GRIB/Sailmail/FaxViewer
 

OK,

Way new to this. Got a call from the Pacific Ocean today. Friend is
located at 36N 144W. On the SSB he hears about GRIB files. So, I find
them at Globalmarineweather.net and download a few to see if I can help
him.

In short order, I find I either have to buy a bunch of software, or
install Sailmail & Viewfax.

I did.

Now, ViewFax doesn't recognize the GRIB files as a valid format.

When I check the properties of the emailed GRIB files, I see a "BZ2"
extension.

So, I go to the DOS prompt (yeah I know, real archaic) and rename all
of the *.grb.bz2 files to *.grb.

Now FaxView sees the file, but when I open it, all I get is a chart of
the whole world with NO weather info on it. Doesn't matter which file I
open (ie 36N144W.24hr.grb, CentralNPacific.wind.24hr.grb) etc. They all
seem the same.

What's wrong with me?

Thanks!

How are you getting the grib files? I request them via
SailMail/SailDocs and they come over as an attachement with a .grb
extension and ViewFax has no problems processing them. My file names
are things like: grib050628120723.grb


-- Geoff

wrote in news:1124749920.341476.309160
@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

OK,

Way new to this. Got a call from the Pacific Ocean today. Friend is
located at 36N 144W. On the SSB he hears about GRIB files. So, I find
them at Globalmarineweather.net and download a few to see if I can
help
him.

In short order, I find I either have to buy a bunch of software, or
install Sailmail & Viewfax.

I did.

Now, ViewFax doesn't recognize the GRIB files as a valid format.

When I check the properties of the emailed GRIB files, I see a "BZ2"
extension.

So, I go to the DOS prompt (yeah I know, real archaic) and rename all
of the *.grb.bz2 files to *.grb.

Now FaxView sees the file, but when I open it, all I get is a chart of
the whole world with NO weather info on it. Doesn't matter which file
I
open (ie 36N144W.24hr.grb, CentralNPacific.wind.24hr.grb) etc. They
all
seem the same.

What's wrong with me?

Thanks!

If you get the files from Globalmarineweather.net, they are compressed
and you need the decompress software to get them to the format the
viewer will read. A shareware utility is available from
http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm. Your friend can get the files
directly on the SSB if he has sailmail or is a ham and uses winlink2000.
krj

wrote:
OK,

Way new to this. Got a call from the Pacific Ocean today. Friend is
located at 36N 144W. On the SSB he hears about GRIB files. So, I find
them at Globalmarineweather.net and download a few to see if I can help
him.

In short order, I find I either have to buy a bunch of software, or
install Sailmail & Viewfax.

I did.

Now, ViewFax doesn't recognize the GRIB files as a valid format.

When I check the properties of the emailed GRIB files, I see a "BZ2"
extension.

So, I go to the DOS prompt (yeah I know, real archaic) and rename all
of the *.grb.bz2 files to *.grb.

Now FaxView sees the file, but when I open it, all I get is a chart of
the whole world with NO weather info on it. Doesn't matter which file I
open (ie 36N144W.24hr.grb, CentralNPacific.wind.24hr.grb) etc. They all
seem the same.

What's wrong with me?

Thanks!

By the way, the world chart you see is built into Viewfax. Viewfax is
incorrectly interpreting the file you renamed and trying to display it on
top of its internal chart. As others have mentioned, you can get the grips
from saildocs.com in the appropriate format. send an email to
(topic, body ignored) for the formatting details. The
newer versions of Sailmail have built-in query-formatting capabilities.

Many other charting programs have native grip-viewing capabilities, also,
but viewfax is pretty simple and good.

-Paul

wrote in message
oups.com...
OK,

Way new to this. Got a call from the Pacific Ocean today. Friend is
located at 36N 144W. On the SSB he hears about GRIB files. So, I find
them at Globalmarineweather.net and download a few to see if I can help
him.

In short order, I find I either have to buy a bunch of software, or
install Sailmail & Viewfax.

I did.

Now, ViewFax doesn't recognize the GRIB files as a valid format.

When I check the properties of the emailed GRIB files, I see a "BZ2"
extension.

So, I go to the DOS prompt (yeah I know, real archaic) and rename all
of the *.grb.bz2 files to *.grb.

Now FaxView sees the file, but when I open it, all I get is a chart of
the whole world with NO weather info on it. Doesn't matter which file I
open (ie 36N144W.24hr.grb, CentralNPacific.wind.24hr.grb) etc. They all
seem the same.

What's wrong with me?

Thanks!

"GRIP" should read "GRIB". I thought spell-checking was off. I hope it is
now...
-Paul

"Paul" wrote in message
...
By the way, the world chart you see is built into Viewfax. Viewfax is
incorrectly interpreting the file you renamed and trying to display it on
top of its internal chart. As others have mentioned, you can get the
grips from saildocs.com in the appropriate format. send an email to
(topic, body ignored) for the formatting details. The
newer versions of Sailmail have built-in query-formatting capabilities.

Many other charting programs have native grip-viewing capabilities, also,
but viewfax is pretty simple and good.

-Paul

There is a free GRIB viewer named GrADS which I have downloaded and just
started to play with. Does anyone have experience with it?

The June, 2005 issue of Sailing World magazine has an article by Peter
Isler on GRIBs and weather. It gives several resources including
saildocs.com.

tom
of the Swee****er Sea
St. Paul, MN

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!

You can get the uncompressed gribs via internet email as well. From the
saildocs "info" email:


For example, to request a grib file which covers 20N-60N and 120W to 160W,
on a 2-degree grid for valid times of 24 to 72 hours, containing surface
pressure and wind, send the following email:
------------
To:
Subject: anything
send grib:20N,60N,160W,120W


You will get an email response, with an attached ".grb" file, within a few
minutes. You can also send a subscription -request email, and have the
gribs automatically sent daily. A grib similar to the example above, but
covering 0N,40N,180W,120W, is about 6 KB in size.

-Paul


wrote in message
oups.com...
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!

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

http://grads.iges.org/grads/downloads.html

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!