Hi Joe:
You probably recall that Dave Fulker announced to the community that Unidata
would not be supporting the use of Difax. We have, however, created a DIFAX
mailing list for community participants to share information. You can
subscribe through majordomo at:
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/mailing-list-form.html
You can also obtain the most current information by linking to the DIFAX
information from the data page. This link provides the discussions to date on
printing of DIFAX charts. It is at:
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/data/data.general.html
I also wanted to call your attention to a fairly new service that is being
provided by the NWS. They have DIFAX charts on the web. The URL is:
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/graph.htm
They are in TIFF format due to their size, but if you don't have the
appropriate graphics tools, you can check the list that is provided for a
graphics converter. I use GraphicConverter for my Mac which allows me to
manipulate the images and print them out using our regular HP laserjet printer.
If you have comments about these charts, just drop a line to the webmaster
(e-mail provided a the bottom of the DIFAX page). I've been working with him
on this service, and he is trying to provide a service that is most useful to
the community.
If these images serve your purpose, it would allow you to discontinue the service provided by Alden, thus saving you money for other things.
If you have other questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Linda
On Wed, 14 Feb 1996 JOEZ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Linda:
Since the community has gone to the IDD, has any more been said about whether Alden is working on a way to patch the IDD signal through their DIFAX interface modem and Okidata printer? There seemed to be a lot of early concern about this, and I haven't seen anything lately except for an allusion to it last fall by Russ DeSouza.
We have been getting a simultaneous reception of DIFAX via the IDD and
ku-band and we have been impressed with the clarity of the laser printouts of
the IDD DIFAX products, albeit they are smaller. Were most of the concerns two
years ago over dot matrix printouts of the IDD DIFAX during beta testing? Is
the community generally pleased with IDD DIFAX or are many folks still
receiving DIFAX via ku-band?
Last question, any ideas on when the community will picking up the costs of
data delivery from the NSF or is this still being debated in terms of the
meetings in Atlanta and soon-to-be-held meetings in San Diego?
Joe Zabransky
Plymouth State College
joe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx