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Christian, No, its not possible to store ship/buoy in the same output file as METAR observations using the real-time decoders for several reasons: 1) The ship file format is different than standard surface files. The decoded METAR file uses a station table of fixed locations, where Montreal for example is in the same place at every time in the file, so that information ins only stored once. A ship on the other hand can have a different position for every time, so that position information is stored as variables along with the reported data at every time. 2) If both dchrly and dcsynop try to write data to the same file at the same time, the output file will become corrupted. 3) The parameters reported by surface land stations are different than marine stations report. What you can do is merge the decoded data into a common file for plotting. Start by creating an empty standard surface file with enough space for your ship and metar data. You will want a different file for every hour you merge since ships will move with time. Specify what parameters you want in the merged file using SFPRMF: SFOUTF = testsf.gem SFPRMF = tmpc;dwpc;sped;drct;pmsl STNFIL = SHIPFL = n TIMSTN = 24/5000 SFFSRC = GEMPAK-SFCFIL>r SFCFIL PARAMETERS: New surface file: testsf.gem Parameter file: tmpc;dwpc;sped;drct;pmsl Station file: Number of stations in STNFIL: 0 Number of additional stations: 5000 Total number of stations: 5000 Total number of times: 24 This file will be a standard surface file. Enter <cr> to accept parameters or type EXIT: Parameters requested: SFOUTF,SFPRMF,STNFIL,SHIPFL,TIMSTN,SFFSRC. GEMPAK-SFCFIL>e Then copy the metar data into the surface file (the parameters found in the file that match those in the file you created with sfcfil will be copied): SFFILE = 20001018_sao.gem SFOUTF = testsf.gem DATTIM = 18/1200 AREA = dset GEMPAK-SFMOD>r SFMOD PARAMETERS: Input file: ./20001018_sao.gem Output file: testsf.gem Area: dset Date/time 001018/1200 Enter <cr> to accept parameters or type EXIT: Parameters requested: SFFILE,SFOUTF,DATTIM,DATOUT,AREA,SFPARM. GEMPAK-SFMOD>e And copy the ship data into the file: SFFILE = $GEMDATA/ship/2000101812_sb.gem SFOUTF = testsf.gem DATTIM = 18/1200 AREA = dset GEMPAK-SFMOD>r SFMOD PARAMETERS: Input file: $GEMDATA/ship/2000101812_sb.gem Output file: testsf.gem Area: dset Date/time 001018/1200 Enter <cr> to accept parameters or type EXIT: Parameters requested: SFFILE,SFOUTF,DATTIM,AREA. GEMPAK-SFMOD> Now you can plot the data using sfmap etc from the common file. Steve Chiswell Unidata User Support >From: Christian Page <address@hidden> >Organization: UCAR/Unidata >Keywords: 200010181407.e9IE7v406965 > >Hi again, another question now : is it possible to store ship and buoy data in >the same gempak file as the hourly metar data and plot everything at once? Can > I >still use the same dcsynop command in pqact.conf (of course I substitute the >output gempak filename with the one I use for hourly surface metar data)? I >tried and I get some error in the logs : > >DCSYNOP[17940445]: 001018/1400: [DCSYNOP -21] error writing data: 73502 for > 00 >1018/0900 >DCSYNOP[17940445]: 001018/1400: [DCSYNOP -21] error writing data: 73509 for > 00 >1018/0900 >DCSYNOP[17940445]: 001018/1400: [DCSYNOP -21] error writing data: 74531 for > 00 >1018/0700 >DCSYNOP[17940445]: 001018/1400: [DCSYNOP -21] error writing data: 73502 for > 00 >1018/0700 >DCSYNOP[17940445]: 001018/1400: [DCSYNOP -21] error writing data: 73509 for > 00 >1018/0700 >DCSYNOP[17940445]: 001018/1400: [DCSYNOP -21] error writing data: 17557 for > 00 >1018/1400 >DCSYNOP[17940445]: 001018/1401: [DCDOSY -1] SMVB14 >DCSYNOP[17940445]: 001018/1401: [DCDOSY -1] SMVD14 >DCSYNOP[17940445]: 001018/1401: [DCDOSY -1] SMVE14 >DCSYNOP[17940445]: 001018/1401: [DCDOSY -1] SMVX14 > >Christian Page finger address@hidden => tel. + adresse >address@hidden http://www.sca.uqam.ca/ > >Assistant de recherche / Research Assistant >Universite du Quebec a Montreal / Universite McGill / McGill Radar > >On Wed, 18 Oct 2000, Christian Page wrote: > >> >> Thanks, it was only a problem of write permissions... there was a log file >> already there but with read-only permissions... >> >> Thanks again for your support! >> >> Christian Page finger address@hidden => tel. + adresse >> address@hidden http://www.sca.uqam.ca/ >> >> Assistant de recherche / Research Assistant >> Universite du Quebec a Montreal / Universite McGill / McGill Radar >> >> On Tue, 17 Oct 2000, Unidata Support wrote: >> >> > >> > Christian, >> > >> > You will need to create the ~lmd/data/gempak/surface/sao directory >> > if it doesn't already exist. >> > >> > Also, your log file output is to: -d /io/gempak/nawips/dcsynop_sb.log >> > That directory is probably in your GEMPAK tree....the LDM may >> > not have write permission there. Do you see any log file output? >> > >> > Check your ldmd.log file for errors from pqact. Make sure that >> > the LDM use is allowed to look in the GEMPAK tree for the dcsynop >> > executable and the packing file. And, make sure you have run >> > ldmadmin pqactHUP to reread your pqact.conf file after >> > making any changes. Verify that all your "Tabs" are correct in the file >> > as well. >> > >> > Steve Chiswell >> > Unidata User Support >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >From: Christian Page <address@hidden> >> > >Organization: UCAR/Unidata >> > >Keywords: 200010171806.e9HI6u428133 >> > >> > > >> > >Hi, >> > > >> > >I would like to add to my hourly surface METAR plots, other hourly observ > ation >> > > s, >> > >like SHIP, BUOY, etc. What should I have in pqact.conf? I have the follow > ing a >> > > nd >> > >it doesn't work (I get no output file) : >> > > >> > ># >> > ># buoy and ship reports in yymmdd.gem >> > ># >> > >WMO ^S([INS]V.*|MV[^NS].*) .... ([0-3][0-9])([0-2][0-9]) >> > > PIPE /io/gempak/nawips/bin/irix/dcsynop -v 1 >> > > -d /io/gempak/nawips/dcsynop_sb.log >> > > -p /io/gempak/nawips/gempak5.4/tables/pack/sfship.pack >> > > data/gempak/surface/sao/YYYYMMDD_buoy.gem >> > > >> > >Any hints? >> > > >> > >Thanks! >> > > >> > >Christian Page finger address@hidden => tel. + adresse >> > >address@hidden http://www.sca.uqam.ca/ >> > > >> > >Assistant de recherche / Research Assistant >> > >Universite du Quebec a Montreal / Universite McGill / McGill Radar >> > > >> > > >> > >> > ************************************************************************** >> > Unidata User Support UCAR Unidata Progr >> > (303)497-8644 P.O. Box 30 >> > address@hidden Boulder, CO 803 >> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> > Unidata WWW Service http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/ >> > ************************************************************************** >> > >> >> >