by now for real, if your not in the area I would suggest you turn your TV on.

"135 people viewed the posting. only 3 replies and 2 follow-ups"
"Say no more"

So what does that statement mean?

VKS can only pass on what is provided by the BOM, VKS does not operate a weather forecasting service as Ruth said the warnings for this cyclone have been around for quite a few days.

Its got nothing to do with "The Australian Spirit" in fact the Australian Spirit is alive and well with the Volunteer Operators of the VKS network who freely give of their time to provide assistance to remote area travelers and you hanging $hit of these people with unrealistic expectations of weather forecasting is pretty despicable in my book.

I get the distinct feeling that you are not even a VKS member.

Why are both the original post and the reply by Guy signed off as Bluesky ???

A bit off using this particular subject as a troll.

I'm not exactly sure what your problem is - but you have no right to assume anything - least of all that people do not know their geography.
To anyone else who reads the drivel posted above - don't bother replying - it will just make him worse.

Ruth,

I agree. Bluesky/Guy is looking more and more like a troll to me.

Yep - needs watching closely - then the AM chop.

Check out his other posts in the archives. Like where he's searching EXACTLY which law talks about removing seats and putting in storage drawers.

GO SEE A LAWYER BLUESKY. They can tell you exactly what you want to know.

R.

How many IDs have you got on this site Guy / Bluesky/ Insert Name Here.
You can't expect us to have a serious discussion with you when you crop up using different names. In this case, you seem to be posting under two different identities on the same thread.

But I'll try (for the last time). I am not in your listening area, so can not comment on your complaint, but here on the Gold Coast, Wati is getting sufficient coverage, such that only a nut would venture far out to sea over the next couple of days.

Perhaps you should be taking this up with the radio stations you have a beef with directly. It seems few here are experiencing your difficulty, so you can't expect much support. It must be a very 'localised' problem.

Hello Mad Dog

Absolutely correct.

Mad Dog you seem to know everything about HF weather connection.

What about if you help me to set it up properly.

Have you listen to the voice or have you downloaded the weather fax?

By the way Mad Dog which HF receiver have you got?

1) I have listen twice to the voice from Charleville or Perth (depending on the propagation).
Do you know where to get the GPS map they are talking about during the transmission?
This voice is not intended for a 4WD situation but for a ship of good size with proper positioning maps.
and experienced radio operator + proper equipment design for this transmission.

The robot voice is mono-ton and very difficult to understand.
After 3 minutes the voice becomes very boring and I had to switch off because the GPS position + other
codes mean nothing .

The robot voice does not tell you there the cyclone or low is and when it is coming but gives GPS position for hours with codes.
http://www.bom.gov.au/marine/marine_weather_radio.shtml

Unless you are an experienced navy or merchant radio operator ( which is designed to do) very little chance
to understand what's going on.

Please send me some information if you have any about the codes, the GPS maps and the equipment needed to listen to it?

I can see you know what you are talking about.
Daytime (7am-6pm) 4426 and 16546 Night-time (6pm-7am) 2201 and 6507 Anytime 8176 and 12365
Which frequency do you usually pick up?

2) You mentioned the weather fax

What FREE decoding software do you recommend?
I have one decoding software from Germany which is unstable after 2 minutes.

Mad Dog, which FREE decoding software have you got for Charleville or Perth Weather Fax?
Can you give me the URL?

Did you managed to get the name of a free software from BOM Charleville?
BOM never replied about FREE software because the software they recommend is about AUS $2000
plus a special computer which is not a laptop, which is about AUS$1500..

Mad Dog let me know if you find some info about a free software to decode the signal?

The other problem is to be able to have the weather fax downloading for 24 hours.
Because the transmission are supposed to me on time but they are not due to problem with the server which sometimes crashes.
Out of the 24 or more weather map produced every day only 2 are of value.

What is your trick to get the maps?
http://www.bom.gov.au/marine/radio_fax.shtml
Which map do you use to guess the weather?

How do you understand the charts? and which chart do you usually read?

Have you spoken to BOM about that?
I have emailed but without there software + equipment what they're talking about makes no sense.

If you can pass me any infos it will be great.

As you know there is a map every 15 minutes for entire south pacific, which one do you choose and how do you
interpret the chart?

The problem is to have the weather fax connected 24 hours at the time.

I connected my second battery onto it and after 24 hours my battery went below 10 volts.
My laptop uses with the transformer only 80 watts per hour.
Plus the HF receiver connected to it, I am using 120 watts per hour.

Mad Dog let me know how you set yourself up with all this and if you managed to get some realistic answers from BOM weather fax?

BlueSky

haha, gee guy what was the question again.

You make it sound difficult but really fax is quite simple. I have decoded many hundreds of wefax transmissions from all over the world using a variety of receivers and tranceivers.

Special software from the BOM is not required, my favourite program was jvfax, there are many others and they can usually be used for a variety ofl modes.

Do a google on wefax. The web is awash with information about software and help decoding wefax.

I decoded my first HF fax transmission with little bother but I'm used to being around radios and decoding various digital signals.

oh yeah the voice transmissions. Sorry have never bothered to listen. I accept what you say.

OK Mad Dog - I looked at JVfax.
This is what they say:
""To make FAX setup easy for you, go to the JVFax directory (default is JVFAX70) and (only once) run USECOM1 if you will be using Com1 or USECOM2 if you will be using Com2. This will set the normal fax defaults for you.""

This mean an interface plus this will change my GPS port setup.

On my Weatherfax German software I just plug into the audio pick up of the laptop but NO com1 or Com2.

With my setup straight from the external pick up of the external speaker of the Codan to the Laptop audio pickup.

Mad dog easy for you to say as an experienced amateur radio but how do you interface Codan 9323 to the RS232 of the laptop?
What's the wiring?

This is outside 4WDriving here, this is about experienced amateur radio stuff.

Can you help?

BlueSky

My apologies guy, jvfax is not soundcard software, I remember now I built a simple interface for it. However there are other soundcard programs that do wefax. I can't reccommend any off the top of my head. I have a few soundcard prgs on my lappy at home, not sure if the handle fax or not as I no longer play with that mode, most of these prgs handle numerous modes. I'll have a look tomorrow when at home and get back to you or you can search on "soundcard wefax"

Don't be concerned about any reference to rs232 connection with a soundcard program. This is only used to control the PTT (push to talk) line. You will not be transmitting data so this is not required, all you need do is pick up the audio from your 9323.

Guy, I searched and found a program wxsat that's free and suitable for receiving HF fax and weather pics from the satellites.

http://www.hffax.de/html/hauptteil_wxsat.htm

Use the fm 120 mode within the program and ssb on the radio.

I haven't tested the program yet but I will.

Take note that for receiving orbiting sat pics if you want to get into that the receiver needs to have a wide FM passband as the FM deviation is around 17 kHz otherwise pics will be severely clipped