Australian Weather Fax Survey

[El Pinguino]

Not sure what is going on here .. however...

At 0045 UTC ( and presumably also at 1145 UTC ) WMW and VMC put out a 'Broadcast Information' fax... full schedule here VMC & VMW Radio Fax Schedule

The last few days this fax has been a simple one liner...' Survey of HF weather broadcasts - See Information Notice at 0045 or 1145UTC.'

Nothing else.. just 10 minutes worth of plain paper..

I suspect the are checking.. once again.. how many people are using the service but how can one respond to that?????

I can't find anything on the BOM site....

If somebody can find it it would be good if all hands responded even if they are just thinking of using the service 'one day'.... where else can you find such a good 'free to air' service as this.. check the fax schedule above ^^^^^

They cover the whole southern hemisphere from Africa to the west coast of South America and up into SE Asia.... we don't want to see it go the way of Radio Australia!

[JPA Cate]

El Pinguino,

If you click on "Contacts" in the upper right, you can get to a feedback form, and although I didn't look at it, so don't know for sure, I suspect you can tell them the survey isn't there.

They would probably like for it to just go away, as you suggest, and only a few use HF for wx, although we do when we're out of internet range.

Cheers,


Ann

[StuM]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

El Pinguino,

If you click on "Contacts" in the upper right, you can get to a feedback form, and although I didn't look at it, so don't know for sure, I suspect you can tell them the survey isn't there.

They would probably like for it to just go away, as you suggest, and only a few use HF for wx, although we do when we're out of internet range.

Cheers,


Ann

Also at the top, just after the
"VMC & VMW Radio Fax Schedule" is a link "Marine Website Feedback" which takes you to this page

http://www.bom.gov.au/survey/marine_feedback.shtml

which also contains a link to the "Bureau Feedback" page at
Bureau of Meteorology - Feedback

Possibly the latter would be a good one to use.

[El Pinguino]

Bin there and done that..... was a bit fuzzy headed this morning.... ....took a while...

We shall see what we see I guess.

Was wondering if anyone else had actually seen the survey...

[Snowpetrel]

Just done a comment as well. It is a pretty important service. I hope they don't cut it. Prehaps the number of faxes could be reduced, I mostly just get the 4 day and the MSl analysis's. The new android and apple apps lile black cat make recieving the data very easy these days.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by Snowpetrel

Just done a comment as well. It is a pretty important service. I hope they don't cut it. Prehaps the number of faxes could be reduced, I mostly just get the 4 day and the MSl analysis's. The new android and apple apps lile black cat make recieving the data very easy these days.

G'day Ben,
what number did you get? Mine is 'REF2018-001-1' ....

The last time I did this was when there was a glitch in one of their 'mechanical voice' transmissions. I think it was 3 months before I heard back.....

[Snowpetrel]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

G'day Ben,
what number did you get? Mine is 'REF2018-001-1' ....

Your Message Reference ID is 'REF2018-001-23'.

Ben Tucker wrote:-

Weather fax. I use this a fair bit and find it a very valuable safety service when offshore. Please continue this service. Prehaps the number and type of faxes could be reduced. I mostly use the 4 day weather maps and the MSL analysis.

Cheers Ben

So looks like 22 other feedback forms since yours?

[hzcruiser]

Left some positive feedback on their website, too.

Also asked if the service is going to be continued. Would be a shame if not.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by Snowpetrel

Your Message Reference ID is 'REF2018-001-23'.

Ben Tucker wrote:-

Weather fax. I use this a fair bit and find it a very valuable safety service when offshore. Please continue this service. Prehaps the number and type of faxes could be reduced. I mostly use the 4 day weather maps and the MSL analysis.

Cheers Ben

So looks like 22 other feedback forms since yours?

Yes, rather a lot for new years day I would imagine.

[RaymondR]

They did the survey in preparation for shutdown thing for the HF broadcasts about ten years ago. If you have access to the Coastal Passage news sheets there is probably a fair bit of detail in there.

I listen to the HF broadcasts from VMW and VMC pretty well every day when I cruise, the local VHF broadcasts from the VMR's are OK but they tend to use different opening times and broadcast schedules and are easy to miss and don't have full coverage of the Queensland coast and sometimes pretty indifferent transmitters.

Also, since the shut downs of the state coastal radio stations it is uncertain who is monitoring the HF emergency frequencies, However I suspect it may be still being done via VMW and VMC.

A couple of months ago a friend and I were checking our HF radios and since his is pretty old and without synthesized frequency generation he was designating the working frequency. We moved onto the six meg band and were both receiving loud and clear when we were told to get off the calling and emergency channel and it sounded like VMC.

There's no excuse for misusing the radio safety protocols but easy to understand how it can happen now that the HF system has pretty well fallen into disuse. For my part I'm claiming age related mental deficiencies, not sure what my mates excuse is.