Siren Controller

The first off-line test of the Weather Message Siren Controller was completed today in Lee County Alabama. The Weather Message Siren Controller has the ability to activate sirens based on polygon warnings. It can activate individual sirens or groups of sirens based on their geographical relationship to the polygon.

The first test was a success. The software selected the correct sirens to activate based on the received polygon. It also selected and sent the correct activation codes that control the sound that the sirens produce.

The sirens in Lee County can be activated using DTMF codes. An interface was developed to communicate with the Motron Electronics TC1/MX, http://www.motron.com/ , DTMF controller. The DTMF controller interfaces to a VHF or UHF radio for communication with the sirens. The software can also interface with the Zetron Model 15P, http://www.zetron.com/, multi-format encoder.

I will be going to Lee County later this week to participate in the first on-line (on-the-air) test. Tom Moore, Lee County EMA's EMWIN Coordinator, encouraged me to develop this application.

This first version will be enhanced with additional capability. I will be adding a number of additional features that will make the siren controller a first class application.

Satellite Dish Pointing

I have been asked a number of times about satellite dish pointing. This website has all of the satellites listed and uses google maps to produce accurate pointing information for your location.

http://www.dishpointer.com/

Status

I am past due in making a post to the blog. The month of June went right by without a post. That was almost the case for July.

This summer has been really busy. Due to lightning damage at my amateur radio (ham radio) repeater site, I have spent alot of time repairing equipment. I am still waiting for equipment (5 weeks now) that has been sent back to the manufacturer for repair.

On a personal note, my grandmother's health has not been good this summer. She is 90 years young. I have had to spend some time at the hospital. She is home now, but she continues to be very fragile.

For the past 4 weeks, I have been in a funeral home every week to visit with my employees that have lost parents or grandparents. I have another one next week. This alone has made the summer a tough one.

On a lighter note, I spent some time today adding some new subject variables. You can now insert the product identifier, issued time in UTC and expiration time in UTC into the email or fax subject line.

I have a bunch of emails printed to review. I will be working those down over the next week. You users have good ideas and I will be working on those as time permits.

Weather Message version 3.5 will be released in the next 2 to 6 weeks. I want to run it a little longer before the public release.

WxScheduler - Variables not replacing

If you encounter a problem with WxScheduler Version 3.0 through 3.4 not replacing the variables, make sure that you use the same text casing that appears in the F1 help. The previous and current versions will not replace the variable if the text casing is not an exact match.

I have made changes in the next beta to address this problem. You should be able to use any text casing.

SSMPT - stunnel - Peer suddenly disconnected

I have a user that tried to use stunnel version 4.27 with the email provider smtp.mtco.com. stunnel would report "Peer suddenly disconnected". When I installed version 4.20 on their computer, stunnel would work properly with their email provider.

Apparently something changed that caused stunnel to not work properly with this email provider. Version 4.27 works ok with gmail, but fails with the users provider. A quick scan of the stunnel change log did not reveal the problem.

If you have a problem, you might want to download an older version of stunnel.

Email TLS (ssl) Support

Over the past couple of years, I have had a few users ask about using SSL (TLS) for emails. Since the cost of providing that capability is around $750.00, I have not included it in Weather Message.

I did write a document that described how to setup Weather Message to use Stunnel to provide the SSL capability. Stunnel is a freeware application that creates a secure tunnel for sending emails to a SSL server. This approach does work with Gmail, however, users have to follow the directions carefully.

I got 4 emails last week from users that need the SSL capability. I am investigating this capability again. Microsoft does have a built-in capability to send emails to a server that uses TLS. The only draw back is that the Microsoft method does not provide any debugging information. It either works or fails.

I am looking into adding support for this built-in smtp client. The challenge now is switching between the existing code (no ssl) and the new code. I prefer the existing solution for non-ssl emails because it provides good debugging information.

Web Server Access / Blocking Foreign Countries

For the past week I have been monitoring a number of attempts to break into the server that hosts the Weather Message website. The hackers tripped the account lock out mechanism in windows several times.

I have been adding a range of ip addresses to the router's firewall in order to completely block their access to the server. So far all of the ip addresses have originated in China.

If any one has trouble accessing the webserver, please let me know. I am trying not to block any US ip addresses.

emwin.net

I have been watching the emwin domain names for a long time. emwin.net finally expired and I was able to purchase it yesterday at normal web registration rates. Right now http://www.emwin.net will point to the Weather Message website.

I may construct an EMWIN information site that features Weather Message software. That will take some time. Right now there are changes to be made in Weather Message. I'll be coming back to this in the near future.

Weather Message Beta Status

I am still holding the next beta for a few final changes. I have the new Emwin ingest program ready. I am working on changes for the web legend for WxMap. I hope to drop something on the web this week.

MSN Messenger/Yahoo ???

Some time ago I downloaded a component that would allow Weather Message Server to send text products to your MSN contacts. I never did anything with the component. I just thought it was interesting.

I understand that the NWS office in Birmingham is now using "chat" to inform their media representatives about pending weather conditions. That has renewed my interest in sending information by MSN messenger.

If you have an interest, drop me an email.

WxEmwin - Status

I believe WxEmwin (the new Emwin ingest program) is ready for prime time. I and two other users have been running it now for several weeks. The other two users have been using the new software demodulator provided by the NWS. So far things have been stable.

The install program has been updated so I should be ready to release it along with a bunch of other changes/fixes this weekend.

Our Snow for 2009

This weekend was interesting to say the least. On Saturday we had thunderstorms and tornados. On Sunday we had snow. Here is a picture of the snow from my kitchen window.

I did get some work done on the software over the weekend. I think I am about ready to release a beta this week.

EMWIN 2 - NWS Software Demodulator

I have been distracted for the past week. I borrowed one of the new Werner EMWIN 2 satellite receive systems. This system uses a software based receiver to decode the 19.2 EMWIN data stream.

After working with the demodulator, I discovered that it did not give the end user any status information. After hours of research I discovered that the demodulator dll did have the ability, but it would be up to the software developer to enable such capability.

I spent this week writing a c++ windows service wrapper around the dll. This new program replaces the default software demodulator service. It now outputs status information on UDP port 18000. This status information can now be displayed an logged in WxEmwin.

I have two users testing the new WxEmwin program, along with the software demodulator. After getting their results, I will post a beta on the website.

WxMap - Upload Dynamic Map Legend

I am making changes to WxMap to support creating a dynamic map legend. This map legend would be uploaded to a website at the same time as the map image.


I have asked some users that have inquired about this feature to send me comments.

x64 - Registry Permissions

Just when I thought that I had all of the necessary changes for x64 operating system support addressed, a new one was discovered. It appears that the 3.4 Weather Message installer does not give the 'Weather Message Net' registry entry proper permissions. This registry key should be set to Everyone with full access.

The failure to assign the correct permissions was not my fault, but a fault in the installer. I have made changes for the next release that will use the Microsoft regini utility to change the permission on x64 systems. I reported the issue to the installer developer.

If someone is installing Weather Message on a x64 system, let me know and I'll get you a revised installer.

WxEmwin - New EMWIN ingest program

I have been working for the past week or so on a new EMWIN ingest program. WxEmwin is the name of this new program. It incorporates the functions of WxSerial and WxByte into one program. It also gets a third ingest option using the EMWIN Software based demodulator.

All three ingest engines can be operating at the same time. This was some major work, but should be worth the effort. It helps to clean up the system try as two programs have been combined into one. It also helps the EMWIN Software Demodulator users. They had been using WxByte and had no backup capability. The new program restores that functionality for Demod users.

The new program has some new things and some missing things. Right off the bat users will notice that the internet rotating icon is no longer present. If that is a must have option, I will look at adding it back. I will try to get this in a beta over the weekend. I still have to change all of the programs to use this new program. The installer must be configured to detail with it also.

WxLocal - 3.5 - Creates a web weather graphic

WxLocal version 3.5 can now create a weather graphic for publishing locally or on the web. Here is an example of the graphic.


Users can define the colors that are used for the graphic.

Weather Message 3.4 Released

Weather Message 3.4 has been released. This version contains a number of enhancements, along with bug fixes and optimizations. See the release notes for the changes.

Weather Message 3.4 Beta 9

I have posted Weather Message 3.4 Beta 9. This should be the last beta before 3.4 is released. If nothing comes up, 3.4 will be released before the end of the year.

Web based user alert sign-up

I have received several emails over the years asking about a user manager. Some users have also asked about adding the ability to allow users to sign up for alerts using a web based interface. These requests are almost ready.

I have completed most of the work for web based user initiated alert sign-up and maintenance. This web application runs under Window's using IIS (internet information services). It allows a user to sign up for an account and then subscribe to alerts.
It has an advanced and simple mode. In the advanced mode, the user can enter the product and WFO identifiers. In the simple mode, you select which products can be selected. It is fully configurable.

An interface program is provided to retrieve the user settings and update Weather Message automatically. This web application can be located on a remote computer with weather message operating on a local machine. They are not required to be on the same computer.

I have setup a sample website at http://www.wxmesg.com/wxmesguser You can sign up for an account and play with the application. You will not receive any weather alerts. This is only a demonstration link.

If you are interested in this application, let me know and I can set you up as an administrator. There are additional setup options that are not visible to the standard user.

This web based application will have the ability to generate a message for processing by Weather Message. This will allow agencies to easily create a local message for processing by Weather Message.

The work on this application will allow me to build a windows client user manager. I will be working on that addition over the holiday.