Hi all,
I'm a private individual investigating the structure and content of the
national surface weather data distribution system. I plan to ultimately write a
paper that shows the entire (?!) architecture of surface weather data
distribution end points, their content, and the processing steps along the way.
And with NOAAPort/SBN, I've hit a wall. I don't have a 12-foot parabolic
reflector on my roof.
For parity with other sources, what I am interested in is specifically METAR
observations (For NOAAPort/SBN, I think that means the per-minute SAUS99/SPUS99
KWBC collectives, I am not sure if hourly METARs/SPECIs are included in that).
I'm trying to figure out whether the smaller-dish NWWS tier of the SBN even
carries the product.
>From the public docs I've found (weather.gov/dsb/nwws, weather.gov/nwws/faq,
>weather.gov/nwws/SBNConfig), NWWS is broadcast on Galaxy 31 (121W), 4020MHz,
>as ISI 2 / PID 201 within the same 30 Msps carrier as the main AWIPS service,
>using QPSK 1/3 (much more robust than the AWIPS tier's 16PSK 2/3 -- and
correspondingly a much smaller stated minimum dish, 1.8m vs. ~10-12ft). The
docs describe NWWS/PID201 as carrying "directed text products... alerts and
warnings" and explicitly state it "does not carry the complete offering of NWS
products."
Question: does PID201/NWWS include the routine SAUS99/SPUS99 KWBC METAR/SPECI
collectives (or any per-station hourly METAR product), or is that limited to
the main AWIPS PIDs (101-108)? If anyone here runs a PID201-only feed would you
be able to check your product log for SAUS99 or SPUS99 KWBC bulletins, or for
individual station METAR/SPECI text?
Secondary question, if anyone has real-world data: any experience receiving
PID201 with a sub-1.8m dish (say 1.2 m or less) -- even an
intermittent/best-conditions-only decode rate would be useful data for me. I'm
aware 1.8 m is the stated minimum and that going smaller risks both reduced
margin and increased adjacent-satellite interference from the wider beamwidth;
I'm specifically interested in whatever partial/anecdotal experience exists.
Knowing this would help me decide if I want to invest the money and effort to
actually receive NOAAPort/SBN data myself, like I have done for all the other
surface observation sources I have looked into so far.
Thanks in advance for any pointers.
-Ryan Dougherty