How to use Saildocs
Thank you for your interest in Saildocs, an Internet service for the bandwidth-impaired. Saildocs offers text-based document retrieval and subscription services for offshore sailors, adventurers, missionaries and others who somehow live their lives without broadband connections. There are two services offered, a document retrieval service which will return documents from the Internet or our own files, the other is a weather data service which can send grib files for specified area from a variety of forecast models. Either of those can also send documents at repeated scheduled intervals. Saildocs is operated by Sirius Cybernetics LLC and supported by Sailmail (http://sailmail.com), and can be used by anyone who agrees to the terms and conditions (http://saildocs.com/terms).
Document retrieval:
===================
Saildocs can either retreive documents from its own library, internet documents which are in its index (primarily text weather information), web pages, or grib data (specialized weather data files).
Documents are requested by sending an email to: query@saildocs.com. The subject line can be anything, and the body of the message contains requests of the form "send xxx" where "xxx" is the name of the document. The word "index" has a special meaning and sends the current library index, and a document called "info" (this document) is always available. For example, to request the index and help documents, send the following message:
To: query@saildocs.com
Subject: (anything)
send info
send index
You can follow this with the command command "quit", a line of (five or more) dashes, or just end the message. Note that extra text at the end, such as an email-footer, may cause Saildocs to not respond. So use the line of dashes. This is an anti-spam measure (and does not apply to messages sent from Sailmail).
Requesting weather bulletins:
=============================
Once the index is received, request one or more weather catalogs (for example "send epac" for the available Eastern Pacific bulletins). Then request the bulletin by using the code from the catalog:
send FZPN02.KWBC
Other weather data:
===================
Saildocs also downloads weather data from global computer models and makes this available as "grib" files or "spot" text forecasts. For information on requesting grib files, send a (blank) email to gribinfo@saildocs.com and for spot-forecasts send a (blank) email to: spotforecasts@saildocs.com.
Requesting web pages:
=====================
Saildocs can also fetch documents from the web and convert them to plain text. Send a message to query@saildocs.com, with "Send" followed by the URL (web address) as follows:
To: query@saildocs.com
Subject: (anything)
send http://www.sailmail.com
This will fetch the Sailmail home page.
Scheduled Delivery:
===================
Saildocs can send requested documents as a repeating scheduled delivery. To enter a scheduled delivery you use the same code that is used for a request, above. Any request can be turned into a scheduled delivery by changing the "send" command to "sub" (or "subscribe"). Once you determine which forecast(s) you want to subscribe to, send a request as follows:
To: query@saildocs.com
Subject: (anything)
sub FZNT23.KWNM
sub FZNT24.KWNM
This enters a request for the Boston and Chesapeake Coastal forecasts (see the "nws-atl" index). By default these are fetched once per day. The period and time can be overriden by adding commands as follows:
sub FZNT23.KWNM time=00:00 interval=6
This will fetch the document every 6 hours beginning at 00:00z. Scheduled deliveries are normally entered for 14 days, a different period can be specificed as follows:
sub FZNT23.KWNM days=7
A confirmation will be sent for any changes to a subscription. In addition, a full status listing can be requested by including the command "status", e.g.
FZNT23.KWNM days=10 time=12:00
status
Canceling a Scheduled Delivery:
===============================
To cancel a scheduled delivery request, again send a message to query@saildocs.com with the "cancel" (or "unsub" or "unsubscribe") command and the document codes as above. For example:
To: query@saildocs.com
Subject: (anything)
cancel FZNT23.KWNM
Some Things to Remember:
========================
By requestiong a document or weather data from Saildocs, you are acknowledging that you have read and agree to the Saildocs terms and conditions: http://saildocs.com/terms
Known Limitations:
==================
Long URL's require properly formatted Mime-encoded messages and may not work with all email systems;
Web pages translate to text with varying degrees of success. The fancier the page, the worse the results. There are also other web-to-text services that may produce a more useful output for some pages.
=====
Enjoy the system, and be careful not to overload your email channel!
(2006-07-16, last revised 2025-11-01)
Document retrieval:
===================
Saildocs can either retreive documents from its own library, internet documents which are in its index (primarily text weather information), web pages, or grib data (specialized weather data files).
Documents are requested by sending an email to: query@saildocs.com. The subject line can be anything, and the body of the message contains requests of the form "send xxx" where "xxx" is the name of the document. The word "index" has a special meaning and sends the current library index, and a document called "info" (this document) is always available. For example, to request the index and help documents, send the following message:
To: query@saildocs.com
Subject: (anything)
send info
send index
You can follow this with the command command "quit", a line of (five or more) dashes, or just end the message. Note that extra text at the end, such as an email-footer, may cause Saildocs to not respond. So use the line of dashes. This is an anti-spam measure (and does not apply to messages sent from Sailmail).
Requesting weather bulletins:
=============================
Once the index is received, request one or more weather catalogs (for example "send epac" for the available Eastern Pacific bulletins). Then request the bulletin by using the code from the catalog:
send FZPN02.KWBC
Other weather data:
===================
Saildocs also downloads weather data from global computer models and makes this available as "grib" files or "spot" text forecasts. For information on requesting grib files, send a (blank) email to gribinfo@saildocs.com and for spot-forecasts send a (blank) email to: spotforecasts@saildocs.com.
Requesting web pages:
=====================
Saildocs can also fetch documents from the web and convert them to plain text. Send a message to query@saildocs.com, with "Send" followed by the URL (web address) as follows:
To: query@saildocs.com
Subject: (anything)
send http://www.sailmail.com
This will fetch the Sailmail home page.
Scheduled Delivery:
===================
Saildocs can send requested documents as a repeating scheduled delivery. To enter a scheduled delivery you use the same code that is used for a request, above. Any request can be turned into a scheduled delivery by changing the "send" command to "sub" (or "subscribe"). Once you determine which forecast(s) you want to subscribe to, send a request as follows:
To: query@saildocs.com
Subject: (anything)
sub FZNT23.KWNM
sub FZNT24.KWNM
This enters a request for the Boston and Chesapeake Coastal forecasts (see the "nws-atl" index). By default these are fetched once per day. The period and time can be overriden by adding commands as follows:
sub FZNT23.KWNM time=00:00 interval=6
This will fetch the document every 6 hours beginning at 00:00z. Scheduled deliveries are normally entered for 14 days, a different period can be specificed as follows:
sub FZNT23.KWNM days=7
A confirmation will be sent for any changes to a subscription. In addition, a full status listing can be requested by including the command "status", e.g.
FZNT23.KWNM days=10 time=12:00
status
Canceling a Scheduled Delivery:
===============================
To cancel a scheduled delivery request, again send a message to query@saildocs.com with the "cancel" (or "unsub" or "unsubscribe") command and the document codes as above. For example:
To: query@saildocs.com
Subject: (anything)
cancel FZNT23.KWNM
Some Things to Remember:
========================
By requestiong a document or weather data from Saildocs, you are acknowledging that you have read and agree to the Saildocs terms and conditions: http://saildocs.com/terms
Known Limitations:
==================
Long URL's require properly formatted Mime-encoded messages and may not work with all email systems;
Web pages translate to text with varying degrees of success. The fancier the page, the worse the results. There are also other web-to-text services that may produce a more useful output for some pages.
=====
Enjoy the system, and be careful not to overload your email channel!
(2006-07-16, last revised 2025-11-01)