Topic: Strange problem with Marina Weatherlink data

[miraculon]

I have seen the local Marina's Weatherlink data go to "n/a" a couple of times now. It has cleared up previously (by itself or by intervention, I don't know) but it is showing "n/a" for Temp, Humidity, Wind and Rain all ISS stuff. Baro and indoor temps show OK and the timestamp on WL shows current data.

OK, this sounds like an ISS problem on the surface. They replaced the battery about a year ago.

Yet, I have 96% good packets and valid ISS data on all parameters via my repeater setup. I am about 2,000 ft. away from the Marina ISS*. I view the data on a dedicated VUE console. I am not sure how I could be getting good data over my repeater link if this was an ISS problem. They have a WLIP. We have had problems with the console in the past. The last time required a massive cleanup of the battery terminals and complete disassembly of the console. It has been working fine for about six months over there.

The Marina is closed for the season and I don't know if the Harbormaster is even available this time of year to investigate on-site.

Any ideas? If it is the console again, I think that I am going to recommend a new one.

* I have a 17dBi gain Yagi and low noise preamp with BPF ahead of the repeater.

Greg H.

[miraculon]

And boom, its back.

According to WU, it stopped sending the temp/hum/wind/rain at 5:38AM, and came back at 11:55AM. This could be consistent with the supercap charge running out against a dead battery, but then again why am I getting it here OK 2k ft. away?

The antenna for the ISS is directly above the Console area and is angled slightly down, but mostly vertical. The reported "good packets" according to my VUE reception diagnostics stayed at 96% during this period.

Even accounting for being off-axis on the antenna, I am baffled that I can receive the ISS data perfectly from my remote location, yet the console in the Marina office would lose it.

Greg H.

[bchwdlks]

And boom, its back.

According to WU, it stopped sending the temp/hum/wind/rain at 5:38AM, and came back at 11:55AM. This could be consistent with the supercap charge running out against a dead battery, but then again why am I getting it here OK 2k ft. away?
...
Greg H.

Do not believe WU ...
All morning long WU has been reporting that my station "Current Conditions Station reported 32 minutes ago" or 20 minutes ago , or 45 min -- take your pick. The entire time my Meteobridge has been successfully sending data every minute.

[dalecoy]

. This could be consistent with the supercap charge running out against a dead battery, but then again why am I getting it here OK 2k ft. away?

Consider "battery with reduced voltage because it's depleting".  You have a great amount of gain (preamplification) in your remote setup, so if the transmitter has a reduced signal level......

[Mattk]

Is this referring to WeatherLink.com? If so sounds more like an intermittent comms link outage?

[miraculon]

Is this referring to WeatherLink.com? If so sounds more like an intermittent comms link outage?

Yes, it is Weatherlink.com via WLIP. If it is comms, then why is indoor temp/baro OK? (as is the timestamp)

Greg H.

[Mattk]

Is this referring to WeatherLink.com? If so sounds more like an intermittent comms link outage?

Yes, it is Weatherlink.com via WLIP. If it is comms, then why is indoor temp/baro OK? (as is the timestamp)

Greg H.

Ok then different issue? I believe the Time stamp is server based relative to the location time zone so time should be always right? Indoor values? Then tends to indicate a WLIP/ISS issue? If you have 24 hour data from the ISS then is there intermittent interference in the actual marina freq wise?   

[dalecoy]

Indoor values? Then tends to indicate a WLIP/ISS issue?

I'm a bit confused.  As far as I know, the WLIP logger does not receive data from the ISS.  Perhaps I'm missing your point.

[Mattk]

Indoor values? Then tends to indicate a WLIP/ISS issue?

I'm a bit confused.  As far as I know, the WLIP logger does not receive data from the ISS.  Perhaps I'm missing your point.

Yes sounds like it. I'm sure you understand the point thou

[miraculon]

I have Station #1 on one of my VP2 consoles set as "Temp", which is the Marina.

The battery status page on the Weatherlink 6.0.3 PC software (shows "OK" for Station #1. (as does Repeater A). If the station status is accurately passed via the repeater, the Marina ISS battery is "OK".

The data from the Marina was OK this morning, which also seems to indicate that the battery is OK.. I'll post a link to my Marina page which shows the data via Weatherlink.com and my repeater/VUE/meteohub setup.

http://www.rogerscityweather.com/wxmarina.php

If you have 24 hour data from the ISS then is there intermittent interference in the actual marina freq wise?

Maybe there is some kind of interference. The County is going to 800MHz for emergency dispatch, but it is not online yet. I kind of doubt that they would be testing in the wee hours, but who knows. The County tower is just a couple of blocks away from the Marina. The City Police and County Sheriff already are on 800MHz and have been for quite some time.

Greg H.

[dalecoy]

According to WU, it stopped sending the temp/hum/wind/rain at 5:38AM, and came back at 11:55AM.

The logger is the IP model.  Assuming (because you didn't say) that they are doing WeatherLink.com

1.  What does the archive data (for that period) on WeatherLink.com look like?

2.  Is the WU feed from WeatherLink.com?  Or done in some other way?

[miraculon]

According to WU, it stopped sending the temp/hum/wind/rain at 5:38AM, and came back at 11:55AM.

The logger is the IP model.  Assuming (because you didn't say) that they are doing WeatherLink.com

1.  What does the archive data (for that period) on WeatherLink.com look like?

2.  Is the WU feed from WeatherLink.com?  Or done in some other way?

1. I don't know how to do this, other than looking at CWOP and WU, where the data is uploaded. CWOP and WU both showed the gaps in data coincident with the "n/a" display on the summary page.

2. WU (and CWOP) feed is from weatherlink.com with the account "check box" options. I set those up when I was at the Marina with the Harbormaster who logged into the account while I was there. I do not have the login credentials myself.

Greg H.

[johnd]

2. WU (and CWOP) feed is from weatherlink.com with the account "check box" options. I set those up when I was at the Marina with the Harbormaster who logged into the account while I was there. I do not have the login credentials myself.

Well: The station name as you see it in the weatherlink.com URL is the user name. But you do need the password too. I never think of weather data as highly confidential so maybe they might let you know the pw. Then just set up a new station with 'Web download' as the data source in a local copy of Weatherlink. (Or I could potentially give you access to an account in Prowlar, but you'd still need the password.)

[dalecoy]

According to WU, it stopped sending the temp/hum/wind/rain at 5:38AM, and came back at 11:55AM.

2. WU (and CWOP) feed is from weatherlink.com with the account "check box" options. I set those up when I was at the Marina with the Harbormaster who logged into the account while I was there. I do not have the login credentials myself.

Greg H.

What is the WU station name?

Is this the data that's reported at CW4114?  Or what is the CWOP ID of the data from that station?

[miraculon]

According to WU, it stopped sending the temp/hum/wind/rain at 5:38AM, and came back at 11:55AM.

2. WU (and CWOP) feed is from weatherlink.com with the account "check box" options. I set those up when I was at the Marina with the Harbormaster who logged into the account while I was there. I do not have the login credentials myself.

Greg H.

What is the WU station name?

Is this the data that's reported at CW4114?  Or what is the CWOP ID of the data from that station?

WU: Rogers City Marina = KMIROGER10
CWOP: FW1095

CW4114 is mine.

Greg H.

[dalecoy]

Looking at FW1095, I see (GMT times)

Barometer only from 14:18 through 17:19 on November 14th
Barometer only from 06:43 through 13:00 on November 22nd
Barometer only from 10:53 through 16:40 on November 25th

A few Occasional single-time events of Barometer only, within that period.  Some of them like:
2017-11-25 23:56:00,1014.70,28.0,21.1,75,15,294,,,,,,

And then:
2017-11-26 21:14:00,1010.90,40.0,29.9,66,11,298,1009.33,40.9,28.6,61,9.7,286
2017-11-26 21:29:00,1011.10,40.0,31.4,70,15,255,1009.32,40.9,28.6,61,9.8,283
2017-11-26 21:44:00,1011.30,40.0,32.1,72,10,271,1009.32,40.9,28.6,61,9.7,289
2017-11-26 21:59:00,1011.50,40.0,32.4,73,14,280,,,,,,

That's "right now" (the top of the hour while I'm writing this)

[dalecoy]

WU KMIROGER10 shows the same long-period outages:

14th from 9:18 AM thru 12:19 PM
22nd from 2:12 AM thru 8:00 AM
25th from 5:53 AM thru 11:40 AM

Given the variation in times - including the DAYTIME data on the 14th ......  And the fact that there appears to be no problem with the console providing data to the WLIP logger, and no problem with the logger uploading data to WeatherLink.com.....

I'm guessing there is some physical cause.  Some RF-opaque (i.e., metal) object that occasionally comes between the ISS and the console.  Or (less probably) some RF source interfering with the console's ability to receive ISS data.

Note: I didn't go back earlier than the 14th.  That might also be interesting???
OK Couldn't resist.
Outage from November 1st 10 PM through November 2nd 3:11 AM
Clearly not a Supercap, nor an ISS battery problem.

[miraculon]

For what it's worth, attached is a Google Earth capture of the local area.

FW1095 is the Marina. The ISS is on the roof of the hip-roof building. (Marina office)

CW4114 is my own station. (I also upload to CWOP as KE8DAF-13)

WD8DX-2 just happens to be parked at the County building. (this is where the emergency dispatch center is) WD8DX does a lot of commercial radio work, and he is probably involved in the 800MHz project.

Notably, the County transmitter is considerably off-axis from my Yagi antenna. The Marina is closer to the County building (half of my distance) and has a dipole on the console (omni response).

I also have the 902-928MHz Band-Pass Filter, so I would tend to reject interference from whatever they are doing on 800 MHz. I have seen considerable interference in the 750 MHz and 850 MHz range with my RF Explorer when I was troubleshooting the repeater setup. The "rest of world" Davis comms are in the 868.0 - 868.6 MHz range, so the local console RF front end potentially could be 'desensitized'.

Dale, interesting theory about the metal object, but it beats me what could show up in the middle of the night on the roof of that building. But I am still not sure that they would be testing overnight either. Could be. WD8DX-2 has been out of the area (according to APRS) when the LOS has occurred.

I think that I am gravitating towards the interference theory, based on past experience with the repeater.

Greg H.

[dalecoy]

FW1095 is the Marina. The ISS is on the roof of the hip-roof building. (Marina office)

.....
Dale, interesting theory about the metal object, but it beats me what could show up in the middle of the night on the roof of that building. But I am still not sure that they would be testing overnight either. Could be. WD8DX-2 has been out of the area (according to APRS) when the LOS has occurred.

I think that I am gravitating towards the interference theory, based on past experience with the repeater.

Greg H.

Equally likely/unlikely would be something inside the building?   Given the wide variation of occurrence times (but fairly similar durations), I don't have any better theories, either.  The building does look rather isolated.

As you indicated, it's strange.