Radar Alive - Android Radar App for chasers and others

[John Moore]

This post introduces Radar Alive Pro, a professional grade NEXRAD Level III Android app.

I'm a long time midwest chaser, CFDG and Skywarn member, and wrote Radar Alive Pro for myself and other chasers, enthusiasts, EM personnel and professionals. It's been on the market for about 6 months, so I thought it should be mentioned on this, the premier storm chase board.

Radar Alive Pro was designed for serious users - no frills, just professional-grade radar. It dynamically generates images from NWS Level III binary data, supports almost all products (including VIL, precip, and composite reflectivities), and covers not only the continental US, but Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. It provides looping (including back-fetching older data), storm range/bearing from user/radar, display of user's location on the map, and other features.

It's also a bargain at $4.95.

I welcome user suggestions and make improvements based on them. For example, I'm debating whether to add Spotter Network integration - but have had no requests. Today I'm adding options to change map line colors, based on a request from an EM user.

There is a web site for the app at http://www.radaralive.com/ which has provides help, a FAQ, a radar tutorial, and links for feedback and to the user group.

The Android Market URL is https://market.android.com/details?id=com.tinyvital.wxr.pro&hl=en or:

Give it a try, and let me know how it should be improved!

 

[Randall Cooper]

Just checked it out. Not bad at all for being as new as it is! Loads images very fast, and the animation is really smooth. I will use this along with RadarScope and Pykl3 Radar. All 3 are hands down the best! And to think....I was considering going to Iphone now that its on Sprint....Not so sure anymore with all these radar apps coming out for Android!

 

[John Moore]

Radar Alive Pro (Android) - New features added

I have added two important features associated with Spotter Network to Radar Alive Pro - these are especially good for serious chasers and spotters:

• Automatic Position Reporting (in the background)
• Display of spotter network user locations and info

The first capability allows you to use Radar Alive Pro as a complete Spotter Network client. Once started, it will continue to do updates even after the radar portion of the program has gone away. You can then control it by pulling down the Android notification bar and clicking on the stylized icon. It also features bandwidth conservation - if you aren't moving, it won't update as often.

The second feature allows you to overlay Spotter Network "dots" on the display - with or without radar. These dots use the standard color code, and have a direction bar attached if a movement direction is known. NOTE: if someone is headed due north, Spotter Network reports a direction of zero, which is the same as what they report if there is no direction data. Hence the app will not show a movement bar for due-north moving spotters.

I added a new button to the right of the display to enable spotter network display in one of three modes: Radar/no SN, SN/no radar, and SN and Radar.

I'm interested in feedback about the program. It's been a labor of love for a couple of years.