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1. Do you use DIFAX as a primary source of NWS facsimile products? (DIFAX
maps received through a Family of Services Provider may well come from the HRS
circuit and not the DIFAX transmission). If you are a subscriber to the DIFAX
service (through Alden for example), could you switch to an alternate delivery
system with 6 months notice.
We receive DIFAX products via Alden/Ku-band antenna. These products are a nice supplement to our web and gempak products. While fax charts are a secondary source, I don't find anybody willing to give them up completely. I suppose that we can switch. It depends on what you have in mind.
2. Can you/Do you use DIFAX maps currently available on the internet
(http://weather.noaa.gov/fax/graph.shtml)? What are the drawbacks if any? How
could delivery be improved?
Yes,we occasionally access DIFAX maps via the web. Only drawback is getting large format hardcopies for posting on a display board. Can you have internet maps to print full size through an OKIDATA 293/294 printer, for example?
3. If the DIFAX transmission is vital to your operations, please explain
why.
Not vital, but still useful. If this service were to be terminated, we'd survive.
Answers to these questions will be incorporated into a White Paper on
DIFAX for the next Director of the NWS. Please e-mail your responses in the
near future. Include your affiliation and title.
Jerry Watson, PhD/Asso. Prof. of Meteorology
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