Frequently asked questions for REALemwin. Q. I am getting good data, but a lot of product from "KUNK"... A. It's just RealEMWIN's way of letting you know that some corrupt data got into the system, and it's error handling has failed on that file. Shut down RealEMWIN and delete all files (or at least the weird-looking one) from your "Data-In" directory. Restart and all will be back to normal. Q. I have NT and I get an error about not being able to register MSINET.OCX and now RealEMWIN won't work! A. Get http://www.onehop.com/skywatch/sysfiles.zip and unzip into your \windows\system32 directory. Rerun the installation and all should be fine... Q. In the spring and the fall I lose data for about an hour after midnight! A. Due to the position of the sun behind the earth, the GOES satellites power down for lack of battery juice. Future versions of RealEMWIN will allow you to automatically switch over to ByteBlaster if installed, as a backup. Future versions of the GOES satellite will have a dedicated EMWIN transmitter which will not have to be turned off. Q. After the eclipse period, my system doesn't start receiving until I shut down RealEMWIN and restart. A. Edit "ingest-backup.txt" in your RealEMWIN directory to read as follows: #Enabled (0 = No, 1 = Yes) 1 #Backup Port Number (WHATEVER YOU USE AS YOUR CURRENT EMWIN COMMPORT) 1 #Recheck primary port if backup is activated (in minutes, 0 = Manual Only) 10 This will have it close and reopen the commport until it starts getting data again. Q. The ingestor is ingesting, but the main program says "No data received for ### minutes!" A. You probably switched to Weathernode mode and then back to standard, which changes the incoming data directory on the main program. Make sure "Data-In" on the configuration page matches the "Configure"/"Incoming" directory in the RealEMWIN Ingest component. Q. HELP! My old alarms won't work any more... A. MAKE SURE YOU ARE USING 4-6 LETTER ID'S!!! The old 8-character filenames will only cause you problems in the alarm section. In most cases, that simply means "TORIND" vs. the old "TORINDIN" Q. WXPlot fails all the time with some weird error box A. It has a problem with improperly formatted SLS?? products, the county-box outlines of Tornado / Severe T-Storm watches. To get going again, delete all the SLS?? products in your "custom" directory, usually c:\weather\emwin\archive Until the author supplies a new version, the easiest fix is to remove the SLS?? from your alarm, and only plot the warnings. WXPlot is ___NOT___ a part of RealEMWIN, so I am unable to offer any additional assistance, or make new maps, or change the procedures, or anything like that. Q. I installed v1.5 but WXPlot wasn't there? A. The install was getting so large that I had to separate WXPlot from the main RealEMWIN install -- grab it from the Skywatch webpage Q. How do I get things plotted in WXPlot? A. Set a "custom" alarm for the product you want. SVR???, TOR??? and FFA??? will take care of all the warnings issued nationwide. Q. How do I see the "US" products, i.e. ones issued nationally? A. Most come from NWS HQ, so type "KWBC" into the WFO searchbox. Q. I don't know my "TOROKC" from a "METAR". Where's the help? A. Easiest way to start is to go to your configuration screen and turn on the bulletin descriptions. That makes "AFDIND" into "Forecast Discussion - IND". You can then see the true filename in line 2 of the bulletin itself, which will help you learn the actual header in time. First three letters are the product type, rest is the location. Listings of product types and location ID's are available under "Help". Q. How do I know if I use the state, or NWS office, in the filename? A. Guess ;> For a state-based product, like the state forecast, or hourly weather, you would use the state i.e. SWRMI SFPOH However warnings / nowcasts / most everything else uses the local office i.e. TORAMA SVRNYC AFDCLE Q. Is it possible to get alarms for a whole state? A. Yes, in the alarms configuration after setting the state, in the counties window, choose "ALL COUNTIES" Q. Can I select a group of counties for a single alarm? A. No, you must select the counties you want on a one by one basis. Q. How do I change the alarms I want? A. Several ways. Left click on the alarm line you want to change, then right click on the line and choose "edit". Tab through the fields, making changes as you go, then choose ADD. Be sure to click ADD or you will lose all the information for that alarm line. You can delete and add, but edit saves a step. You can also edit the "alarms.cfg" file in a text editor. Q. Is there a "hot key" to mute the alarms? A. In version 1.5 or newer, you can hit [Control] + [M] keys or the [F10] key. If you have "limit alarm" checked it will restrict the time frame to alarm for 5 minutes. Q. Do the function keys [F1] thru [F12] do anything? A. F2 = Zone Search F3 = Text Search F7 = Older product F8 = Newer product F10 = Mute Q. If I don't have a sound card in my PC, can I get an audioalarm? A. The last choice for the alarms sounds is BEEP. When "BEEP" is selected, most computers will Beep their internal speaker, some will make a clicking sound. Q. What settings are necessary to send selected alarm product to the re-transmission port? A. Check "Custom" in the alarms setup and then run "EMWIN-commout" Seta the directory to your Custom, usually \archive. Q. Does re-transmission write the information to a file as well as send it to a com port? A. Yes, it uses the information sent to your chosen Custom port. Q. When do I want to check "network mode"? A. If you want to use a network server, rather than directly connected to the satellite, then check Network mode. Q. I don't think the re-transmission port is sending any data, how can I check? A. Connect the serial port to another computer and run Hyperterm or a similar terminal program on the second computer. An inline led tester, like "Black Box, Quick Test" will let you see any activity on comm port pins 2 and 3. Q. If I add "SEL?" without the quote marks, will it alarm all the SEL product for the country? A. Yes, and you can restrict it to any states, if you add a state to the same alarm line. "SEL" by itself will not work. Q. Can I make "SEL?" product alarm for just a single state? A. Sure, Notice there are none codes like MIZ000, or KSZ000 that can filter by state. Q. What does the number after "SEL" signify? A. The last digit of the watch number. Q. What does compress do? A. Compress uses dictionary.txt to make messages small for paging purposes. Q. What does log do? A. Log saves to the weather.txt, which you can view and clear under "quick" on the top tool bar, or with [Control] + [W]. Q. Do time sliders set the active time for the entire alarms product? A. Yes, any product checked to use timed, is set to the alarm time period set with the time sliders. If you leave the "timed" check box UN-CHECKED for a product alarm product line, it will continue to be active for 24 hours. Q. Can I make the times for two indicidual alarm product different times? A. No only one time window can be set with the time sliders. Then your only choice is to use this slider time or not to use the slider time set, you either check the timed box for each alarm of leave it blank and thus active for 24 hours a day. Q. If I set the left slider to "2" and the right slider to "23" will I get alarm activity only between 2AM and 11PM? A. Correct. The left slider sets the hour of the day to begin the time and the right slider sets the ending time. Q. If you acknowledge (mute) one alarm, does a second active alarm continue to sound? A. No, When you click on mute, you silence all alarms. Q. Can alarms come so close together, that the second one gets skipped? A. No, products received even one second apart will perform all the functions you have checked. For example, both will print / plot / page / etc. Q. Is there a way to show that more than one alarm is active? A. Scrollbox alarms will pile up. Q. Rob, do you have a job besides REALemwin? A. I am a TV Meteorologist. http://www.WLNS.com/global/weather.asp Q. When re-transmission re-direct comm-out is selected for a product, does that change the directory path, so it only goes to one and not multiple directories? A. No, it still goes to the data directory, so you can view it. Then it is copied to \archive, using the short file name (ie. SWRMI instead of the full SWRMI#KDTX.2) Q. Does re-direct or re-transmission keep any of the alarms from working? A. No, as explained in the previous question, it goes to the data directory and allows all the normal activities, then the other directory. Q. I have never been able to display lightning strike data from the example Houston, how do I do this. A. You can display lightning strike only if the image has been sent. LGTIAHUS.gif for Houston. You can modify the image menu for your needs. The RealEMWIN-ImageMenu.txt file is easily configurable. Q. I get a printout for example Zone 50, but I also get everything that follows until the End Of File. How can I get just zone 50 information. A. Weather information that includes zone 50 will be sent by grouping it together. If you click the "filter" box, next to the county name on the alarm section, you will print data valid for thet zone. (assuming NWS properly ends each section with "$$") Q. What does the "WAR" alarm do? A. It gets you TOR/SVR/FFW all in one. Example "WARGRR" gets all Tornado / SevereThunderstorm / Flash Flood (WARNINGS) from Grand Rapids, MI. Don't use more wildcards with this, example, "WAR???" will not work. "WAR" will not work. Q. What are the fields in the alarm configuration file? A. First = Product name Second = (unused) Third = Print (active or not) Fourth = Compress (active or not) Fifth = Scroll (active or not) Sixth = Alarm-alert# Seventh = email (active or not) Eight = pager (active or not) Ninth = Time Sliders (active or not) Tenth = Zone Eleven = Log (active or not) Twelve = Display (display to screen or not) Thirteen = Exe alarms (active or not) Fourteen = Custom Q. How do I change the screen buttons at the top of the screen to my choices, and not the "Howell" and others which are first displayed after install? A. Use a text editor to customize the RealEMWIN-button.txt file. Q. Can I change the listed choices in the Quick menu? A. Yes, Use a text editor to change the RealEMWIN-quick.txt file. Q. How do I select product I want to re-transmit to a comm port? A. Check the "Custom" box for that product in the alarms listing window, then that will copy it to the c:\weather\emwin\archive file (or whatever you set there). EMWIN-OUT checks that directory and sends any files it finds out the comm port in old weather-wire format.