cwop_reader

DESCRIPTION

A simple collection of bash scripts and one c program that will fetch (over the internet) WX related information provided by the NWS Civilian Weather Observer Program (CWOP).

HOW TO GET

To clone this repo, type:

git clone https://github.com/kodetroll/cwop_reader.git

INTRODUCTION

This tool suite uses data in the form of APRS WX formatted data from the wxqa.com search engine. Bash scripts and c programs found here can be used to retrieve one specific parameter, i.e. temperature, from the stored data of the specified weather station.

It does this by calling a bash script that uses curl to fetch the current weather data (in html page format) from the wxqa search engine for the specified weather station and store it to a temporary file. The fetch function (bash script) then greps the APRS WX formatted packet data from the stored page and stores this in a second temporary file. The called script can then use aprs_wx_parse (a C program, whose source is provided here) to parse the WX formatted APRS message and deliver the desired parameter (based on which script has actually been called). These tools are of use in building embedded WX widgets where you might have a need to fetch the temperature, rain fall, or wind speed from a specified CWOP WX station, perhaps near your location.

INSTALLING

See INSTALL for instructions on how to build and install the cwop-reader tool suite.

CONFIGURING

At this point, you should figure out the station id of the CWOP WX station you would like to use as a source for your weather data. It is unlikely that the default provided will be correct for your use. Please refer to the HOWTO-STATION-ID text file for instructions on determining the station ID of your desired CWOP WX station using the NWS NOAA mesonet web site. You can then use the wxqa.com website to query the data for your selected station using the CWOP Search Tool.

The 'cwop-reader.conf' file (which is a Bash script, itself) is where the station id and all other tool suite defaults are kept. This will be in the local git repo folder or in /etc/cwop-reader if a 'make install' has been performed. Edit those values to suit your end use case. You should now be able to run any of the *.sh scripts, e.g. type './getTemp.sh' at the command line to get the current temp from your selected CWOP WX station.

NOTES

• See: http://wxqa.com/ for more info on the wxqa search engine.

• See: http://www.aprs.net/vm/DOS/WX.HTM for more information on APRS WX formatted packets.

• Note: APRS is registered trademark of Bob Bruniga, WB4APR, please refer to his website http://www.aprs.org/ for more information on the APRS protocol and general information on the formatting of APRS data packets.

• See LICENSE for whatever license info may be provided