[aprssig] Standardized format of WX data in APRS?

[Steve Dimse]

> On Feb 13, 2017, at 9:27 AM, Robert Bruninga <bruninga at usna.edu> wrote:
> 
> The other format I never liked uses two separate packets.  I call them the
> "positionless weather" packet and the "weatherless-position" packet.

There is nothing like a twenty year old argument that just won't die. The reason in favor of separating the two is weather station positions don't change, so sending many needless positions wastes bandwidth. 

But this guy's question doesn't require restatement of the argument. The answer is the protocol for APRS is very complex. You can download it here:

ftp://ftp.tapr.org/aprssig/aprsspec/spec/aprs101/APRS101.pdf

There is a lot in there besides weather, so don't get too discouraged by its size. 

There are more than the two weather formats Bob mentioned. There are also two Peet formats, the compressed position format, and perhaps more that escape my memory now.

This spec addresses the data formats. What is displayed on screen for a weather station is up to the author of the client software, there are dozens of different ones to choose from.

Steve K4HG