The guys and gals who make NOTAMS should be tasked with reading all the NOTAMS within 4 minutes (all we are allowed) and if they fail, they should be put out to grass.
Just to show what we are talking about here is an actual volcanic ash advisory from pilot departure documents:
FVCN01 CWAO 211143
VA ADVISORY
DTG: 20100421/1143Z
VAAC: MONTREAL
VOLCANO: EYJAFJOLL 1702-02
PSN: N6337 W01937
AREA: ICELAND-S
SUMMIT ELEV: 1666M
ADVISORY NR: 2010/034
INFO SOURCE:
RMK: PLEASE SEE FVXX01 EGRR 211126 ISSUED BY LONDON
VAAC WHICH DESCRIBES CONDITIONS OVER OR NEAR
THE MONTREAL VAAC AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY
Which references this message that may or may not be included in the paperwork:
Subject: FVXX01 EGRR 211126
FVXX01 EGRR 211126 2010111 1127
VA ADVISORY
DTG: 20100421/1200Z
VAAC: LONDON
VOLCANO: EYJAFJALLAJOKULL 1702-02
PSN: N6338 W01937
AREA: ICELAND
SUMMIT ELEV: 1666M
ADVISORY NR: 2010/030
INFO SOURCE: ICELAND MET OFFICE
AVIATION COLOUR CODE: RED
ERUPTION DETAILS: ERUPTION CONTINUING TO AROUND FL120 TO FL160.
OBS VA DTG: 21/1200Z
OBS VA CLD: SFC/FL200 N6345 W02025 - N6337 W01219 - N6447 W01202 -
N6432 W00635 - N6234 W00431 - N5835 W00423 - N5744 W00551 - N5744
W00914 - N5416 W00405 - N5209 W00303 - N5136 E00400 - N4944 E00249 -
N4846 W00135 - N4711 E00417 - N4623 E00351 - N4611 W00201 - N4944
W00847 - N5324 W01746 - N5345 W02644 - N5513 W03348 - N5802 W03728 -
N5831 W03941 - N5826 W04534 - N5627 W05025 - N5247 W05720 - N5018
W05746 - N4817 W05831 - N5313 W04958 - N5136 W03618 - N4605 W02551 -
N4249 W02432 - N4110 W02525 - N4143 W02728 - N4835 W03458 - N4938
W03813 - N4956 W04432 - N5029 W04534 - N5029 W05052 - N4635 W05804 [remainder of coordinates omitted for brevity - Airbubba
]
RMK: NO SIG ASH ABOVE FL200. ASH CONCENTRATIONS UNKNOWN. ALL PLUMES
ON ALL FOUR CHARTS APPLY TO SFC TO FL200.
NXT ADVISORY: 20100421/1800Z=
You can actually figure out what it says if you guess a little - e.g. PSN must be positon since it is followed by a lat long but why are we still using decoder rings in this era of high speed internet and laser printers? A few more vowels, a little punctuation, graphics and some formatting sure would make this easier to read. I realize there are much better versions of this advisory available on web pages but often the terse teletype text is all that makes it to our paperwork. Of course, if something goes wrong, they'll have the full color graphics at the hearing.
Apologies for talking a little shop with this operational pilot stuff on the ash advisories.