Problems with missed samples

[Knut Spang]

I just joined aprs.fi for weather display data and also now here.  I have previously used findU.com for display. Overall everything looks great. The graphic data representations are pretty and the map shows me in the exact correct location, right down to the street address.

A couple of questions.

On the main display there is a blue bar across the top. Some of the items (most notably "my account") require a logon. It wants an Email address. Neither ab...@arrl.net nor knut....@gmail.com is recognized. I am guessing that means I don't have an account with iprs.fi. Should I create one or is there something else amiss?

One anomaly that showed with findU.com, the frequent loss of data samples, is stll evident. My machine attempts to upload one data packet every 5 minutes, at the 5 minute clock point on the dot. When a WX report is missed, the aprs.fi weather display adds a separate position report. This seems very odd since WX data and position data are both contained in a single APRS packet. So who is at fault here? Do I need to make a change to my data export setup data in WiFiLogger? I don't care if this would disable the use of findU.com. With the much better graphic engine in aprs.fi this is not a big deal, but I'd like to get to the bottom of this. I have looked at this in the past and found that data is uploaded to three different IP addresses, alternating between them, like A-B-C-A-B and so on. If an upload fails after a couple of retries to the same IP address, it gives up and just continues 5 minutes later with the next IP address in the circle. I suspect there must be a protocol bug somewhere in this scheme.

My remaining requests are mostly nits, but I am asking whoever is supporting the software to consider them:

1, Change the LAT/LON location coordinates to decimal degrees, using a negative number for W and S.

2. In the graphics displays, add a timestamp to the annotations in the upper left corner.

3. Make the graphics cursor a crosshair.

4. Don't report both UTC and local time. Either one is fine with me. UTC is probably easier; that's what's in the APRS packets.

Don't get me wrong. I am overall very happy with my move away from findU.com. But if it is true that findU is on the critical path for getting weather data to CWOP we have a problem. findU.com has had no support for more than 10 years and has recently had frequent dayslong outages (in addition to the frequent dropping of packets which is happening 24/7). I am using the WiFiLogger addon to a Davis Vantage Vue. I am registered as AB2TC-1 or AU822.  Maybe there is something wrong with my Export data setup.

Knut - AB2TC

[Heikki Hannikainen]

Hi,

On Wed, 12 Mar 2025, Knut Spang wrote:

> On the main display there is a blue bar across the top. Some of the
> items (most notably "my account") require a logon. It wants an Email
> address. Neither ab...@arrl.net nor knut....@gmail.com is recognized.
> I am guessing that means I don't have an account with iprs.fi. Should I
> create one or is there something else amiss?

Yes, you can create an user account if you like, but it is not mandatory
for the basic things.

> One anomaly that showed with findU.com, the frequent loss of data
> samples, is stll evident. My machine attempts to upload one data packet
> every 5 minutes, at the 5 minute clock point on the dot. When a WX
> report is missed, the aprs.fi weather display adds a separate position
> report. This seems very odd since WX data and position data are both
> contained in a single APRS packet.

aprs.fi currently only stores one weather data sample per 9 minutes, which
should be alright for the most common 10-minute transmit interval of
weather stations. This reduces the amount of database storage space needed
for the weather data. Maybe after the next hardware / database upgrade
cycle I can adjust it to 5 minutes, but don't hold your breath waiting!

As long as your station does not move (weather stations rarely do),
aprs.fi does not store a new position record, it just updates the "last
seen here" timestamp to indicate that the station is, indeed, still here,
at this new timestamp. It does so even if it does not store the new
weather data in the weather database tables.

> 1, Change the LAT/LON location coordinates to decimal degrees, using a negative number for W and S.

Go to preferences, select the Units and Time tab, and select the "decimal
degrees" coordinate format, click Save.

> 2. In the graphics displays, add a timestamp to the annotations in the upper left corner.
> 3. Make the graphics cursor a crosshair.

This is quite subjective, I think I'll stay with the default for now. I
agree that many views should be improved for more modern looks and better
user experience, but I've been quite busy with daytime work and life as a
whole.

> 4. Don't report both UTC and local time. Either one is fine with me. UTC is probably easier; that's what's in
> the APRS packets.

You can select UTC as the timezone in the same preferences view.

Most APRS packets do not have timestamps, and some do have local time, the
APRS protocol unfortunately does allow that. :)

- Hessu