VOLMET, the Prince of the Airwaves

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John Hill
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VOLMET, the Prince of the Airwaves

#1 Post by John Hill » Sun Oct 02, 2022 2:59 am

It is funny that mention was made of VMW marine weather transmitter, it is one of two in Australia covering ocean areas surrounding Sandy Isle. Weather data is sent there in text form where it is converted to voice format using text to voice software that I wrote in the 80's. Last I heard they were still using my software but that was some years ago and they might have got something (they think) is better.

Incidentally the method I used for these broadcasts, and also VOLMET and ATIS, was a system of pre-recorded words and phrases. Natural sounding voice with no robotic intonations. IIRC a similar system was used at London VOLMET (and no doubt elsewhere) about the same time but slightly different. I was told the project was two PDP11's, two engineers, two years and two million quid. My system started with an XT and somewhat less cash.

When the lads went to Wiluna to set up the auto broadcast system they worked all day in the building and then at the time to go back to the accommodation they found there were no wheels on their Range Rover, oh well, I guess it is that sort of town.

You can hear various VOLMET recording at https://goughlui.com/2019/03/02/project ... o-gallery/ including Auckland and it sounds like they are still using my software (at least until 2019) I note however that they are not following my recommendations and have not recorded a full set of 4 figure time groups and there are some other places where I noticed that they have scrimped a bit on the library recording. It is worth reading his comments on the Auckland narrator's voice!
Been in data comm since we formed the bits individually with a Morse key.

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VOLMET, the Prince of the Airwaves

#2 Post by TheGreenAnger » Sun Oct 02, 2022 6:09 am

I see that my "Hmm!" was fully justified John. I knew that Mr Smith had to have been connected with that station! Thanks for the fulsome background! :-bd

Those recordings on the goughlui site made the hairs on my arm stand up. They evoke an earlier age of weather and navigation comms and the fact that so many are still in use is a credit to their utility and their designers I guess. This from the boy who used to listen on long wave on the old Pilot, valves glowing radio, to the sound of the static from far distant storms, Russian radars, and the distorted foreign voices from lands far from his landlocked perch on a plateau on the African continent.
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VOLMET, the Prince of the Airwaves

#3 Post by John Hill » Sun Oct 02, 2022 8:07 am

TheGreenAnger wrote:
Sun Oct 02, 2022 6:09 am
They evoke an earlier age of weather and navigation comms and the fact that so many are still in use is a credit to their utility and their designers I guess.
It is somewhat sobering to reflect that at the time I wrote that software there were people all around the world gathering together their torn slips of oil-smeared teletype paper and compiling them in to their twice-hourly VOLMET broadcast. Every 30 minutes sitting in front of their microphone in the little sound proof booth watching the clock ready to hit the switch when the second hand hit zero. The broadcast took exactly five minutes and the moment it was finished some other station a thousand or so miles away would grab the frequency and claim it for their 5 minutes!

While now it seems the software is still plugging on and maybe it will until the day when the whole circus is gone for ever.
Been in data comm since we formed the bits individually with a Morse key.

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Re: VOLMET, the Prince of the Airwaves

#4 Post by Hydromet » Sun Oct 02, 2022 9:45 am

TheGreenAnger wrote:
Sun Oct 02, 2022 6:09 am
I see that my "Hmm!" was fully justified John. I knew that Mr Smith had to have been connected with that station! Thanks for the fulsome background! :-bd

Those recordings on the goughlui site made the hairs on my arm stand up. They evoke an earlier age of weather and navigation comms and the fact that so many are still in use is a credit to their utility and their designers I guess. This from the boy who used to listen on long wave on the old Pilot, valves glowing radio, to the sound of the static from far distant storms, Russian radars, and the distorted foreign voices from lands far from his landlocked perch on a plateau on the African continent.
GA, no doubt you listened to Radio Ecuador, Voice of the Andes. Do the Andes actually start in Ecuador?

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Re: VOLMET, the Prince of the Airwaves

#5 Post by TheGreenAnger » Sun Oct 02, 2022 10:05 am

Hydromet wrote:
Sun Oct 02, 2022 9:45 am
TheGreenAnger wrote:
Sun Oct 02, 2022 6:09 am
I see that my "Hmm!" was fully justified John. I knew that Mr Smith had to have been connected with that station! Thanks for the fulsome background! :-bd

Those recordings on the goughlui site made the hairs on my arm stand up. They evoke an earlier age of weather and navigation comms and the fact that so many are still in use is a credit to their utility and their designers I guess. This from the boy who used to listen on long wave on the old Pilot, valves glowing radio, to the sound of the static from far distant storms, Russian radars, and the distorted foreign voices from lands far from his landlocked perch on a plateau on the African continent.
GA, no doubt you listened to Radio Ecuador, Voice of the Andes. Do the Andes actually start in Ecuador?

Depends whether one is travelling from north to south or vice versa I guess. I wouldn't put that Andean question to either Chile or Ecuador as it might cause one of those interminable spats over primacy that they seem to have in South America.

My favourite station in those days was Radio Hilversum that came over clear as a bell in Johannesburg. Little did I realise that in much later years my Dutch girl friend, driving her car on the motorway into Hilversum, would turn a mottled red colour, stop the car in the fast lane as traffic hurtled around us and start screaming at me in Dutch so obscene that I would blush over my shocked white pallor, and that I would, in fact, be so frightened of her that I would never go to Hilversum ever again, and that I would later find myself a more understanding English girlfriend, who still still seems to tolerate me and stays wonderfully, luminously pale at all times!

On the VOLMET front I later purchased an HF radio to follow the transmissions from the yachts in the Cape to Rio race (I was living in Cape Town by then). It is sad to read in that link that John Hill posted that both the Saffer and South American VOLMET stations seem to have gone quiet.
My necessaries are embark'd: farewell. Adieu! I have too grieved a heart to take a tedious leave.

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Re: VOLMET, the Prince of the Airwaves

#6 Post by TheGreenAnger » Sun Oct 02, 2022 11:16 am

It is sad to read in that link that John Hill posted that both the Saffer and South American VOLMET stations seem to have gone quiet.
The greyed stations are those which are noted to be decommissioned or out of service on that list, but that still leaves a large portion of mostly South American and South African VOLMETs not heard (a total of ten stations). I suspect the reasoning is partly due to the sparse coverage of reliable KiwiSDRs with good signals in those areas – while I have not heard them despite efforts, it cannot be concluded that they are off the air.

The only one I would have good reason to believe is off the air is Kolkata, as the Mumbai system sounds “new” and it does include information for Kolkata – suggesting that the Kolkata system may have been retired. Multiple attempts from different locations were not able to hear it, but again, it’s hard to conclude things as a definite although I suspect pilots with access to NOTAMs and flight charts would know which NAVAIDs/etc are in service at any given time.
My necessaries are embark'd: farewell. Adieu! I have too grieved a heart to take a tedious leave.

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Re: VOLMET, the Prince of the Airwaves

#7 Post by John Hill » Sun Oct 02, 2022 9:10 pm

Here is a list that is only a year old...

https://www.dxinfocentre.com/volmet.htm
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Re: VOLMET, the Prince of the Airwaves

#8 Post by Pinky the pilot » Fri Oct 14, 2022 9:25 am

my Dutch girl friend, driving her car on the motorway into Hilversum, would turn a mottled red colour, stop the car in the fast lane as traffic hurtled around us and start screaming at me in Dutch so obscene
Umm...errr...and just why would she have done that, TGA.?

I really don't know if we really want to know but.... :D :-?
You only live twice. Once when you're born. Once when you've looked death in the face.

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