Furuno Fax 30

[DrBob]

Anyone got any experience of the Furuno Fax 30 for navtex and weather fax? A friend has got the unit with the "active " anntenna and although the navtex works great on receiving signals, the weather fax reception is rather poor. The antenna that Furuno supply in the UK is a 2 metre whip which seems a bit short for reception of 4Mhz (as a ham I would expect to use a bit bigger one than this).

Is anyone out there getting good weather fax reception with a short whip?

Dr Bob

 

[pearlfisher]

Hi Dr Bob,
I fitted a Furuno Fax 30 Weather Fax with combined NAVTEX on my Fisher two years ago, and have found it to be an excellent piece of kit, Furuno recommend a whip of 23', for optimum performance, I considered this, and came to the conclusion that a whip of these dimensions would be out of place and fitted the NASA active antenna. In common with all active antennas not only do they amplify the signal but also the noise! Having said that I use Northwood the Navy's met service which broadcast on the full range of HF frequencies, usually find that the 4 MHZ frequency to be the one most commonly used. although this will depend on current propagation conditions, (the system can be programmed to select the frequency with the best signal/noise ratio. The NASA aerial is located on the pushpit of my boat, and the fax is switched on 24/7 when I am on board. My system is interfaced with my plotter and radar (Also Furuno) and being paperless updates it self hourly with the latest surface or upper wind pressure gradients. The whole set up is fully automated and requires no operator input once set up, but, can be manually over ridden if required. Furuno have programmed every fax station in the world and they can be selected by geographical area. The Navtex stores 200 images (From Memory) and will receive on 490 and 518 Khz, on a recent cruise from the West Coast of Scotland to France and the south I found it to be a most valuable contribution to my safety. The kit can be interfaced to a laptop if required. I have to say I found the staff at Furuno Aberdeen) to be very helpful, in particularly their sales manager John Collage (based in Aberdeen) very knowledgeable.
John tells me that over 50% of the worlds commercial vessels are fitted with RADAR manufactured by Furuno, on that note I will close. If I can be of any help please contact me.
Regards David.