METAR source

[RudiZhang]

Some airports in China are not disclosed in VATSIM metar server. There is an interface that contains all Chinese METARs, if it is possible to add it to the vatprism, this would be great. (Same for North Korea and Mongolia)

http://www.avt7.com/Home/AirportMetarInfo?airport4Code=

[wiggleforlife]

@RudiZhang I can't visit or ping this website. Is it possible to replace this with either METAR-TAF or NOAA's Weather Centre? They both seem to work with ZSHC, at the very least. Could you specify an airport that doesn't work with VATSIM that did work with AVT7?

[RudiZhang]

@wiggleforlife Hi. No, It is only for METAR start with Z. Try ZULS/ZSSM/ZYCH, you will not find it in any public METAR source

link switched to: http://xmairavt7.xiamenair.com/WarningPage/AirportInfo?arp4code=

[wiggleforlife]

@RudiZhang I can't access this link either - I wonder could it be based on my location? I'm in the US, and I can't access that link or https://xiamenair.com - only https://www.xiamenair.com

[RudiZhang]

@wiggleforlife No no no, add ICAO at the end. like http://xmairavt7.xiamenair.com/WarningPage/AirportInfo?arp4code=ZULS

[wiggleforlife]

@RudiZhang This is interesting... it wasn't working earlier (with that link, it wouldn't even connect) but now it is? I'd be a bit worried that this is an unreliable source (it didn't work on three VPN servers and my friend in Australia) but I suppose it's better than nothing. I'll have a go at this.

[wiggleforlife]

Sorry for the late reply, but since this requires web scraping (legal in the US, but questionable in other countries and I know Marv is somewhere in Europe) and the other APIs all have rightful usage (either FOSS licenses or special permission in the case of the VATSIM API) I'm going to leave this up Marv - if he is OK with this then great, but I'll leave it alone for now.

[RudiZhang]

@wiggleforlife Thank you so much!