[Xastir] NWS Weather Alerts

[Curt, WE7U]

On Fri, 24 May 2013, Dean Groe wrote:

> I was able to perform the update and install on Wednesday night.  I also ran the get-NWS script again.  It reported that my files we already up to date. 
>
> Last night we had two severe thunderstorm warnings here.  I was here when they occurred.  Xastir did not receive any alerts.  Just in case I missed something, I turned on Wx Alert Logging, but it caught nothing.  For a while, I sat and watched the feed from rotate.aprs2.net:14580 .  There was plenty of incoming data, but no weather alerts or related cancellations.
>
> I may have to try firenet instead.  My concern there is non-serious alerts, since I Gate to RF.  We will see what happens.  

My definition of "non-serious" and the other implementor's idea of "non-serious" disagree a bit.  I think you'll find that the alerts I generate are important enough to gate too.  There still aren't a LOT of alerts being generated, so if you're only gating certain NWS stations through, you're fine.  You won't be flooding RF.

It's possible that the alerts that _were_ being sent to APRS-IS are not making it.  I don't monitor over there, nor send weather alerts there, so don't know for sure.  Perhaps others can comment?

I have my Xastir at work zoomed out to USA zoom level and showing the weather alerts.  It's of course connected to Firenet, but the alerts are showing up there.  I'll keep monitoring it for a few more days that way to make sure they stay working.

I don't think you'll miss any functionality if you connect to Firenet instead of APRS-IS, but send concerns my way if you do and I'll bring them up to the Firenet list if I can't answer directly.

-- 
Curt, WE7U.        http://wetnet.net/~we7u
APRS Device Capabilities:  http://wetnet.net/~we7u/aprs_device_capabilities.html