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From: Mike Maurice (no email)
Date: Mon Jul 04 2005 - 14:58:30 EDT
There are about 9 weather offices on the west coast: Seattle, Portland,
Medford, Eureka, San Francisco, Monterey, Oxnard, LA, San Diego( not
including Alaska). Each station is generally responsible for the coast near
their location and for about 50-100 miles on either side.
Each one has from 1 to perhaps 5 VHF wx transmitters to care for. This does
not include the transmitters targeted at and located far enough from the
coast to be out of effective range. Each has a web site page, various zone
sections to provide forecasts for. The marine forecasts are generally
updated at 9 and 3, AM and PM ( standard time). In other words when
daylight time is in effect, the actual time does NOT change, then the near
shore marine forecasts come out at 8 and 2. Occasionally there will be
unscheduled updates in between these regular ones. The offshore forecasts
generally lag the near shore stuff by about 1/2 hour and are generated by
the National Office, located on the east coast, this also includes the high
seas forecasts( not broadcast on the VHF transmitters).
Some of the offices also broadcast on SSB at 2738 and 4125khz. I won't
delve into these SSB broadcasts as they generally only cover the offshore
and high seas, although that is not true in Alaska. Alaska is a whole
different situation.
WX channels greater than 4 are generally used for marine specialized loops,
with little mass appeal. The loops generally consist of near shore zone
forecasts, condition reports consisting of shore based stations followed by
buoy reports. North of San Francisco the buoy reports are updated every
hour at about 15-20 minutes after the hour. From SF south the buoy reports
are generally only updated every 3 hours. 3 hour old reports are not of
much use.
The quality control of this system is far from perfect. In other words, the
transmitters may not be working all the time and the reports may not be
refreshed after the new forecasts are created. Sometimes a section, perhaps
the buoy reports or the shore condition reports will be missing. Due to the
length of time it takes for the loops to complete, it may not be easy to
tell if a section is missing or has not been refreshed.
Stations north of SF generally include the date and time of the information
being broadcast, which makes it easier to tell if the refresh occurs when
intended. South of SF the time and date have not been included. This makes
it difficult to verify the quality control. With these stations you will
just have to phone the local office to verify that the forecast has been
updated or know by comparing the last forecast with the previous one that
there have been changes, which then implies that the forecast is the
current one. This is an unsatisfactory situation.
Generally in any given trip up or down the coast, there is at least one
problem with a transmitter out or forecast or condition reports missing,
somewhere during the trip. I have phone numbers for the various office and
generally have to call about some problem, on each and every trip. There
does not seem to be any pattern to these kinds of problems, except the
refresh problem which is more prevalent where the time and date are not
included.
Seamless coverage of transmissions is generally excellent as additional
transmitters have been installed lately near La Push, WA., Yaquina Bay,
OR., Port Orford, OR. and San Simeon CA. Generally the transmitters
alternate, channel 1, 2, 1, 2, etc. as one travels up and down the coast.
Channels 3 and 4 are used just south of the Columbia River, there is a
channel 7 near Yaquina Bay, and near major metro areas, channels 3 to 8 are
in use in some areas.
I generally phone in reports of any significant difference in the weather
between that being reported on the wx transmitters and that being
encountered on scene, when we are at sea. Cell phone service is pretty good
along the coast except, just south of Cape Mendocino and below Pt. Sur.
Which means that it is difficult to make reports while in these areas and
the actual weather is often at variance with that being reported or
forecast. Keep this in mind if you are traveling in these areas.
The effectiveness of the broadcasts is uneven due to the fact that with the
new automated voice system(perfect Paul?), there is no longer any human
mind deleting redundant words and phrases. This redundancy has turned the
loops into bedsheets where there may be only 3 repetitions of the loop in a
whole hour. This particular problem seems to be getting worse, not better
as it takes custom programming to fix.
Regards,
Mike
Capt. Mike Maurice
Tualatin(Portland), Oregon
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