Glad that you finally figured out that a file with a .bz2 extension is
compressed. WindowsXP can recognize .zip files, but .bz2 (bzip2)
orginated in the Unix world and is supported in all Linux distributions.

WinZip (nagware) supports it, but you can go with an Open Source version
like gzip from the GNU (http://www.gzip.org/#exe) or bzip2
(http://www.bzip.org/downloads.html). Though both were developed for the
Unix world, they've been ported to Windows.

wrote:
Update,

First, thanks for the quick replies.

Since I'm here on dry land, I get the GRIB files on my regular internet
connection. They are named "Pacific.wind.24hr.grb.bz2". That tells me
they are compressed. I'll get the decompressor and see what happens.

My friend is rather technologically challenged in the computing area.
His SSB is probably 15 years old or so and he doesn't own a computer
anywhere.

Where does one find GrADS? I'd ike to give it a shot.

Thanks!