|
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. What do I do first? How do I use your service?
A. The very first thing you need to do is to click on the CellPhoneTest link and test your cell phone or PDA device to make sure your cell device and your cellular plan works with our service. You need to do tests 1, 2, 3 or 1, 2, 4. Successfully completing these tests will validate that your cell phone or PDA device can receive our SMS and MMS Text Messages and MMS Picture Messages; and you'll also know which image type (.jpg or .gif) your device needs to receive.
Your cell phone or PDA device needs to have a built-in camera. If your cell phone or PDA device does not have a built-in camera then most likely you cannot receive pictures on it; therefore, you won't be able to receive our weather images; however, you should still be able to receive our textual weather reports.
Q. OK, my cell phone or PDA device has successfully received:
- 1 SMS Text Message
- 1 MMS Text Message
- 1 MMS .jpg type Picture Message
- and/or
- 1 MMS .gif type Picture Message
on the CellPhoneTest web page - what's the next step?
A. Now that you have successfully verified that your cell phone and cellular plan works with our system, you can now create your wxnotice user account. You can do this by clicking on the NewAccount link.
Q. Exactly how many ways can I use of your service?
A. There are two ways to use our service once you have successfully tested your cell phone and have created an account:
(1) On-Demand - You can use your cell phone or PDA device to send us an SMS Text Message and request a varity of weather reports to be sent to your cell phone within minutes. Please click on the On-Demand link above and read how to do this. There is a specific address (wxod@wxnotice.com) you need to send your request to and there is a specific request string format that you must follow so our system knows what to send back to your cell phone. Please do not try to use this feature without reading the On-Demand web page instructions.
(2) WxNotification Records - You can create what we call WxNotification records and schedule a varity of weather reports and weather images to be sent to your cell phone/PDA device and/or email address at specific dates and specific local times.
Q. Do I need to use my cell phone to access my cellular web browser (connect to the internet using my cell phone or PDA device in other words) to use your service?
A. No - You do not ever have to access the internet or your cellular web browser from your cell phone or PDA device to use our services.
Q. I don't see my cellular provider in the drop down list on the CellPhoneTest web page. Can you add it?
A. Yes we can add your cellular provider provided we can obtain their SMS and MMS gateway domain names. For example, for Verizon, we use @vtext.com for their SMS gateway domain and we use @vzwpix.com for their MMS (Picture) gateway. Usually if you can provide us with your cellular provider's technical support phone number, we will be happy to call them and try to get this information and then we can add them to our Cellular Providers database. Please note that some cellular providers do not allow anyone outside of their network to send Picture Messages (Images) to their customers.
Q. I know I have Picture Messaging on my cellular plan and I know that my cell phone supports this feature but I still cannot successfully receive your MMS test images - why?
A. Please call you cellular provider and verify you have Picture Messaging enabled. Many pilots email us and tell us they do but when we call their cellular provider to verify we find out your Picture Messaging service was only for a trial period and has expired or some other similar reason; but the bottom line is that you don't have Picture Messaging enabled and you need to call them and have it activated. Please be aware of costs as you are responsible for all SMS and MMS charges on your cellular plan. If possible, it's best to sign up for an unlimited flat fee plan vs a per text message cost plan.
Q. I don't see a specific NexRad radar reporting station available in your list - can you add new ones?
A. Yes, send us an email with the airport and state you're interested in having added and we will be happy to add it to our NexRad database. This is usually done within 24 hours. NexRad radar stations have unique station identifiers. We rename the nexRad reporting station to the closest major airport name. For example, the nexRad station for Los Angeles International Airport is not KLAX but for ease of remembering its name, we identify the Los Angeles nexRad radar reporting station as "KLAX". For Las Vegas we identify its nexRad radar reporting station as "KLAS".
|