Legacy STAR units are dead. Its only a matter of time, probably within the next 12-24 months before the old backend feed is killed. Most of the units are probably held together by dust and its frankly a miracle that they are still functioning as well as they are. I'm sad to see them go but servicing and running 20+ year old computers isn't practical, profitable or sensible. Even the current IS hardware will likely be revised in the coming years as that hardware is approaching nearly a decades worth of use.
Good point. Remember the reasoning TWC gave for killing off the WeatherStar III several years ago. The FCC required a warning tone to sound at the beginning of
every instance of a weather advisory, and, without modification, the III was only capable of sounding a tone at the
first instance. TWC decided that, since the III was already a couple of decades old, grossly outdated in terms of capabilities, used in very few areas, and that the cost of making the modification would be needlessly expensive, they simply gave the order to cable companies using it to trash it instead. Not even return it to TWC, as is the usual case when Stars are upgraded, but to simply trash it.
The WeatherStar Jr. is just a glorified version of the III, and the 4000 can also be described as "grossly outdated" by now. In fact, if memory serves, it's already older than the III was when it was forcibly retired by the FCC's new requirements. (And, truth be told, many 4000 units are seriously degraded by now due to age.) The WeatherStar XL is also getting on in years, though its output can at least still be considered good by today's standards, though one wonders just how much it can be updated. (As it is, it's not compatible with TWC's new LDLs and squeezebacks.)
