AWEKAS being a bit rude and intolerant?

[up10ad]

I received the following email today from AKEWAS, complaining that my pressure is reading too low, and to that I have used one of my webcams to temporarily point to my foaling pen:

> Dear AWEKAS Member
> Your station is sending invalid values to AWEKAS Weather Network. One of our operators has disabled the following sensor(s):
> air pressure (wrong value: 991.4hPa )
> The blocking of the sensor(s) is for 24 hours and will be automatically removed at Mon, 24.05.2010 19:11 UTC
> Please check your sensors and transmission unit.
> If this mail is unjustified please contact us by mail at mail@awekas.at.
>
> The administrator has added the following note: Air pressure 10-12 haPa too low. On a weatherwebcam i expect landscape and heaven, not a mare and its foal.

My cam (one of two) makes it clear that it is only temporarily pointed at the mare and foal, and I'll be darned if some PWS compiler located 10,000 miles away is going to tell me what I can do with my personal station.

Mine is a Personal Weather Station, and a very professional one at that.  My viewers are local and regional, and they actually like watching the foals being born on cam each year.  It is one of the things that makes my weather site much more appealing to my visitors that other weather sites.

I'm not at all happy and have have pulled the plug on AWEKAS.  Your comments are welcome.

[sam2004gp]

I am behind you. 

[Downlinerz2]

    Good Job!! 

[lddaly]

Good call! 

[up10ad]

As this settles into my brain I can't help but wonder why a site like AWEKAS, that relies on volunteers to freely contribute their data, would behave in such a manner.  As most of you know, I run USAWeatherFinder.com and, apart from requiring data from an actual weather station, I wouldn't dream of suggesting what is or is not appropriate content for any member site. 

[Axelvold]

You are absolutely right Rick

I do not like their tone, it was a bit rude I think.

[up10ad]

You are absolutely right Rick

I do not like their tone, it was a bit rude I think.

Thanks for the non-US perspective Lars, I appreciate it.

[Axelvold]

Your welcome Rick

One thing that puzzles me is how could they be so sure that your data is incorrect?

[Weather Display]

do take into consideration cultural differences
i.e people from Germany can be blunt and direct and to the point

but commenting on your web cam in that way does seem to be over the top
putting it as an interest question would be better I would have thought

[Axelvold]

i.e people from Germany can be blunt and direct and to the point

Could not have said it better myself.

[graculus]

If the link was submitted as a weather webcam and it isn't, then I'm with awekas.

[up10ad]

It's not like you can't tell what the weather is like from the cam pic.  If its raining it shows, if its cloudy it shows, however, it doesn't show the wind speed very well.  So if my cam showed trees and maybe some of the neighbors houses because I lived in town, would that also be unacceptable?   

[ocala]

I would contact someone higher up at AKEWAS
From time to time we all can be "grumpy" so to speak and this may be one of those times. I have never heard of this before from them so it could be someone just had a bad day.
I don't send any data to them so I don't know how they interact with the public. I'm betting someone overstepped their bounds and needs someone to explain to them that what they did was wrong.

[lddaly]

Your welcome Rick

One thing that puzzles me is how could they be so sure that your data is incorrect?

Good point Lars... Rick is getting thumbs up from CWOP.

[DanS]

I received the following email today from AKEWAS, complaining that my pressure is reading too low, and to that I have used one of my webcams to temporarily point to my foaling pen:

> Dear AWEKAS Member
> Your station is sending invalid values to AWEKAS Weather Network. One of our operators has disabled the following sensor(s):
> air pressure (wrong value: 991.4hPa )
> The blocking of the sensor(s) is for 24 hours and will be automatically removed at Mon, 24.05.2010 19:11 UTC
> Please check your sensors and transmission unit.
> If this mail is unjustified please contact us by mail at mail@awekas.at.
>
> The administrator has added the following note: Air pressure 10-12 haPa too low. On a weatherwebcam i expect landscape and heaven, not a mare and its foal.

My cam (one of two) makes it clear that it is only temporarily pointed at the mare and foal, and I'll be darned if some PWS compiler located 10,000 miles away is going to tell me what I can do with my personal station.

Mine is a Personal Weather Station, and a very professional one at that.  My viewers are local and regional, and they actually like watching the foals being born on cam each year.  It is one of the things that makes my weather site much more appealing to my visitors that other weather sites.

I'm not at all happy and have have pulled the plug on AWEKAS.  Your comments are welcome.

I don't know how they can complain about members sending inaccurate data. I submitted a suggestion about a month ago to adjust the temperature scale on my instrument page because it tops out at 104 F and we've been having days warmer than that. I was told it would be fixed and still today it's the same. So who is providing the wrong data (or masking it) here? Not me.

[kray1000]

If the link was submitted as a weather webcam and it isn't, then I'm with awekas.

As Rick mentioned, there is a [weather] webcam image on that page in addition to the foalcam.  There might be some merit to switching their positions on that page, although I'll admit that the foalcam is more interesting!

[racenet]

You are correct Rick. I am behind you 110%.

I am pulling the plug on them also. I do not want my data going to a place that treats someone like that.



Bob

[up10ad]

While I'm unhappy at their behavior, I'm not asking for a boycott or anything.  However, I appreciate the support.

[Axelvold]

While I'm unhappy at their behavior, I'm not asking for a boycott or anything.  However, I appreciate the support.

Just say the word and we unplug the cable. 

[Mark / Ohio]

...My cam (one of two) makes it clear that it is only temporarily pointed at the mare and foal, and I'll be darned if some PWS compiler located 10,000 miles away is going to tell me what I can do with my personal station...

I agree!

[up10ad]

To their credit, AWEKAS responded:

AWEKAS Wetterkartensystem - Othmar Gattringer wrote:
>
> Sorry but this post was by one of our admin. The primary problem was you air pressure. It was to low. I think it was the absolute pressure not the relative.
>
> Cam is no problem! It can be hide…. (because its no weather cam)
>
> Best Regards
> Othmar Gattringer
>  
> AWEKAS Weather Map Network
>

I have written back to them as follows:


Othmar,

First, thanks for the response.  However, your admin needs a lesson in etiquette.

As for the cam, it is a weather cam, and does show if it is raining, foggy, cloudy, and lots of other stuff.  It is one of two cams and is only temporarily pointed at the foaling pen.  Mine is a Personal Weather Station, and a very professional one at that.  My viewers are local and regional, and they actually like watching the foals being born on cam each year.  It is one of the things that makes my weather site much more appealing to my visitors that other weather sites.

As for the pressure issue, interesting that you think my pressure is too low, CWOP says it is fine compared to nearby stations.  Anyway,  you guys need to remember that his isn't a a science experiment.  Most PWS are run as a hobby, and while we like to keep our information accurate, it may not always be in line with what you think it should be.  If you want to aggregate PWS data you have to expect some degree of variance.  Perhaps you should aggregate NWS or NOAA station data; but from what I've read on the subject, they aren't very accurate either, mainly because of (mis)placement in many areas.

I've made the decision to stop sending my data to AWEKAS and some other sites.  It seems that the receiving sites always seem to develop an attitude that I should be thankful that they allow me to give them my data, when in reality it should be the other way around.

I wish you the best.  Thanks again for the response.
--
Rick Heming                                      

[Weather Display]

maybe the thing with the barometer is due to you being at high altitude and is the old altitude vs sea sea level barometer reading, maybe they are comparing to sea level barometer adjusted readings, when at high altitudes, an altitude adjusted barometer reading is better (adjusted for 24 average temperature etc)

[up10ad]

I don't know.  There isn't any config choice for barometer that I see in the WD panel to set up AWEKAS.  VWS has choices but not WD that I see.

[weatherforyou]

I've made the decision to stop sending my data to AWEKAS and some other sites.

Including PWSweather.com?  I hope not.  

We have never had an attitude like you describe.  We're here to serve personal weather stations and always have been.

[Weather Display]

you can set in WD in the CWOP setup to use the altimeter adjusted barometer for all WD data