NOAAPORT help

kvntran · May 29, 2009

Hi all,

I've have been playing with this system for weeks, finally got the signal to lock, got some weather data, but the error rate is a bit high. Most tuning refers to Signal Quality, but this software has only the signal strength indicator that doesn't help much. Any NOAAPORT user out there? please help me.

Spec:
Dish: 12 foot
Receiver: Novra S75+
OS: FreeBSD
Receiver software: S75+ Console Management (see picture)
Data processing software: nbsp (noaaport dot net)

in the attached picture, the VBER average in 2.0e-3 which is high and occasionally produces Uncorretables. My goal is to get the VBER to 1.0e-4

Thank you.

Regards,
Kevin

gabshere · May 29, 2009

signal level is a bit low. usually a data signal requires a real good lnb / lnbf and a perfectly aligned dish.

1) check all coax connections , if possible remove any splitters or connectors.

2) if you haven't made fine tuning adjustments with the dish you should be able to try that to gain signal level. if you have someone that can watch the signal level you can have another person lightly push or pull on the dish left & right and up & down. (there might be a slight delay in signal so give the receiver a few seconds before each move... with the signal comming through to a computer allow a few extra seconds)..... usually this can be done without loosening the dish bolts. if you find a gain adjust the dish accordingly.

3) if none of these help a slight adjustment at the lnb/ lnbf might help gain signal, adjusting slightly in or out (making sure the lnb / lnbf is properly centered).

kvntran · May 30, 2009

Thanks Gabshere,

Following your advices I went to the roof. After a few tugs here and there without loosening the bolts, I noticed some improvement in the error rate, it was jumping between 1.0e-4 to 1.0e-7, which is acceptable. After loosening the bolts, a friend of mine tried to turn the dish just a bit, but because the dish was too heavy so he tried very hard and got it moved about 1 degree (a lot more than what we wanted to do.) Fortunately, we accidentally hit the right spot and the error rate dropped to 0!

Just 10 minutes and it's done! We have been spending at least 3 days on the roof but couldn't get the signal anywhere near where it is now. Thanks to you

Now that the signal from the dish to the receiver is good, I still have some errors while processing data. It reports many missing fragments... I think this has to do with my computer isn't fast enough to process all that data, or there are some bugs in the software. I will play with it some more, and post my results here to share with you and others.

Kevin

gabshere · May 30, 2009

glad it worked

and lucky it was a simple fix

as for the software side i'll be of little help , we are running something different
Skyvision from Unisys via a comstream dbr401

but the noaaport site has a lot of help / setup information and and if the data packets are like ours, they are quite large and might require a well built machine with a bit of ram and fast HD

i think we receive 8 or 16 packets of 300k + every 15 minutes plus information packets inbetween so i think that plays up to 4.8 mb every 15 minutes but some of these packets might come faster . and i think our storage is at 60 gb per day and it has 4 gb of ram. so it would probably need some power under the hood.

ParaclipseCKu · May 30, 2009

Kevin,

Looks like you have solved most of the problem. I am running Noaaport on a 10 foot dish. Tried the twelve on the roof but always seemed to lose the signal at the wrong time!

Generally I have found that anything above 10E-3 and my errors are quite small. I rarely find I am missing any products that I use but with the ton of data coming down the pipe I could be missing a few here and there.

As an FYI, I'm running the NOVRA s-75 on a Sami 10ft. I can't remember off-hand the LNB but it is low noise and good quality. Software for now I am only using WeatherMessage as I tried to put together and Linux box and didn't get very far with that project.

That is my ultimate goal as I'd like to be able to access the radar data, along with the text and sat data I get now.

Glad you have things working to your satisfaction.

Phil

kvntran · Jun 1, 2009

Thanks Gabshere and ParaclipseCKu.

After upgrading to a faster computer, it seems to solve a lot of problems.

Before the upgrade the missing fraction was 0.01800 (almost 2%) now the fraction is 0.001224 (close to 1/10 of 1%)

I don't know if it's common to have missing products, and if it is what is the acceptable level.

I got sat images, text, metar, digatmos, grib.

Under Radar I got nids, but no images.

Regards,
Kevin

ParaclipseCKu · Jun 2, 2009

Kevin,

With that low an error rate I'm surprised you aren't seeing radar data. What are the specs on the computer you are using now.

kvntran · Jun 2, 2009

Phil,

the spec is duocore 2.8 ghz, 2 gigs of RAM running on FreeBSD.

I think it got radar data, it's just that the software isn't process them correctly. Below is the screenshot

After clicking into those files, I got this error message:

Got the error Server Internal Error
while trying to obtain /nbsprad/display_radmap.
nbspradmapl: Error: nbspradmap: couldn't execute "gpmap_gif": no such file or directory child process exited abnormally while executing "exec nbspradmapl -d $outputdir -l $latestname $site $type $nidsdir" (procedure "nbsprad/display_radmap" line 22) invoked from within "nbsprad/display_radmap digatmos/nexrad/nids abc n2r latest radmap" invoked from within "catch $cmd result" invoked from within "DirectRespond $sock $code $result $type" (procedure "DirectDomain" line 29) invoked from within "DirectDomain nbsprad sock13 /display_radmap" ("eval" body line 1) invoked from within "eval $Url(command,$prefix)
[list $sock $suffix]"Tcl Call Trace

5: DocSubstSystemFile sock13 error 500 {nbspradmapl: Error: nbspradmap: couldn't execute "gpmap_gif": no such file or directory child process exited abnormally while executing "exec nbspradmapl -d $outputdir -l $latestname $site $type $nidsdir" (procedure "nbsprad/display_radmap" line 22) invoked from within "nbsprad/display_radmap digatmos/nexrad/nids abc n2r latest radmap" invoked from within "catch $cmd result" invoked from within "DirectRespond $sock $code $result $type" (procedure "DirectDomain" line 29) invoked from within "DirectDomain nbsprad sock13 /display_radmap" ("eval" body line 1) invoked from within "eval $Url(command,$prefix)
[list $sock $suffix]"}
4: Doc_Error sock13 {nbspradmapl: Error: nbspradmap: couldn't execute "gpmap_gif": no such file or directory child process exited abnormally while executing "exec nbspradmapl -d $outputdir -l $latestname $site $type $nidsdir" (procedure "nbsprad/display_radmap" line 22) invoked from within "nbsprad/display_radmap digatmos/nexrad/nids abc n2r latest radmap" invoked from within "catch $cmd result" invoked from within "DirectRespond $sock $code $result $type" (procedure "DirectDomain" line 29) invoked from within "DirectDomain nbsprad sock13 /display_radmap" ("eval" body line 1) invoked from within "eval $Url(command,$prefix)
[list $sock $suffix]"}
3: Url_Unwind sock13 {nbspradmapl: Error: nbspradmap: couldn't execute "gpmap_gif": no such file or directory child process exited abnormally while executing "exec nbspradmapl -d $outputdir -l $latestname $site $type $nidsdir" (procedure "nbsprad/display_radmap" line 22) invoked from within "nbsprad/display_radmap digatmos/nexrad/nids abc n2r latest radmap" invoked from within "catch $cmd result" invoked from within "DirectRespond $sock $code $result $type" (procedure "DirectDomain" line 29) invoked from within "DirectDomain nbsprad sock13 /display_radmap" ("eval" body line 1) invoked from within "eval $Url(command,$prefix)
[list $sock $suffix]"} {CHILDSTATUS 95925 1}
2: Url_Dispatch sock13
1: HttpdRead sock13

guerosanto · Jun 10, 2009

Kevin

That message indicates that gempak is not installed; it is needed in order to generate
the images from the data.

Jose

kvntran · Jun 12, 2009

Jose,

Thank you. Yes, after further reading I found out that it needs Gempak which cost a lot of money. I think I can manage without the radar images.

I'm in the process of learning all the data format that I received.

Thank you all for your help.

Kevin

guerosanto · Jun 12, 2009

Kevin

Gempak is free from Unidata. You may need to compile it yourself.
But if you use FreeBSD, I have a free package that you can
install with pkg_add in the usual way.

Jose

guerosanto · Jun 12, 2009

Kevin

I just double checked, and the gempak package is available in the
noaaport site in the software section (under packages->optional packages)
for FreeBSD 7.2.

Jose

kvntran · Jun 15, 2009

Jose,

Thank you very much for your help. Last time I read at unidata, they said it's free to Educational Institutions only. That might have changed since I read it.

I got the current package from

www.noaaport.net/software/packages/nbsp-1.8r1/packages/freebsd-7.2/i386/nbsp-1.8.21_8.tbz
Note: above is not a working link, I just want to let you know where it is as far as directory struture goes.

Is this the same package that you are using? If not, I'm glad to take on your offer of the free package that you are talking about.

I will download and install the gempack package and test it out!

I appreciate your help.

Regards,
Kevin

gabshere · Jun 15, 2009

worked on link

http://www.noaaport.net/software/packages/nbsp-1.8.r1/packages/freebsd-7.2/i386/nbsp-1.8.r1_8.tbz

it might come up as a clickable link

kvntran · Jun 15, 2009

Thanks Gabshere,

I missed a dot in one place

Kevin

guerosanto · Jun 18, 2009

Kevin

Yes that is the package that I built and use.

Jose

kvntran · Jun 18, 2009

Jose,

Thank you. Are you Jose Nieves? the one who wrote this program?
I've been trying to call the number found on the website, but never got through.

Kevin

guerosanto · Jun 18, 2009

Kevin

Yes, I am. (My phone number changed recently but I may have forgotten
to update the page.) You can also contact me via the noaaport@yahoogroups
list or my university email.

Jose

kvntran · Jun 18, 2009

Jose,

It's an honor to know you. I mean how often can you get support in the forum by the author himself? Great program by the way.
I will message you my contact info, hope to keep in touch.

Once again, I appreciate your help and such a great free program.

Kevin

guerosanto · Jun 18, 2009

Kevin

Sure.

I am glad you are enjoying it. Also, checkout GrADS if you have
not done so yet.

Jose

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