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

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.

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?

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.

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

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

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

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.

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 nº 1 - best version of this I've found:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXox7vonfEg

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