Topic: VWS and METAR report

[Blizzard]

Did not have time to check. At least it works. Since my wife didn’t complain, I didn’t insist lol

[Startestor]

New Member looking to keep my VWS icons working.

Sent this message to support@weatherforyou.com :
Hi Support,

I have been using the Ambient Virtual Weather Station for many
years and it would access wxdata.weatherforyou.com port 80 to get METAR
information from my local airport (KUZA). That access is now failing
with the following error message: Forbidden - You don't have permission
to access /pub/data/observations/metar/stations/KUZA.TXT. It appears
there has been some change to the access method that software I have is
using. I would like to see if there is a way to regain access to this
data so my website can display current and correct local weather again.
Is this possible, and if so, could you tell me what is required so I
can modify my end to work with your server? Thank you very much.

Here was my response:
Date: Sun, 14 Apr 2024 16:27:58 -0600

Hi Frank,
Thanks for your message.

The requests for the METAR data were forwarded from HAMweather.net to my servers after they stopped providing this information about seven years ago. Also I donated my time to support those that participated in PWSWeather.com. I was glad to do this since it was originally my idea almost 25 years ago and I wanted to continue supporting the personal weather station community.
Last year AerisWeather (previously HAMweather) and PWSWeather.com were sold to Vaisala. Vaisala determined our continued partnership and my contributions posed a potential security risk since I wasnGÇÖt an employee. They withdrew all mutual benefits from me, my site and my company.-á So I am not able to supply this data to the personal weather station community anymore.
Like I say PWSWeather was originally my idea so this is not something I wanted.-á But I really had no choice in the matter.-á If I would have known this was going to happen I probably would have set it up differently.-á But it is what it is.

Joe Torsitano
WeatherForYou.com LLC

I am a software engineer and write code for many systems. Windows applications are fairly easy to write and NOAA has a JSON API for retrieving METAR data. Once the data has been retrieved, there is a function for creating the CSV file. So I believe I can create a program that runs as a service on a windows PC (best to be on the PC running VWS) to provide the data that Joe was providing. I just need some knowledge from the folks here (if known) of where the originally downloaded METAR data was put so VWS could use it to update the ICONS and generate the reports. If someone can provide that, I will work on the code to generate a windows installer for a service that will run at a frequency that you supply.

Thanks for you help ......

Frank 

[ohlone]

Easy - these are kept in the c:\vws\metar folder

[saratogaWX]

Yes, and they use the unparsed (raw) format from tgftp.nws.noaa.gov.

VWS hasn't been maintained in years, and will likely not have any updates since Ed retired.

The underlying issue is that http access to tgftp.nws.noaa.gov is now deprecated (https and FTP still works), but VWS use of https is likely suspect in that its libraries likely use a (now deprecated) old TLS version which is not supported on the newer tgftp service.  So, VWS with static code will likely not be able to directly refresh the file in c:\vws\metar again.

What I don't know is whether VWS parses the METAR when it gets it from the internet, or downloads, then parses the file in the filesystem.
If the latter, then having a second process refresh the file contents would work.  If the former, then having a new file in vws\metar directory would have no effect.

Maybe it's time to switch to supported weather software -- I can suggest CumulusMX (being actively developed) or weewx (also actively developed) or Weather-Display (still supported, development in suspension).

I, too, run VWS, but not for my primary site (Weather-Display/WeatherLink) -- just to have testing for the Saratoga template VWS plugin.

[ohlone]

Ken is right.  We came up with a “hack “ to restart vws hourly to get it to parse the metar files.  It generates CSV files which are used for the icons.

Once the program is running even if we replace the metadata file it doesn’t update the CSV files. What I’m not sure of is if the csv file was created by a second process would it use it for icon updates. I doubt it. 

[ohlone]

FYI for all those interested, I was getting notifications that Win 10 will not be supported in the future.  I managed to upgrade to Win 11 on my very old i3 Dell Laptop using this method:  https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-install-windows-11-the-way-you-want-and-sneak-by-microsofts-restrictions/.

Ping me if you want more info. I had to manually update the prolific USB to serial driver but I'm happy to report all is working under Win11!

[Startestor]

After some delays, I have put together a Windows Service that goes to Aviationweather.gov [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]  [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]  and can retrieve 5 different METAR formats based currently on a single Station id. There is an exe program that comes with it that allows you to select the Station id, format, time period of the retrieved METAR (0-current, 1-1 hour prior, 2-2 hours prior, etc.), and the location where the METAR is to be written. The Service is controlled by a Windows Task that can be configured for any time period for retirval. Since VWS appears to use the RAW format, this is the one I have been focusing on. While retrieving the METARS works fine, VWS never seems to use the file for anything I can find. Even ending VWS and restarting as some have suggested, give no results. For those that have other methods working, I would welcome any suggestions as to what seems to the the key to getting VWS to use the downloaded file. I am running Internet version V15.00 p03. I'm not sure that was the last update, but if there is a later one and anyone still has the update file. it would be nice to get a copy and see if that changes anything. Using WireShark, you can see the METAR request go out, but the updated security requirements can not be satisfied with the current VWS code. Attached are the 5 formats that can be downloaded from Aviationweather.gov

[Startestor]

Only 3 came through. Here are the other 2.

[Blizzard]

For my part, I have finally given up and moved to Weather Display with a lot of satisfaction. Having to restart VWS to use the metar info was annoying and could only be a temporary solution.