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Guest azflyboy

Bizarre text in activeSky2002(NO WIND!)

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Guest azflyboy

Hello,I have been happily using the freeware activesky2002 (v1.5) for several months and I think it is a BRILLIANT program!Recently however, i have been getting an odd text at the beginning of the METAR reports.All my reports now have (urier" size = "5">) )(without the parenthesis) at the beginning of them. This seems to cause activesky to think the wind direction is "5" (with qoutes) and it also thinks the wind speed is the second two letters of the ICAO of the reporting station. IE: KLAX=LA it also thinks the datetime is the word "size" (this comes from the runtime status screen)This means that I get correct cloud layers, pressure, precipitation ect but no lower level winds (the higher level winds seem to work though) I have tried reinstalling both activesky and FS but the same thing still happens. Is there a fix for this?Thanks,David Swindle

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Guest Jim Strenk

David, I've been experiencing the same thing using V 1.5. The problem lies with the text format NOAA or whoever provides the METAR information. As currently constructed, V 1.5 and V 1.85 are unable to "read" the information downloaded as parsed.I myself have written a query asking if an update for V 1.5 will be forthcoming. As of this moment, my question has not been answered.Unless an updated version of the FREEWARE ActiveSky is released, there is no solution to what you and I have been experiencing.I hope this helps you. :D>Hello,>I have been happily using the freeware activesky2002 (v1.5)>for several months and I think it is a BRILLIANT program!>Recently however, i have been getting an odd text at the>beginning of the METAR reports.All my reports now have (urier">size = "5">) )(without the parenthesis) at the beginning of>them. This seems to cause activesky to think the wind>direction is "5" (with qoutes) and it also thinks the wind>speed is the second two letters of the ICAO of the reporting>station. IE: KLAX=LA it also thinks the datetime is the word>"size" (this comes from the runtime status screen)>This means that I get correct cloud layers, pressure,>precipitation ect but no lower level winds (the higher level>winds seem to work though) I have tried reinstalling both>activesky and FS but the same thing still happens. Is there a>fix for this?>Thanks,>David Swindle

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Jim,Check your PM please.JimActiveSky Support

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Guest Jim Strenk

A temporary solution might be to simply not use ActiveSky v 1.5 and simply use squawkbox to "download" weather.I have been noticing that the combination of AS and SB produce a very visible reduction in "visibility" that is inconsistant with the current METAR.Using the .wx (ICAO.name) will set the weather with conditions from the station you choose. That seems to have eliminated the inconsistant visibility that the combination of AS and SB produce.By the way, you can have both AS and SB running and still use the .wx text command within SB.Use the SB Quick Help pull-down to learn more about SB's text commands. There are quite a few, many of them are very helpful right from the get go!

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Guys,I still do not have an answer yet. I think some vacation time is involved here!Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Support

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Hi Guys,The solution is to use VATSIM METARs. The NOAA format changed and the source code for activesky 2002 v1.5 no longer exists.-Damian[table border=0" cellspacing="30" cellpadding="0][tr][td align = "left"]Damian ClarkHiFi Simulation SoftwareDeveloper of ActiveSkyThe next-generation weather environment simulation for FS2002!http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky[/td][td]http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg][/td][/tr][/table://http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/ima...[/tr][/table


Damian Clark
HiFi  Simulation Technologies

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Guest Jim Strenk

Thanks for the reply Damian, but I don't quite follow, especially about the source code for v1.5 no longer exits.When using v1.5 INDEPENDENT of VATSIM, I see the improperly parsed METARs that v1.85 users have also been seeing. On the other hand, when connected to VATSIM, using their METARs, what I see is something like ActiveSky --> Downloading. If I minimize FS2002 and take a look at ActiveSky 1.5, all the METAR shows is downloading... and no actual METAR. When using independent METARS, I see the parsing error, along with some of the actual METAR data that has been downloaded. I have also noticed that the debug screen indicates that surface winds aren't filled out properly with either VATSIM or independent METAR information, if I remember correctly.Should I see or not see actual correctly parsed data as an annoucement along the top of the FS2002 window with VATSIM METARs or not? If I DON'T see VATSIM METAR information, how does one find out what has been entered into FS2002 weather engine?Should weather differ if I use the .wx KXXX command in SquawkBox over what ActiveSky downloads from VATSIM METARs?I also understand that ActiveSky v1.5 doesn't have all the bells and whistles of wxRE v1.87, but its basic functionality should be the same correct? Both products were designed to automatically "fill in the blanks" that a manual update of local weather through FS2002 itself would produce, correct?If I'm using v1.5 improperly, please tell me what changes in proceedure I need to make. If on the other hand, I'm experiencing a limitation of the program, I'd like to know about that also.Please note that I added JOT as a valid FD reporting station that was missing in the download. Prior to adding JOT, when flying the Chicagoland area, FD's were being requested all the way from MKE, if I'm not mistaken. I have also taken the liberty of removing KCGX (Meigs Field) from the ICAO listing, since it is no longer a valid reporting station.Again, I would like to thank you for taking time to reply to this particular thread and hope you can "flesh out" some of the questions I've raised in my response to YOUR response. :D>Hi Guys,>>The solution is to use VATSIM METARs. The NOAA format changed>and the source code for activesky 2002 v1.5 no longer exists.>>-Damian

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Hi,Sorry, after checking it appears the VATSIM option is not working either.For those who don't know, ActiveSky 2002 (v1.5) was the first weather program I created about a year ago. It is highly obsolete and not officially supported (for about 7 months now). The source code doesn't exist (was lost due to hardware failure), and it is impossible to create fixes or changes for it. What I will do is work on a new freeware version for FS2004 based on the code base for wxRE 2.0. Unfortunately there is no temporary fix at the moment. Should a solution become apparent later I will notify all on this forum. Sorry for the bad news - I did not anticipate NOAA would change its format in this way - and unfortunately did not code it in a way that would work with major HTML re-coding. Of course wxRE is the current supported version and the latest 1.87 fixes all known issues with NOAA reformatting.-Damian[table border=0" cellspacing="30" cellpadding="0][tr][td align = "left"]Damian ClarkHiFi Simulation SoftwareDeveloper of ActiveSkyThe next-generation weather environment simulation for FS2002!http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky[/td][td]http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg][/td][/tr][/table://http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/ima...[/tr][/table


Damian Clark
HiFi  Simulation Technologies

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Guest Jim Strenk

Thank you Damian for the quick and insightful reply. I suspected that v1.5 wasn't going to work under any circumstance. I now also understand why an update to v1.5 will not be forthcoming.I shall be looking forward to version 2.0 of ActiveSky, both the freeware version and commercial version.I trust NOAA is now finished playing with the METARs format so that both the real and virtual communities can begin using the information it is trying to diseminate! :-roll Keep up the good work, it is appreciated!

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Maybe this is beating a dead horse, or even unpractical, but has there been any communication with the NOAA about the change in format? Do we know the reasoning behind the format change? Would it be possible for THEM to make some sort of small change that would allow the program (v1.5) to work while not materially making a difference on their side? Just some thoughts.Brian

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