Bob Blog 21 May

Bob McDavitt's ideas for sailing around the South Pacific.
Disclaimer: Weather is a mix of pattern and chaos; these ideas are from the
patterned world.
Compiled Sunday 21 May 2023

Bye Bye to Radiofax
The following is based on the MetService webpage
about.metservice.com/our-company/national-weather-services/retirement-of-rad
iofax

What is Radiofax
Radiofax (also known as HF Fax or Radiofacsimile) is an analogue broadcast
using high frequency (HF) radio waves to transmit images over long
distances. The technology is almost 100 years old and has been adapted for
telephone use as fax machines. The Radiofax service is one method that
MetService has used to transmit weather maps.
Nowadays, Radiofax equipment is scarce, difficult to service, costly to
maintain (especially transmitting equipment), and the technology has now
been superseded by the likes of HF email or satellite-based internet.

Retirement of Radiofax
MetService will retire its Radiofax broadcast service from 1 July 2023.
The MetService weather maps transmitted through Radiofax will however
continue to be produced and available on the metservice.com website also on
a low bandwidth page which is designed for users with more limited or paid
data connections (such as via satellite) to minimize download size and cost.

What's not changing?
The more safety critical oceanic/high seas warnings and forecasts (English
text) will continue to be produced and broadcast through all existing
channels/services, including internet, email, radio broadcast, and satellite
broadcast under the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) Global
Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS). For more information about the
GMDSS, see the World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) website for the
Worldwide Met-Ocean Information and Warning Service (WWMIWS).

If you would like to get in touch with MetService about this change, please
contact radiofax@metservice.com

Modern solutions
Satellite phones and internet connections enable up to date weather
information and forecasts (such as maps of pressure, wind and waves) to be
directly displayed within onboard Chart plotters or Multi-Function Displays
(MFDs). These can now provide skippers with a much richer source of
information that can be integrated with other navigational maps and vessel
data in digital devices.

To request a download of the latest SUBTROPIC high seas forecast, send an
email to query@saildocs.com, with message:
SEND https://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/data/raw/fq/fqps43.nzkl..txt
For NZ COASTALS SEND https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/weather/coastal

TROPICS
Cyclone MAWAR is expected to cross over GUAM on Tuesday night/Wednesday then
move to northwest. FABIEN has formed in the South Indian Ocean and is
somewhat out of season.
The MJO, a burst of extra energy in the tropics, is travelling across the
Pacific this week.

WEATHER ZONES
South Pacific Convergence Zone SPCZ
The South Pacific Convergence zone is expected to do some rebuilding over
the Coral Sea to Fiji area this week. A trough might form near New Caledonia
late in the week and cross Fiji and Tonga over the weekend or early next
week.

HIGHS and LOWS
Another busy week for Tasman troughs.
Low L1 is forming tonight on a cold front now half-way across the Tasman and
expected to deepen to 995 NW of Auckland by Monday night, then move off to
the east on Tuesday. Avoid. Its tight isobars will generate large swells. A
burst of 3+m swells may reach Noumea on Tuesday and Minerva on Wednesday.
High H1 should move over central NZ on Thursday, bringing a brief respite.
Low L2 is expected to form on a cold front when it reaches Sydney on Friday,
and then move into the central Tasman Sea over the weekend. More swell.
The gulf of Panama = Light winds or SW winds this week=no good for Panama to
Marquesas.

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If you would like more details about your voyage, then check metbob.com to
see what I offer.
Or Facebook at /www.facebook.com/metbobnz/
Weathergram with graphics is at metbob.wordpress.com (subscribe/unsubscribe
at bottom).
Weathergram archive (with translator) is at weathergram.blogspot.co.nz.
Contact is bob@metbob.com or txt 64 277762212
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