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uk.sci.weather (UK Weather) (uk.sci.weather) For the discussion of daily weather events, chiefly affecting the UK and adjacent parts of Europe, both past and predicted. The discussion is open to all, but contributions on a practical scientific level are encouraged. |
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#1
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I am embarking on a series of articles regarding my ventures into remote
imaging via meteorological satellites - I began receiving images from home-brew equipment back in the 1970's. One small technical point, would anyone know when the Met office stopped using the wet paper facsimile machines for chart and imagery read out? I remember visiting the Cardiff Met office and carrying off some of those slightly fuzzy purplish print-outs, but can't quite remember when that would have been. Thanks in advance for any assistance. James |
#2
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On 2013-04-21 20:15:12 +0000, James Brown said:
I am embarking on a series of articles regarding my ventures into remote imaging via meteorological satellites - I began receiving images from home-brew equipment back in the 1970's. One small technical point, would anyone know when the Met office stopped using the wet paper facsimile machines for chart and imagery read out? I remember visiting the Cardiff Met office and carrying off some of those slightly fuzzy purplish print-outs, but can't quite remember when that would have been. Thanks in advance for any assistance. James I would say that would be the early to mid 1990's? I think that until then, the file size of a satellite photo was too large to be transmitted in less than a day, by the communications systems that were in place at the time. I remember using a 2400 and/or 4800 baud modem, and when the 9600 came out we thought it was almost unbelievably fast. |
#3
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yttiw wrote:
On 2013-04-21 20:15:12 +0000, James Brown said: I am embarking on a series of articles regarding my ventures into remote imaging via meteorological satellites - I began receiving images from home-brew equipment back in the 1970's. One small technical point, would anyone know when the Met office stopped using the wet paper facsimile machines for chart and imagery read out? I remember visiting the Cardiff Met office and carrying off some of those slightly fuzzy purplish print-outs, but can't quite remember when that would have been. Thanks in advance for any assistance. James I would say that would be the early to mid 1990's? I think that until then, the file size of a satellite photo was too large to be transmitted in less than a day, by the communications systems that were in place at the time. I remember using a 2400 and/or 4800 baud modem, and when the 9600 came out we thought it was almost unbelievably fast. I have vague memories of a rather noisy device slowly turning out soggy charts which had to be hung out to dry when I worked at a certain establishment near High Wycombe in the 70's. Was this one of the machines you guys are referring to? |
#4
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On 2013-04-22 06:53:25 +0000, Lindisfarne Poacher said:
yttiw wrote: On 2013-04-21 20:15:12 +0000, James Brown said: I am embarking on a series of articles regarding my ventures into remote imaging via meteorological satellites - I began receiving images from home-brew equipment back in the 1970's. One small technical point, would anyone know when the Met office stopped using the wet paper facsimile machines for chart and imagery read out? I remember visiting the Cardiff Met office and carrying off some of those slightly fuzzy purplish print-outs, but can't quite remember when that would have been. Thanks in advance for any assistance. James I would say that would be the early to mid 1990's? I think that until then, the file size of a satellite photo was too large to be transmitted in less than a day, by the communications systems that were in place at the time. I remember using a 2400 and/or 4800 baud modem, and when the 9600 came out we thought it was almost unbelievably fast. I have vague memories of a rather noisy device slowly turning out soggy charts which had to be hung out to dry when I worked at a certain establishment near High Wycombe in the 70's. Was this one of the machines you guys are referring to? Yes, those are the ones. However, the technology improved a little over the years and the old wet (and highly inflammable) paper was replaced by a more stable substance which was much less likely to catch fire on contact in the bin with a discarded cigarette end. In later years satellite transmissions had their own dedicated facsimilie channels, and receiver machines that were of a slightly higher resolution than the ones that produced plotted charts and the like. However, they were seldom working to their specification and often the various grey shades merged into two:- black and white. This made interpretation of the cloud structure well nigh impossible on many occasions, and it was a revolution when the first satellite photos were downloaded onto a computer and displayed on a monitor. |
#5
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Mid 1990's where I was working. When we moved to a new office in 1992, the
Mufax machines were assigned to a small closed room, as the chemicals made walls turn a nice shade of brown and this became known as the Dirty comms room, as opposed to the Comms room, which had the various comms cabinets. I think we stopped using them about 1995. Margaret "James Brown" wrote in message ... I am embarking on a series of articles regarding my ventures into remote imaging via meteorological satellites - I began receiving images from home-brew equipment back in the 1970's. One small technical point, would anyone know when the Met office stopped using the wet paper facsimile machines for chart and imagery read out? I remember visiting the Cardiff Met office and carrying off some of those slightly fuzzy purplish print-outs, but can't quite remember when that would have been. Thanks in advance for any assistance. James |
#6
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On 22/04/2013 09:09, Mags wrote:
Mid 1990's where I was working. When we moved to a new office in 1992, the Mufax machines were assigned to a small closed room, as the chemicals made walls turn a nice shade of brown and this became known as the Dirty comms room, as opposed to the Comms room, which had the various comms cabinets. I think we stopped using them about 1995. Margaret "James Brown" wrote in message ... I am embarking on a series of articles regarding my ventures into remote imaging via meteorological satellites - I began receiving images from home-brew equipment back in the 1970's. One small technical point, would anyone know when the Met office stopped using the wet paper facsimile machines for chart and imagery read out? I remember visiting the Cardiff Met office and carrying off some of those slightly fuzzy purplish print-outs, but can't quite remember when that would have been. Thanks in advance for any assistance. James I am most grateful for your input folks. I had a feeling that when I showed the meteorologists the photo quality prints I was creating that there were some slightly envious looks! If any others want to contribute please feel free, James |
#7
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On Apr 22, 9:09*am, "Mags" wrote:
Mid 1990's where I was working. When *we moved to a new office in 1992, the Mufax machines were assigned to a small closed room, as the chemicals made walls turn a nice shade of brown and this became known as the Dirty comms room, as opposed to the Comms room, which *had the various comms cabinets. I think we stopped using them about 1995. Margaret "James Brown" *wrote in ... I am embarking on a series of articles regarding my ventures into remote imaging via meteorological satellites - I began receiving images from home-brew equipment back in the 1970's. One small technical point, would anyone know when the Met office stopped using the wet paper facsimile machines for chart and imagery read out? I remember visiting the Cardiff Met office and carrying off some of those slightly fuzzy purplish print-outs, but can't quite remember when that would have been. Thanks in advance for any assistance. James Yes, it was mid 90s when we gave up on them in the Met Lab at Plymouth Uni. We had previously received the NOAA satellites directly on a Vaisala receiver and occasionally printed them out on a bulky photographic developer. More nasty chemicals. We also used more routinely the molfax machine, but this was replaced by a smaller Furuno fax machine for charts which had electro-sensitive silver paper. Len Wembury |
#8
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On 2013-04-22 08:56:27 +0000, James Brown said:
On 22/04/2013 09:09, Mags wrote: Mid 1990's where I was working. When we moved to a new office in 1992, the Mufax machines were assigned to a small closed room, as the chemicals made walls turn a nice shade of brown and this became known as the Dirty comms room, as opposed to the Comms room, which had the various comms cabinets. I think we stopped using them about 1995. Margaret "James Brown" wrote in message ... I am embarking on a series of articles regarding my ventures into remote imaging via meteorological satellites - I began receiving images from home-brew equipment back in the 1970's. One small technical point, would anyone know when the Met office stopped using the wet paper facsimile machines for chart and imagery read out? I remember visiting the Cardiff Met office and carrying off some of those slightly fuzzy purplish print-outs, but can't quite remember when that would have been. Thanks in advance for any assistance. James I am most grateful for your input folks. I had a feeling that when I showed the meteorologists the photo quality prints I was creating that there were some slightly envious looks! If any others want to contribute please feel free, James Hi James. I can understand the envious looks when shown photo quality images. I remember being shown a VHRR image of Eire with an unstable northwesterly across it, and being completely amazed that individual Cu and Cb cells were visible in detail, rather than just a group of white dots that would have been the best we could hope for on a fax chart. I also remember being left in naive amazement (probably around 1990) when someone demonstrated a movie loop program on a "souped-up" BBC micro (I think) with added RAM, which was playing a close sequence of about 6 Meteosat images over and over again. Suddenly I became aware of the possibilities which computers might open up. |
#9
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On Mon, 22 Apr 2013 09:01:06 +0100
yttiw wrote: I have vague memories of a rather noisy device slowly turning out soggy charts which had to be hung out to dry when I worked at a certain establishment near High Wycombe in the 70's. Was this one of the machines you guys are referring to? Yes, those are the ones. However, the technology improved a little over the years and the old wet (and highly inflammable) paper was replaced by a more stable substance which was much less likely to catch fire on contact in the bin with a discarded cigarette end. When I started work at Wyton, a cupboard under the forecasters' bench was used as storage for old Mufax charts. The first time I accessed the cupboard, I noticed that I'd got some wet paint on my hand. I mentioned this to someone else on duty and asked when it had been painted and was told it had been done a couple of years before. Apparently, the Mufax chemicals prevented the paint from drying. The inner cores of the rolls came in useful at times. In the 62-3 winter, a couple were used as supports for the grass minimum thermometer. V-shaped slots were cut in the end of each tube and then they were stuck in the snow in the enclosure. Another use for the cores was as bean-poles. The end of a core was warmed over a flame for a while until it became softer and could be widened so another core could be inserted into it. Eventually, you had a collection of rot-proof bean-poles. -- Graham P Davis, Bracknell, Berks. Free office softwa http://www.libreoffice.org/ Carlos Seixas, Sonata nÂș 1 - best version of this I've found: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXox7vonfEg |
#10
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On Monday, April 22, 2013 7:53:25 AM UTC+1, Lindisfarne Poacher wrote:
yttiw wrote: On 2013-04-21 20:15:12 +0000, James Brown said: I am embarking on a series of articles regarding my ventures into remote imaging via meteorological satellites - I began receiving images from home-brew equipment back in the 1970's. One small technical point, would anyone know when the Met office stopped using the wet paper facsimile machines for chart and imagery read out? I remember visiting the Cardiff Met office and carrying off some of those slightly fuzzy purplish print-outs, but can't quite remember when that would have been. Thanks in advance for any assistance. James I would say that would be the early to mid 1990's? I think that until then, the file size of a satellite photo was too large to be transmitted in less than a day, by the communications systems that were in place at the time. I remember using a 2400 and/or 4800 baud modem, and when the 9600 came out we thought it was almost unbelievably fast. I have vague memories of a rather noisy device slowly turning out soggy charts which had to be hung out to dry when I worked at a certain establishment near High Wycombe in the 70's. Was this one of the machines you guys are referring to? I briefly worked at the same establishment, though I mainly worked at another main met office located in the SW Midlands. As I re-trained as a technician I came to maintain and repair these Muirhead made fax machines (Mufax). They used ancient valve technology and I distinctly remember having to be careful that I didn't contact the test points at the rear, because one of them was at 120V. The forecast office at the time was a heady mixture of Mufax fumes and carbon tetrachloride (used to erase charts drawn on perspex with chinagraph pencils - a common occurrence then). All this added to cigarette, pipe and cigar smoke - not an ideal atmosphere for retaining wakefulness during the night shift. MartinR |
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