Topic: NOAA WEATHER RADIO

[phillipdampier]

Another data point. On the blog I run for KHA53 streaming, I just saw this public comment posted. Not sure if this author is one of you guys or if there is another group trying to maintain the streaming effort:

To whom it may concern,

Wunderground is shutting down their NOAA Weather Radio streaming service as of March 1, 2017. This is very unfortunate, we have pleaded with them to keep this critical life saving service up and running for the listening public. That said we are going to step up and with your help keep it online and make it even bigger. We just need your support and its really super simple to transfer your stream from wunderground's icecast server to our icecast server and would take less than five minutes. Basically you just replace their url with our url please see below for detailed instructions. Thanks in advance and don't hesitate to ask questions.

Change Server IP to: wxradio.dyndns.org
Use Encoder Password: WxRadio2014

Thats it, to listen to your feed just use the
Server IP + :Port + Mountpoint. For example it would be something like this:
http://wxradio.dyndns.org:8000/yourmountpoint.mp3

[tim273]

Another data point. On the blog I run for KHA53 streaming, I just saw this public comment posted. Not sure if this author is one of you guys or if there is another group trying to maintain the streaming effort:

To whom it may concern,

Wunderground is shutting down their NOAA Weather Radio streaming service as of March 1, 2017. This is very unfortunate, we have pleaded with them to keep this critical life saving service up and running for the listening public. That said we are going to step up and with your help keep it online and make it even bigger. We just need your support and its really super simple to transfer your stream from wunderground's icecast server to our icecast server and would take less than five minutes. Basically you just replace their url with our url please see below for detailed instructions. Thanks in advance and don't hesitate to ask questions.

Change Server IP to: wxradio.dyndns.org
Use Encoder Password: WxRadio2014

Thats it, to listen to your feed just use the
Server IP + :Port + Mountpoint. For example it would be something like this:
http://wxradio.dyndns.org:8000/yourmountpoint.mp3

Looks like they have quite a few of them over there, I wonder if it would make sense to consolidate over there instead?

[mikev]

I would want to know who is hosting it first, where they're hosting it second, and what their capacity is third. I could probably find out the last two points based on the IP address... just not able to do that at this instant. Also, the fact that the server isn't running on port 80 means that people may not be able to listen behind workplace firewalls, unlike WU's server (and how I have mine set up). I'm not likely to switch to an unknown server at this point. The fact that a dyndns hostname is being used makes me wonder if this is someone running a server out of their home.

Phillip, to your question... I'm using a Linux VPS through DigitalOcean... their cheapest option is $5/mo, no contracts required. You get a VPS with a single CPU core, 512 MB RAM, 20 GB of storage (plenty for a streaming only server), and 1 TB of data transfer per month. IPv6 connectivity is available in most of their data centers too. With 1 TB of data transfer, you could have uplink of a 16 Kbps stream as well as 200 simultaneous 24/7 listeners, and you'd be just about at the limit. I picked Ubuntu as the OS, installed and configured Icecast, and set up UFW to block any connection attempts except 22 (for admin of the server) and 80 (for Icecast). SSH is set up with key-based login, so it's pretty secure. If I really wanted, I could even block 22, since they have serial console access through their control panel... though that's username/password-based.

If I wanted, I could probably host a few other streams for the heck of it, since I know I'm not getting 200 people listening 24/7. I'm just not sure of the "surge" capacity on this VPS (what it's actually capable of handling at max), which is why I haven't offered to host anyone else's stream yet.

Edit to add: The IP address behind that hostname belongs to Cox Communications... I don't expect that will be able to handle a massive surge of traffic during severe weather, unless it's on their Gigablast service. Plus, with a single global stream password and no limits on mount point creation, this person is opening themselves up to some serious abuse of their server.

[spweather]

I received the above "To whom it may concern..." message by way of my website comment form a couple days ago.

The provided email address was support@crushedboxsoftware.com which makes me look at it as spam, and not a do-good-er.

The response to my asking "How you learned about SandPointWeather.com:" was "Wunderground" which made me think they may attempt to contact all WU Weather Radio streamers.

Dennis

[tim273]

I received the above "To whom it may concern..." message by way of my website comment form a couple days ago.

The provided email address was support@crushedboxsoftware.com which makes me look at it as spam, and not a do-good-er.

The response to my asking "How you learned about SandPointWeather.com:" was "Wunderground" which made me think they may attempt to contact all WU Weather Radio streamers.

Dennis

They must have contacted everyone with weather websites and contact info (or a post form), which explains why I didn't contacted since I don't have that.

[satcop]

Looks like they have quite a few of them over there, I wonder if it would make sense to consolidate over there instead?

Something about that whole thing doesn't pass the legit test, I would say lets keep on working this, there are several projects here that look like they are coming together, no reason to stop now.

[mikev]

I received the above "To whom it may concern..." message by way of my website comment form a couple days ago.

The provided email address was support@crushedboxsoftware.com which makes me look at it as spam, and not a do-good-er.

The response to my asking "How you learned about SandPointWeather.com:" was "Wunderground" which made me think they may attempt to contact all WU Weather Radio streamers.

Dennis

Yeah, it looks like Crushed Box Software has an app for NOAA Weather Radio, which likely relied on the streams provided by WU. He wants to keep his app going, so he is standing up a server of his own... though like I said, I don't think it would survive a surge test.

http://crushedboxsoftware.com/nwrapp/index.html

[phillipdampier]

I am back up and running through them, at least for now because it was the quickest way back for me. Also used the opportunity to adjust my URL to drop my name out of it, which was a vestige of Wunderground. Now it is just http://wxradio.dyndns.org:8000/rochester.mp3

I cannot imagine there is a big security risk or issue in doing this through them, but I do agree there could be a capacity issue or problem if Cox finds out. I am trying to find some direct email contact and I mentioned this forum in my reply to him so he might be able to visit here and answer questions.

I think long term, without a willing and generous benefactor, our best solution is probably a co-op approach where we host through a service like Linode (I use them myself to host my own website ((stop the cap)) which fights data caps and does get a lot of traffic from around the country.) Then, every participant could kick in a donation to keep the server bills paid. It probably would make sense to keep things as simple as this guy's effort is, because it only involved changing one config file. Having a central server also will probably make it easier for third party apps and services to find and include us in their listings.

[tim273]

Phillip, to your question... I'm using a Linux VPS through DigitalOcean... their cheapest option is $5/mo, no contracts required. You get a VPS with a single CPU core, 512 MB RAM, 20 GB of storage (plenty for a streaming only server), and 1 TB of data transfer per month. IPv6 connectivity is available in most of their data centers too.

DigitialOcean looks a lot like Linode, which I'm using.  Their plans are almost identical, I wonder if they are owned by the same parent company or they are competing for the same market:

https://www.upguard.com/articles/digitalocean-vs-linode

[Bunty]

I received the above "To whom it may concern..." message by way of my website comment form a couple days ago.

The provided email address was support@crushedboxsoftware.com which makes me look at it as spam, and not a do-good-er.

The response to my asking "How you learned about SandPointWeather.com:" was "Wunderground" which made me think they may attempt to contact all WU Weather Radio streamers.

Dennis

I've been running it since last night.  So far, so good.  It's a lot easier to comprehend how to set up than Broadwave.

[phillipdampier]

I received the above "To whom it may concern..." message by way of my website comment form a couple days ago.

The provided email address was support@crushedboxsoftware.com which makes me look at it as spam, and not a do-good-er.

The response to my asking "How you learned about SandPointWeather.com:" was "Wunderground" which made me think they may attempt to contact all WU Weather Radio streamers.

Dennis

Yeah, it looks like Crushed Box Software has an app for NOAA Weather Radio, which likely relied on the streams provided by WU. He wants to keep his app going, so he is standing up a server of his own... though like I said, I don't think it would survive a surge test.

http://crushedboxsoftware.com/nwrapp/index.html

Well that at least makes him motivated, as he did manage to track down a number of feed operators. I'm still open to alternatives as well.

[phillipdampier]

Phillip, to your question... I'm using a Linux VPS through DigitalOcean... their cheapest option is $5/mo, no contracts required. You get a VPS with a single CPU core, 512 MB RAM, 20 GB of storage (plenty for a streaming only server), and 1 TB of data transfer per month. IPv6 connectivity is available in most of their data centers too.

DigitialOcean looks a lot like Linode, which I'm using.  Their plans are almost identical, I wonder if they are owned by the same parent company or they are competing for the same market:

https://www.upguard.com/articles/digitalocean-vs-linode

Digital Ocean is considered closer to a budget hosting operation than Linode, but I see Linode added a cheap plan so they are definitely competing. I have accounts with both to play with, but Linode has been my go-to server provider because it has almost zero downtime and is rock solid reliable, at least out of their Dallas server center I've used for about 5 years. They do not oversell their servers like the cheapies and they don't throw you off if you generate a sudden traffic spike (like many ultra-cheap providers do). They are generous with traffic but not as much with memory, which initially challenged us because we run a Wordpress site with a lot of plugins that can eat memory. But things are fine now. Digital Ocean performed more unevenly for us when we tested them a few years ago. I don't use them much now but they probably have improved since then.

Either are probably fine. Just steer away from the ultra cheap options on a shared server platform. The first tornado event will probably be your last day on those kinds of servers, because they eject traffic spikers.

[saratogaWX]

I've retargeted my edcast upload to the wxradio.dyndns.org per the above.. I'm going to continue my BroadWave stream on my WX pc also

[tim273]

I've retargeted my edcast upload to the wxradio.dyndns.org per the above.. I'm going to continue my BroadWave stream on my WX pc also

What I might do is point my stream to wxradio.dyndns.org and then just have Cutty switch the URL on his end.  I have my own Icecast server and they have an Icecast server, so either way it's the same.  We'll see though, I have already sent an update to Tunein with my Icecast server, so I will probably wait for that first.

I've been pondering setting up a Linode server with Icecast and getting a domain name, but I want to see how everything plays out first.  We don't need another cook in the kitchen right now.

[satcop]

I've retargeted my edcast upload to the wxradio.dyndns.org per the above.. I'm going to continue my BroadWave stream on my WX pc also

Did pretty much the same thing, (although I had brought it down when WU decided it didn't want it anymore) but I am going to keep my feeds configured as they now are, quality is better on them.  That being said if it looks like  a situation occurs where my capacity here might be in trouble (which I am not so sure will happen but never know), I can leave the pointers on Cutty's site to here and cut over my website pointers to the wxradio.dyndns.org server and let it handle some of the load.  There is also a bit of redundancy built in here, although a couple of single point failures still exist.

I had one other thought, how many of the streams on wxradio site would like to have their streams pointed to by Cutty's page that don't already? 

Bob

[Mark / Ohio]

I just did the same and pointed my old WU feed instead to wxradio.dyndns.org and will continue running my other feed I setup to Cuty.  Will see how it goes and may re point my webpage link to to wxradio.dyndns.org as well and let him carry the load for it too.

Think I counted 24 stations there now.  I never received an email from him to my website contact us.  So he has not sent to everyone that was on WU yet.

[Cutty Sark Sailor]

Y'all do what you need to do...
meanwhile, here it is
inside Saratoga Templates...

http://frankfortweather.us/fwxnoaaradio.php 

Mike

[satcop]

Y'all do what you need to do...
meanwhile, here it is
inside Saratoga Templates...

I like

Hmmmm if we all had this as a page on our websites using the script similar to Ken's Mesonet pages, what we would need is something set up similar to those for updates, 1 or 2 keepers of the data which would require some sort of regular update for proper pointing of the links and additions/subtractions to the streams using a cron routine.  For instance I run the update program for the mesonets on a monthly basis.  Sites could provide data to the "keepers" for maintenance, as a load on any one location probably not that bad, Ken could talk to that.

Is this where you are going with this Mike?

Bob

[Cutty Sark Sailor]

Y'all do what you need to do...
meanwhile, here it is
inside Saratoga Templates...

I like

Hmmmm if we all had this as a page on our websites using the script similar to Ken's Mesonet pages, what we would need is something set up similar to those for updates, 1 or 2 keepers of the data which would require some sort of regular update for proper pointing of the links and additions/subtractions to the streams using a cron routine.  For instance I run the update program for the mesonets on a monthly basis.  Sites could provide data to the "keepers" for maintenance, as a load on any one location probably not that bad, Ken could talk to that.

Is this where you are going with this Mike?

Bob

Well, this particular script, with all those features, has some restrictions.. I can use it in FrankfortWeather, others would have to link to the bare player page, and it would have to be a 'bare player' on the frankfortwether domain, rather than ourspecial.net, which is only for testing... (remember I said I'd have to change url if this proved viable? ...but the concept is where I was headed.
With folks apparently headed for that IOS pro developer's commercial IOs app site, I'm not sure how long I'll fool with this.

[satcop]

Well, this particular script, with all those features, has some restrictions.. I can use it in FrankfortWeather, others would have to link to the bare player page, and it would have to be a 'bare player' on the frankfortwether domain, rather than ourspecial.net, which is only for testing... (remember I said I'd have to change url if this proved viable? ...but the concept is where I was headed.

Well don't need to have a proprietary player, the simple html5 <audio> tag may be all that is necessary to get a player, use that on my current page and it works fine, isn't all that far off from your version 1. http://cliftonvaweather.com/wx-radio.php  The extras may not be necessary for a distribution.

With folks apparently headed for that IOS pro developer's commercial IOs app site, I'm not sure how long I'll fool with this

All there is on that page is a place using icecast to place the streams, it is not very user friendly, the problem of no index with some organization still exists, (it looks like the audioplayer page from the old WU, but not the wxradio page from WU), what you have put together on the page is the organization, the map idea also seen here could work as well or in conjunction with the index.

So I wouldn't give up to quickly.

[codegod]

Hey Y'all, Just found this forum via another wx enthusiast who's runs the Rochester, NY station and he ask me to join in and collaborate. Let me introduce myself my name is Chris owner of Crushed Box Software I am an iOS / Android developer with some experience setting up VPS servers and MONGODB. I also am the one currently running the wxradio.dyndns.org icecast server. I see reading through forum some people have some questions. Lets chat and get to know each other.

[spweather]

With folks apparently headed for that IOS pro developer's commercial IOs app site, I'm not sure how long I'll fool with this.

Mike, I will not be providing my stream to the commercial software developer. The intent of my website is to provide a public service, not for the commercial gain of someone else.

If you decide to discontinue your efforts, I understand. I will stick with just the link on my website until a more noble alternative becomes available.

Dennis

Added: However if you can, I would like to encourage you to continue your project.

[Cutty Sark Sailor]

With folks apparently headed for that IOS pro developer's commercial IOs app site, I'm not sure how long I'll fool with this.

Mike, I will not be providing my stream to the commercial software developer. The intent of my website is to provide a public service, not for the commercial gain of someone else.

If you decide to discontinue your efforts, I understand. I will stick with just the link on my website until a more noble alternative becomes available.

Dennis

Added: However if you can, I would like to encourage you to continue your project.

Well, I've not given up yet... I've an inquiry to the script developer about  couple of changes, and usage... so hope to hear soon, and hopefully can obtain a release to share the script without goin' to jail...
meantime, sent PM to "codegod", stating my rather strong feelings about the abuse and disregard given us, and our contributions and data, by certain unmentioned third parties over the last few years... and my opinions on some criteria... and what it might take to convince a hard-headed old fool like me to participate.

He's reached out to us, so I think maybe we could listen...

Couple of my contacts at NOAA are disgusted with WU dropping feeds, don't understand it, and wish us well, by the way.

OH, Yes!  Nick up in Ontario, "The Vicarage" is officially our first EC streamer!  Took us awhile to figure that one out... doggone Nick was like a pit bull and wouldn't let go 'till he got it available for us!  Now we've got two WxRadio service icons:


So if he can hang in there, so will I... .

Mike

[phillipdampier]

Things have gotten very confusing about the various projects underway, so could someone summarize the options that are now functioning on a beta or more-or-less permanent basis. I'm open to supporting multiple projects, and I'm happy to participate in several if I can understand who is doing what. For example, I'd be happy to have my feed listed as part of any app or web-based platform and I will probably also be able to participate for multiple streams going to different projects if that should prove useful. I have six weather radios here and can receive multiple NOAA Weather Radio feeds in my area. In a few months, we should have gigabit service here as well (then I can say goodbye to Time Warner Cable/Charter Spectrum). I'm also willing to help support any collaborative server/streaming effort financially to help cover costs.

I've noticed the regional weather service office is getting multiple complaints about the dropped weather radio feeds, even though they never provided them, so there is clear and unambiguous demand for this service. I was very surprised to find on Tunein that 2,700+ users there favorited my Rochester feed. That is amazing.

[spweather]

FYI, for anyone considering the BroadWave Streaming Audio Server software...

I just went to purchase the Pro version after running the free version for a couple days and see NCH has boosted the February 30% discount, that it was yesterday, to 50%.

So the current price is $59.95, it was $79.95 yesterday.

Dennis