Interview With The National Weather Service in Blacksburg VA 

Thank you for your comment! 😄 I definitely put a lot of work into this video. I had a lot of footage to work with, and ended up spending way too much time on things like graphics and image stabilization. A big chunk of the editing was actually done in the back of 11th grade chemistry, which probably explains why I barely escaped that class with a C. 😛😅 And I agree -- times really _have_ changed since 2017. It really was a different world in so many ways. Hard to believe CRS has been out of commission for 5 years! 😕 I haven't been back to NWS since then, but I hope to visit again sometime soon. I have a lot of fun with projects like this, and seeing positive comments like yours encourages me to keep doing what I love. Cheers! 🍻🧡

Thank you!

o hi

same

You're welcome. Thanks for watching!

Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed it.

SPCcranford1056 thanks Matt! Senior year was super busy, but now with graduation out of the way, I finally have time to get back to doing what I love. Miss talking to you!

Thanks for your comment! 😄 I'm also a long-time listener of both NWR and Weatheradio Canada. A lot of the technical aspects are beyond my pay grade as well but I'm always learning. I had a lot of fun making this video, and I'm glad you enjoyed it! ❤

Thank you so much!! I'm so sorry for the late reply - RU-vid never got notified me about your comment. I'm so glad you enjoyed this video. It was so much fun to make. If I could do it again, I would've done a million things differently. But as a 16-year-old kid, this was my best work, and in a way, I'm still proud of it. 😁 I also miss CRS and the Tom voice. I agree that Paul has gotten much better, and I'm used to hearing his voice now. I'm sure you know there were some pronunciation errors when they first implemented BMH, both at regional WFOs and nationally. I believe the Spanish-language TTS voice is female, but I hope they add an English voice as well. There was something oddly charming about Donna. I've been studying and documenting NOAA Weather Radio since I was 12, so luckily, I have _tons_ of footage archived. I've been going through my hard drive and compiling these pre-2016 video clips. I will periodically upload the ones I find interesting as part of my "From The Vault" series, so stay tuned if you're interested. Your comment truly made my day this morning. Thank you! 🙂

SPCGlensFalls1908 if I remember correctly, BMH has no backup in place. CRS remained operational for a while after BMH was energized as a backup for the new system. Supposedly, BMH is less likely to fail because its newer technology. Personally, I believe NWS should've kept CRS as a backup to BMH. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Hey man! So sorry about the late reply. I can see you're barking up the same trees I did about 8 years ago. I haven't dabbled with DECtalk and text-to-speech stuff since 2016/2017, but yes, I had the voices and software downloaded on my Windows 7 PC. It was a really convoluted process that really deserves its own RU-vid video, so in the future, I'd love to make a video explaining exactly how I did this stuff. Because from what I can tell, it looks like you're interested in this stuff for the exact same reasons I was. It looks like you've done enough research to understand DECtalk, the custom-tuned pronunciation, the face that the NWS uses a custom dictionary, etc. You are absolutely right about everything you said. It's too much to explain in a RU-vid comment, and there's lots I don't remember because I haven't messed with it in so long. But it's not often I see someone fall down the same rabbit-holes that I did, especially about something so niche. 😂 So I'd like to make a video sometime soon explaining everything. Cheers.

@@lollipop7ification sounds fantastic, I will certainly be looking forward. Glad we share the same interest

@@spatcherw.keyboardsandbaby8586 The TTS voices is the reason I am into weather radio as well. The NWS version of DECtalk not only has a custom dictionary, it has custom intonation rules, custom voice definitions, and a different version of the front end text parser. There are other differences, however I listed the main ones above.

@@datajake1999 awesome

That is the AWIPS station, updated for multiple user interface across multiple desktop computers throughout the office through a series of GUIs. In layman's terms, it is the backbone for forecasting and weather alerts.

CAVE, www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/awips2/

Thanks!

WX Exeter Thank you!

Thanks for subscribing!

I figured awkward silence made it easier for people to read the facts on screen, and I also didn't have any copyright-free music to fill the space. 😂 But in hindsight, I should've included demos of the Donna and Craig voices in this video.

@@lollipop7ification Got it. You might be interested in knowing we now have a software version of the NWS DECtalk, thanks to some old DECtalk source code surfacing a couple years ago. It has been compiled for Windows as a standalone version, and a SAPI5 interface was developed as well.

@@datajake1999 WHAT?! Dude, that's incredible! I'm familiar with the old DECtalk Speak Windows, and those were super finicky. But I never heard about this. How did it surface?

@@lollipop7ification In 2015, one of the original DECtalk developers released an archive that contains the code for a beta of DECtalk 5.0. Unfortunately, the version of the synthesizer in this code is far from usable in any practical way, so it was put on the shelf so to speak. In 2022, someone on GitHub started working to get the synthesizer sounding classic again, however this was quite difficult as the code for older versions of the synthesizer wasn't available at the time. After I discovered the revival project, I got in contact with another former DECtalk developer, who provided 9 more zip files that contain code for various versions of the synthesizer. Among the versions we have in source code form is 4.60 R008, which when compiled with the NWSNOAA define, recreates the final version of the synthesizer that was used on NOAA Weather Radio. Last year, I got a DECtalk PC2 hardware synthesizer that came from a weather station in Wichita, Kansas, and got the software compiled for that particular platform. The DECtalk board is currently installed in a Pentium II system that is running FreeDOS off an SD card, and I recorded it reading some weather transcripts that I found in the DECtalk source code archives. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HHU9YR_37aQ.html I also recreated a sample of the synthesizer from the National Weather Service website with a software version of the synthesizer compiled with a floating point version of the vocal tract model. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-kHamS_seaQc.html

SPCLaCrosse 54601 Thanks!

primarily because of CRS equipment getting outdated for NWR by mid-2016

The last version of DECtalk that was used on NOAA Weather Radio is a custom version of 4.60 Revision 8, which was released at the end of 1999. Before that, they were using a custom version of 4.41, which was released at the end of 1997.

@@datajake1999 thanks so much, appreciate it

Sorry for the late reply! RU-vid didn't notify me of your comments, for some reason. But yes, @datajake1999 is correct. It is a custom version of DECtalk rev. 4.6.

Chantel Gaskins I'm not sure the brand of radio. If you're referring to the radio they use to monitor the return audio from the transmitter site(s), it looks like something RadioShack/Tandy, but that's just going off the look. I am not entirely sure.

What about WXK47?

KMRX Bristol TN transmitter broadcasts alerts from Blacksburg.

Interesting. I did not know that.However, over WXL60, Briston TN is mentioned in the weather roundup.

I just watched your video. That is so cool that that happens. I know that KZZ28 from Charlottesville, VA relays some alerts from the National Weather Service in Blacksburg, as well as WXL42 in Winston Salem, NC.

BTW: at 1:53, I passed by that radar on Interstate 4 in Florida heading to Lake Buena Vista.

SPCSmithMountianLake2987 Roanoke :)

Demetri: Tech roanoke gang

CRS = console replacement system

@@jayCLTeeee What About BMS

@@jacobisworld9516 BMH* BMH = broadcast message handler

Melissa Correa thank you for subscribing! :)