Fitting a Navtex - power source

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captainhaddock

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As a predominantly weekend sailor, I am wondering whether to fit my new Navtex with a "permanently on" power source or just rely on switching it on when I arrive at the boat? What are the pro's and con's? I see that the internal battery life is around 40 hours.
 
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Perhaps you meant "ma".

[/ QUOTE ]Or maybe he meant "mA"? /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

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Damn!
"For 'tis the sport to have the engineer hoist with his own petard" - Hamlet
 
I leave it on when on longer trips. Often it is off for weeks on end when day sailing and local racing. It comes into its own when away for weekends or longer. You do have to reconfigure the thing, but that only takes seconds when you are used to it, and know which stations and messages to tap in.
 
Most of the ones I have used retained their settings despite being powered down. Left on all the time they appear to use Minuscule amounts of Amps
 
As a predominantly weekend sailor I would think you might sleep better knowing that everything on the boat is inert. My last act on leaving has always been to turn off the gas, close the seacocks and isolate the electrics by turning them 'off'. To my mind off means off, with no risk that a wire might chafe, fall off, overheat or do anything else that might compromise the boat.

Wire the Navtex through a suitable switch and fuse but retain the ability to shut everything down. Leaving it on will have no benefits, as you can obtain a better forecast elsewhere before arriving at the boat.
 
Only prob with leaving it on all the time is , there is so much info to read and absorb and tuff to pick the relevant stuff.
Power consumption is Mi-mI-MI-mi-scul, point something of a clever nerds scrot or some such infinitessimally small amount that a good battery can survive a week unmolested
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Perhaps you meant "ma".

[/ QUOTE ]Or maybe he meant "mA"? /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Damn!
"For 'tis the sport to have the engineer hoist with his own petard" - Hamlet

[/ QUOTE ]

Is this thread the " pedants revolt". /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

or maybe, to quote Samuel Johnson "“He that tries to recommend (Shakespeare) by select quotations, will succeed like the pedant in "Hierocles", who, when he offered his house to sale, carried a brick in his pocket as a specimen”
 
[ QUOTE ]
Is this thread the " pedants revolt". /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]Now I'd have written that as "pedants' revolt". /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
 
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Power consumption is Mi-mI-MI-mi-scul, point something of a clever nerds scrot or some such infinitessimally small amount that a good battery can survive a week unmolested

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Not true on some receivers, take a look at the consumption of McMurdo/ICS units, I wouldn't leave then on all the time.
 
Would second that, the only thing I leave on is bilge pumps, only power absorbed is the diode lit up showing it is on, other than of course it there is a water ingress it will switch on and then off as water level is reduced well thats the plan anyway.
Navtex powers up ok when switched on, and is not filled with old weather info.
 
Check with your local stations but most only transmit every 12 hours so you might have to wait 12 hours (or more) to get an update. Weather isn't usually the issue as you can get that from the radio - VHF, or SSB or the internet. The real problem is nav warnings, which can be quite important.
 
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