Request: welcome ------ begin of welcome -- ascii -- complete ------ Welcome aboard! INTRODUCTION TO THE WEATHER SATELLITE MAILING LIST -------------------------------------------------- wxsat@ssg.com wxsat-request@ssg.com The WXSAT list was created for persons interested in weather satellites, both polar and geostationary. WXSAT is intended for discussions and questions about how to use and build systems that can receive direct weather satellite image broadcasts. While anything related to weather satellites and imaging is fair game, please avoid getting into military satellites used for communications or intellegence gathering. Emphasis will be placed on polar orbiting satellites (e.g., NOAA 12) because they're easier to receive, but the GOES series will be addressed, too. Discussion is also open for the many foreign weather satellites. For example, did you know that Meteor 2-20 captured a picture of the moon's shadow during the 11 July 1991 eclipse? This list should *NOT* be confused with the WX-STLT list from vmd.cso.uiuc.edu that broadcasts the GOES satellite interpretive messages. This list doesn *NOT* distribute images on a regular basis. If you're looking for "pretty pictures," you're in the wrong place. *------------------------------------*-------------------------------------* Message Groups. The NOAA messages sent on this list are diverse and cover both geostationary and polar satellites. Five message groups are available to customize the mailings to your needs. The groups are: Big messages (If not set, messages over 45KB are not sent) General (User comments and misc. notices) Polar all (All polar messages *except* TBUS) Polar TBUS (*Only* polar TBUS messages) GOES (All GOES messages including TBUS) It is possible to combine groups, requesting GOES, General, and Polar TBUS messages, for example. The "Big" modifier applies to all messages; it can not be applied selectively. All subscribers are set to receive all messages. If you wish to change this, send a message to wxsat-admin@ssg.com requesting whatever groups fit your needs. *------------------------------------*-------------------------------------* Net Protocol. Although discussion is encouraged on WXSAT, please be considerate of others on the list and send *personal* messages directly to the intended recipient --not the list. Of course, if you feel your message might be of interest to everyone, go ahead and post it. WXSAT can be used as a place to announce weather satellite related conferences, software, and to call attention to special events. Due to network delays and outages some postings (especially long ones) may take several hours (or even days !) to reach everyone. Keep this in mind when posting updates that are highly time-critical. For fastest delivery, it is recommended that you subscribe to the list using your Internet address (if you have one). Network addresses can be very difficult (if not impossible) to reconstruct from messages sent through various gateways. Please include your return address on all messages. Mail is distributed to the list as messages are received. Due to network problems or mailer problems it may be necessary at times to remove problem subscribers from the lists without prior notice. If you have not received mail from the list in several days you might want to send mail to wxsat-request@ssg.com for assistance. *------------------------------------*-------------------------------------* Where to send things. To send mail to the entire list, address the mail to: wxsat-l@ssg.com You may request to subscribe, unsubscribe or ask any list management related questions by sending mail to: wxsat-request@ssg.com *------------------------------------*-------------------------------------* How to get old messages and files. Wxsat maintains an informal archive of past messages. A file server, mserv, handles requests for help, an index, and , of course, files themselves. To use the file server, address the mail to: wxsat-wfs@ssg.com A help message is always available by sending "help" in a message. To get the current index, in the body of the message simply put "index" on a single line (without the quotes). The index will show a directory (public) and several sub-directories (msgs, pgms, gifs). The archive is organized according to the descriptions seen in the index. To retrieve a message, 00001234.txt, send "send 00001234.txt" in a single line. Requests from different sub-directories can be mixed in a single message. NOTE: The wxsat archive is *not* an official NOAA archive and data is stored on a space available basis. *------------------------------------*-------------------------------------* If you have any questions or comments about the WXSAT list, please send them to the address below, or wxsat-request@optical.bms.com. Thank you for your interest in the WXSAT list. Rick Emerson Wxsat Mail List Administrator ------ end of welcome -- ascii -- complete ------