Hello everyone,
I just got the scoop on what went down today. No conspiracy theories,
please...it was indeed Galaxy 15 causing interference...at first.
But then, as the signal degraded late this morning beyond the point of no
return, as you saw, they tried to switch to the backup uplink at Fairmont,
WV. Well, guess what? There was an issue there...they wouldn't let
anyone into the backup facility to do it---it's on a military site, and
they weren't letting the NWS in on weekends! While THAT was going on, the
two satellite companies were having a peeing contest as to what exactly
was causing the interference; neither claimed it was them. Finally, one
of the parties (I don't know who) refused to do anything more until the
NWS began their uplink at Fairmont, which they couldn't do. Finally, they
changed frequencies and that got them back on the air. As a few of you
noted to me privately, there are rogue transmissions on the 1193.500 MHZ
broadcast right now where NOAAport normally broadcasts at.
There's even more craziness to it than this, but suffice it to say, it's
been a long, trying day for everyone. I asked again when they will switch
back to broadcasting on 1193.500 MHZ. "Right now", the kind gentleman
said at the NWS Telecomm Gateway, "everyone is just happy to be back on
the air."
And tomorrow is Monday. We're all doomed! ;-) ;-) ;-)
Right now they are POUNDING out signal...on my S75+, I have NOAAport as a
rock-solid 89. Live stats from my receiver:
http://noaaport.admin.niu.edu:8025/
And can we please, PLEASE have someone from the NWS give UNIDATA a backup
feed for such a time as this?
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Gilbert Sebenste ********
(My opinions only!) ******
Staff Meteorologist, Northern Illinois University ****
E-mail: sebenste@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ***
web: http://weather.admin.niu.edu **
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