Discussion:
TAF/METAR by SMS
(too old to reply)
Chris
2006-06-15 14:17:50 UTC
Permalink
Can anyone recommend a service provider for TAF's and METAR's, or any other
weather information by SMS?

Thanks,

Chris B
Andy R
2006-06-15 14:38:56 UTC
Permalink
Post by Chris
Can anyone recommend a service provider for TAF's and METAR's, or any
other weather information by SMS?
I don't know if this'll help but I can get the entire met office taf & metar
pages on my mobile phone. It's a Sony Ericsson K750i and once it was setup
for internet access the met office site just simply worked. I've used it in
France, Belgium & the Channel Islands and found it very useful. I s'pose
other mobile phones can be setup to do this as well.

Rgds

Andy R
The Nomad
2006-06-15 20:23:02 UTC
Permalink
Post by Andy R
Post by Chris
Can anyone recommend a service provider for TAF's and METAR's, or any
other weather information by SMS?
I don't know if this'll help but I can get the entire met office taf & metar
pages on my mobile phone. It's a Sony Ericsson K750i and once it was setup
for internet access the met office site just simply worked. I've used it in
France, Belgium & the Channel Islands and found it very useful. I s'pose
other mobile phones can be setup to do this as well.
Rgds
Andy R
Avbrief will do sms TAF & METAR if you subscribe

Regards
Peter
2006-06-16 10:42:19 UTC
Permalink
Post by The Nomad
Post by Andy R
I don't know if this'll help but I can get the entire met office taf & metar
pages on my mobile phone. It's a Sony Ericsson K750i and once it was setup
for internet access the met office site just simply worked. I've used it in
France, Belgium & the Channel Islands and found it very useful. I s'pose
other mobile phones can be setup to do this as well.
Rgds
Andy R
Avbrief will do sms TAF & METAR if you subscribe
Avbrief would be the one to check out, since they have very full
coverage. I have played with a few SMS services and it took under a
minute to discover they were naff (by entering some Greek airport ID,
or by getting back a TAF that was 3 days old).

Personally I use a HP4700 PDA, with a GSM/GPRS card, and do plain
internet access with it. Avbrief have a very compact PDA page just for
this purpose.
Dave
2006-06-16 11:29:35 UTC
Permalink
Peter wrote:
... snipped
Post by Peter
Personally I use a HP4700 PDA, with a GSM/GPRS card, and do plain
internet access with it. Avbrief have a very compact PDA page just for
this purpose.
Someone else recommended a 4700 too but I haven't tried one in the flesh
yet. I've had a 5555 for a while but I don't like the slippery case and
poor battery life - any idea how the 4700 and 5555 compare (other than a
better display)?

Dave
Peter
2006-06-17 09:58:02 UTC
Permalink
Post by Dave
Someone else recommended a 4700 too but I haven't tried one in the flesh
yet. I've had a 5555 for a while but I don't like the slippery case and
poor battery life - any idea how the 4700 and 5555 compare (other than a
better display)?
I get 2-3 hours out of the 4700, with everything on maximum. I like
the 640x480 screen; in landscape mode you can realistically browse
websites, look at MSLP charts, etc.

I had the 55xx before that and it was cr*p. As you say, slippery case,
and the wifi didn't work on b+g access points (i.e. most of them); it
worked only on the old "b" ones and HP's "fix" never worked.

All pocket/pc devices suffer from the same huge problem, which is that
it's very easy to turn them on (e.g. by knocking a plug-in CF GPS
receiver) and when you pull it out of the bag the thing is dead. I've
since gone to a Motion LS800 tablet for airborne use

http://www.peter2000.co.uk/ls800/index.html

but still use the HP4700 when out walking about; it fits in one's
pocket, is good for checking emails, weather, etc. It also runs Memory
Map (and the vast amount of UK and European terrain and street maps)
and Oziexplorer.

Today, the IMate JasJar is *the* device to look at - integrated
GSM/GPRS. I've seen it in use and it's pretty amazing.

http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=119353
Chris
2006-06-21 14:11:06 UTC
Permalink
Thanks for all the replies. The best solution I've found is XCweather's WAP
service, not the same as TAF's & METARS but it works well.

http://xcw1.com

Chris
N***@easily.co.uk
2006-06-21 15:39:58 UTC
Permalink
Post by Chris
Thanks for all the replies. The best solution I've found is XCweather's WAP
service, not the same as TAF's & METARS but it works well.
http://xcw1.com
Chris
I thought you wanted weather by SMS?

If you'd mentioned WAP you could try the following which I picked up
when WAP phones started to become popular. Not needed them since so
may no longer work or you may now have to pay!

There's lots of sites shown up if you google 'TAF METAR WAP'

Weather http://weather/index.jsp
Avbrief TAF/METAR http://wap.avbrief.com/nstart/wml
Local Weather http://index.jsp?header=region
Online Weather http:wap.onlineweather.com
MET Office http://www.mymetoffice.com/main.wml
Sunplan TAF/METAR http://sunplan.com/AvWx.wml
Nowin TAF/METAR http://wap.NOWINDOWS.NET
PC Met TAF/METAR http://wap..pcmet.de
Flying High TAF/METAR
http://wapsilon.com/7110/http://wap.weatherweb.net/

See also UKGA at:
http://ukga.com/link/index.cfm?linkCategoryId=1
Weather on your mobile phone
http://activitae.com/wap (http://activitae.com/...) Basic TAF and
METAR services for wap-enabled mobile phones.

David
Julian Scarfe
2006-06-28 19:23:31 UTC
Permalink
Post by Peter
Post by The Nomad
Avbrief will do sms TAF & METAR if you subscribe
Unfortunately that's not correct. AvBrief does WAP, but not SMS (costs too
much to implement).

http://www.avbrief.com/wap.wml
Post by Peter
Avbrief would be the one to check out, since they have very full
coverage. I have played with a few SMS services and it took under a
minute to discover they were naff (by entering some Greek airport ID,
or by getting back a TAF that was 3 days old).
Personally I use a HP4700 PDA, with a GSM/GPRS card, and do plain
internet access with it. Avbrief have a very compact PDA page just for
this purpose.
http://www.avbrief.com/pda/opmet.html

Julian

k***@flowserve.com
2006-06-20 11:20:49 UTC
Permalink
Post by Chris
Can anyone recommend a service provider for TAF's and METAR's, or any other
weather information by SMS?
Thanks,
Chris B
Hi Chris,

I use SMS service from Vodafone. Both TAFs and METARs.
Very simple, Just send an SMS to 125 with for example TAF EHAM.
Seconds later I have the TAF.
Works for sure for The Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany.

-Kees (D-EHNE)
Peter
2006-06-20 14:05:57 UTC
Permalink
Post by k***@flowserve.com
Hi Chris,
I use SMS service from Vodafone. Both TAFs and METARs.
Very simple, Just send an SMS to 125 with for example TAF EHAM.
Seconds later I have the TAF.
Works for sure for The Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany.
-Kees (D-EHNE)
Are you in the UK??
k***@flowserve.com
2006-06-21 05:51:03 UTC
Permalink
Post by Peter
Post by k***@flowserve.com
Hi Chris,
I use SMS service from Vodafone. Both TAFs and METARs.
Very simple, Just send an SMS to 125 with for example TAF EHAM.
Seconds later I have the TAF.
Works for sure for The Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany.
-Kees (D-EHNE)
Are you in the UK??
No, but I can get TAFs and METARs for UK airfields.

-Kees
Peter
2006-06-21 07:46:35 UTC
Permalink
Post by k***@flowserve.com
Post by Peter
Post by k***@flowserve.com
I use SMS service from Vodafone. Both TAFs and METARs.
Very simple, Just send an SMS to 125 with for example TAF EHAM.
Seconds later I have the TAF.
Works for sure for The Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany.
-Kees (D-EHNE)
Are you in the UK??
No, but I can get TAFs and METARs for UK airfields.
I've just put a Voda SIM card into my phone and can this facility
definitely does *not* work on UK Vodafone.

It if did it would have been a well kept secret :)
k***@flowserve.com
2006-06-21 08:41:18 UTC
Permalink
Post by Peter
Post by k***@flowserve.com
Post by Peter
Post by k***@flowserve.com
I use SMS service from Vodafone. Both TAFs and METARs.
Very simple, Just send an SMS to 125 with for example TAF EHAM.
Seconds later I have the TAF.
Works for sure for The Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany.
-Kees (D-EHNE)
Are you in the UK??
No, but I can get TAFs and METARs for UK airfields.
I've just put a Voda SIM card into my phone and can this facility
definitely does *not* work on UK Vodafone.
It if did it would have been a well kept secret :)
Okay, have you tried to contact Vodafone, maybe you have to send the
SMS request to another number than 125.
To be honest, I only know this for about a year, after somebody showing
it and spending an hour or so finding the right number.(not all
providers use the same number)

I did some google and this came up:

http://www.wxsupport.com/
http://www.aviationforum.org/forums/showthread.php?s=928f404a8282be543e1935b7d7a7f98c&threadid=3976&goto=nextnewest

The second one looks promising.

-Kees
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