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Spring Training Reminder
CODAR Ocean Sensors Spring Training Course will be held at the Seymour Discovery
Center (UC Santa Cruz’s Long Marine Laboratory) 3-6 May. This training
session has been scheduled to coincide with the ROW (Radio Oceanographer’s
Workshop) meeting being held at nearby Costanoa in Pescadero, CA. Joint social
events have been arranged to provide opportunities for new SeaSonde operators
to meet other members of the HF radar community.
Although, the registration deadline for discount hotel accommodations has passed,
there are still a few seats available for our class. If you would like to join
us please contact  immediately.
Training details are available on our website at:
http://www.codaros.com/codar_training2.htm
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Can You Find the Mac-mini?
Since Apple first released its new miniature
computer, the "Mac-mini"(shown right), we’ve
had numerous inquiries about SeaSonde-Mac-mini compatibility.
The good news is that after successful bench testing and four
weeks of field testing on a 12 MHz SeaSonde, the “Mini” has
received a clean bill of health as a viable SeaSonde computer
option.
The “Mini” is 2" x 6.5" x 6.5" square
and comes in a variety of configurations. The low-end model houses
a 1.25GHz G4 processor, 40GB hard drive, a slot-loading CD-R/DVD-ROM
optical drive, 256MB DDR SDRAM and ATI Radeon 9200 graphics chip
with 32MB dedicated DDR SDRAM.
The “Mini” can also be operated in a headless configuration
(i.e. without a monitor or keyboard attached)
and controlled remotely using Timbuktu. This
makes it an ideal choice for SeaSonde
sites where space for equipment is limited.
For
additional details see Apple’s website at:
http://www.apple.com/macmini/ |
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COS participates in first
Radar Operator's Working Group (ROWG)
The first Radar Operator's Working Group (ROWG)
conference was held aboard the cruise ship
Majesty of the Seas in January of this year. The purpose of ROWG
was to provide HF
radar operators a venue for sharing ideas on
various topics ranging from radar operation to data management.
Three CODAR support
staff members attended the meeting and made
themselves available to answer technical questions about SeaSonde
HF radars.
Our support crew found the meeting to be a
very worthwhile learning experience and extend kudos to the ROWG
organizing committee for a successful and productive first meeting.
Approximately 35 participants from around the world attended
the “floating” meeting. Additional Information about
ROWG can be found at the ROWG website (registration may be required):
http://alfredo.ucsd.edu:12080/rowg/ |
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Tech's Corner:
Help is Available if You Ask
CODAR has a dedicated and experienced Support
team available to help customers with potential problems, and
can provide instant feedback if you suspect something is not
right with your data.
Examples of situations that might precipitate
contacting our support staff: (1) Significant variations in maximum
coverage, e.g., radial map patterns fluctuate by 40% over a 24
hour period. (2) Noticeable, regular gap regions appear in specific
positions on your maps. (3) Wild vectors occasionally are spotted
in circular bands at ranges from one or the other site from 100-130
km (for Long-Range systems).
Any change from data outputs that you had been
getting, or from what you expected, can probably be remedied
... But we need to know what you are seeing that you don't like!
We will then swing into action, diagnose your problem, fix it,
and educate you as to what happened.
At the lower operating frequency bands, late-afternoon
and nighttime radio interference is known to occur, even in systems
that had not been seeing this before. Nighttime is when radio
broadcasters use the lower HF band, and usually for only a few
hours. Such interference appears as noise to our processor. Maximum
range will decrease during these periods, even though vectors
closer in are perfectly valid. Remedies are to shift positions
within your present authorized frequency band, or move to another
frequency that you were granted. We can diagnose this immediately,
and teach you how to do it also.
PLEASE NOTIFY US OF ANY PLANNED CHANGES BEFORE
OR WHEN YOU
MAKE THEM
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Often a customer will change frequency bands,
move one of the antennas, or rotate the receive antenna, perhaps
for a very good reason.
We can often advise you before such a
change what kind of "domino effect" this could result
in. Also, immediately after the change, we
can monitor your system to verify that it is operating correctly,
or make recommendations
for additional modifications. Again, we will
keep you informed as to what we find. Nearly 85% of problems
happen as a result
of a change to system settings (software
or hardware) that we are unaware of. We only want your systems
to be producing
the best possible data for you. When that
happens, we both look good. But we can only do that with input
from you.
Don't hold back!
Are you up to date?
SeaSonde10 users should be running:
SeaSondeRadialSuite10 Release 3 with
Updater3 installed
SeaSondeCombineSuite10 Release 3 with Updater3 installed
Mac OSX 10.3.9
Timbuktu 7.0.4 (required for latest Timbuktu
scripting)
OS9 SeaSonde users should be running 4.4f6
Mac OS 9.2.2
If you have any questions,
please email us |
1914 Plymouth Street
Mountain View, CA 94043 USA
Phone: +1 (408) 773-8240
Fax: +1 (408) 773-0514
www.codaros.com |
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