NWS TO QUIT YELLING...MAY 11

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cgarison
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Re: NWS TO QUIT YELLING...MAY 11

Post by cgarison »

No more official SHOUTING emails??? How will I tell the real NWS severe weather warnings from all the fake warnings sent to me by TWC, WeatherBug, Yahoo and the like. Seriously, unless the email was in all caps, I usually ignored them because they contained little information.
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genlock
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Re: NWS TO QUIT YELLING...MAY 11

Post by genlock »

Back in"the day", The weather service sent alerts out to everyone via Teletype.
The iconic Model 15ro page printer was the machine that the overwhelming majority
of stations, newspapers and public safety agencies used. They were produced by the
millions during WW2 and were incredibly reliable, altho a bit noisy. I picked one of these
machines up (new in box) in 1967 via the MARS program. These machines used a serial Baudot
code, which was a 5 level code. This was an all caps code. I suspect that even after the NWS
converted to computers and ASCII, somewhere there were some of these ancient tty machines
clunking along. The NWS would have had to stay with all caps, provide some sort of converter
(ASCII to Baudot), or replace the client's machines. The NWS was not "yelling", That was just
the way people talked in those days.
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Re: NWS TO QUIT YELLING...MAY 11

Post by genlock »

Upon further education, I now understand that the teleprinter code used was
actually called ITA2 and introduced in 1930. It was, however, based on Baudot's code
which was modified in 1901 specifically for the application of the paper tape reperforator
that allowed for some automation of the sending process.
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lastone
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Re: NWS TO QUIT YELLING...MAY 11

Post by lastone »

That system was in use at WBTH-AM in Williamson the evening of the 1977 flood. There was never a "river flood warning" the entire evening.
The last thing printed just before phones went out at 1AM, was the Washington DC forecast.
What damn good was it?
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genlock
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Re: NWS TO QUIT YELLING...MAY 11

Post by genlock »

Neither the Potomac nor the Anacostia rivers flooded that night.
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Re: NWS TO QUIT YELLING...MAY 11

Post by lastone »

DC was safe ! LOL
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WRSG Knights 91.5 Middlebourne-Sistersville, WV 5 PM Eastern Wednesdays (Repeats 7 AM Thursdays).
106.3 The Double Q, Farmington, Iowa, 10-11 AM Central time, Wednesdays.
Buckeye Broadcasting, Cambridge, Ohio, 10 AM Eastern time Friday and other days on Live 365.com
WBPS 101.9, Cambridge, Ohio
KZBZ 92.1, Williams, Arizona,
Sundays.
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