Update: last updated on 08/12/2010.
Satellite Phone Text Message weather data instructions.
Ok, this is the Cro-Magnon way to get a weather forecast in your sat phone. I would imagine there is an automated way of doing this, but for that you have to ask Camilo Rada of Expenews to help you.
That said, if you have a satellite phone and want to receive weather forecast info and dont have a friend that knows how to read weather forecasts from meteograms or maps, ask a friend to follow the instructions below. Note that this text is written for an Iridium phone, but can be applied to any other sat phone. Even a 15 year old can follow these instructions. If you don’t believe me ask Bruce Miller’s stepson Satchel. A few years ago he made a bit of money sending us this kind of information.
To send a text message to an Iridium phone go to:
www.iridium.com
click “send satellite message” in the upper right hand corner.
Enter sat phone number:
88-16......
don’t enter email address
enter text message in box below (limit is 160 characters)
for general understanding of weather forecasting go here.
to retrieve the info that will be sent via text message go to the NOAA meteogram.
on the boxes on the right enter the coordinates. For Cerro Torre it would be:
-49.3 for latitude (don’t forget the minus in front)
-73.1 for longitude (don’t forget the minus)
For whatever mountain you choose to go to make sure you convert the coordinates to decimal!
click “CONTINUE”
from the menu choose the Meteorogram line choose the “Forecast Dataset” option “GFS 0-192h”
click “GO”
ignore the next page and click “Next”
in next page check:
x Default with Winds
and
x Speed and Direction
Ignore everything else.
At the bottom of the page enter access code.
Click “GET METEOROGRAM”
From the meteorogram text message the following information:
Take vertical readings –a ruler is helpful to put on top of the computer screen- twice per day at 12z time (right above date) and 00z (just right of date). Include the date, time, MSL pressure, wind –speed and direction-, and precipitation. Include only the first 5 days (not all 8 that appear). The text message limit is 160 characters, this includes spaces, so use no spaces.
For date use the day’s number followed by a dash (“-“)
For time use 12z or 00z
For MSL pressure use the last two digits (eg: 1020 becomes “20”)
For wind use “nw”, “sw”, “s”, “n”, “w”, etc for direction (depending on how the arrow points, straight up is north, so it would be “s” for wind from the south, straight right is east so it would be wind from the west hence “w”, and all the options in between: sw, nw, etc); follow this by writing the lower number located below the flag (this is the wind speed knots per hour). An example of a wind reading would be: nw8 “nw” for direction and 8 for speed.
For precipitations use “p” followed by the mm (2, 3, 4…). Add together the mm in the four “boxes” following the hour (12z or 00z).
An example would look as follows:
12 (for date)-12z(time) 20(for MSL pressure) nw4(northwest wind 4 knots per hour) p (Precipitation) 4 (mm) – (make sure to use a “-“ before next reading on same day) 00z (time) 16 (MSL) sw12 (wind) p0 (precipitation).
The complete text message for that day would look exactly like this:
12-12z20nw4p4-00z16sw12p0
Use no space in between the info of one given day.
For next day hit return (one line down).
A final text message for a six day weather forecast would fit in the 160 character limit and would look like this:
12-12z16nw10p0-00z12w3p2
13-12z12nw7p1-00z10w5p3
14-12z20w4p3-00z20w6p4
15-12z16sw4p4-00z15sw7p0
16-12z25s8p2-00z15sw4p0
17-12z12s6p0-00z10s2p1
confused? me too, but it works.
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